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Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
“At 2.24pm, sitting alone, Mr Trump issued a tweet attacking Mr Pence and inciting chaos. . . One minute later, the US Secret Service was forced to move Mr Pence in a safe place in the Capitol. When the White House adviser learned this, he ran into the dining room and informed Mr. Trump, who replied, ‘So what?’
That is an excerpt from the recently released report is the special adviser, Jack Smith, storming the US Capitol on January 6 2021. Many supporters of Donald Trump will consider the restoration of that report – just as Trump was sworn in for a second term in office – as something inappropriate. They argue that the American people will give their verdict when they go to the polls in November. Democrats campaigned that Trump threatened democracy. Trump won a clear victory however.
That raises an interesting question. Why was “democracy at risk” not a winning argument?
Another theory is that voters don’t really care. A choice which was taken shortly before the presidential election showed that 76 percent of Americans believe that US democracy is at risk. But only 7 percent believed that democracy was the most important issue in the election.
Although most Republicans and Democrats agree that US democracy is at risk, they seem to have very different views on where the threat is coming from. For Democrats, the threat is Trump; for Republicans, it’s a test of “woke” elites.
That disagreement underscores an important distinction I heard recently by Pratap Bhanu Mehta, an Indian scholar, in a speech at the London School of Economics. Mehta argued that there are two conflicting meanings of the word “democracy” in contemporary politics. The first sees democracy as a process – a way to resolve disputes or conflicts of values. The second sees it as a way to empower citizens – the will of the people.
As Mehta sees it, “democracy needs values and empowerment”. But when voters feel hindered, rather than empowered, by the political system, they can undermine liberal values in favor of a strongman who promises to get things done. Then an illegitimate form of “democracy” emerges, which – in the name of the people – attacks the checks and balances essential to liberal democracy.
That seems to be what is happening in the US. Comments choice last week found that two-thirds of Democrats and 80 percent of Republicans believe the government serves itself and is more powerful than ordinary people. Many people do not trust Congress and the media.
Trump has risen to power by promising to be a strong leader who will destroy the power of the corrupt elite and “make America again”. He has repeatedly said that the US administration is “rigged” and controlled by a “deep state” that is hurting ordinary Americans. In 2016, Trump told the Republican convention that the US administration had allowed “the powerful (to) punish the defenseless”, saying that “only I can fix it”.
In his latest campaign, Trump presented all the court cases against him as proof of the machinations of the deep state. He promised Americans who felt similarly persecuted that “I am your punishment”.
In some places, sometimes, strongman rule and arbitrary democracy can be preferred. To El SalvadorPresident Nayib Bukele has suspended basic rights, imprisoned 83,000 people under emergency laws, sent troops to congress and has been accused of allowing torture, murder and enforced disappearances. But crime rates in El Salvador have dropped and Bukele won a landslide election.
El Salvador’s leader summed up the belief in illegal democracy when he told the United Nations: “Some say we are imprisoning thousands, but in fact we have freed millions.” Bukele has been praised by leading Trump supporters, including Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson.
One development to watch, with Trump taking power, is if the next US president wants to emulate Bukele or Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in advertising. emergency situation that would allow him to stop the normal process of law. If Trump wants emergency powers, liberals will cry. But they must be prepared for the possibility that many ordinary Americans, like ordinary Salvadorans or Hungarians, may accept.
If liberal democrats want to win the political battle, anger and opposition will not be enough. They will have to overcome the arguments of powerful and ineffective democratic leaders.
President Biden began the process shortly in his farewell speech from the White House, when he warned that the US is being taken over by an oligarchy. Liberals must also point out that powerful rulers tend to give power to themselves and their cronies rather than to the people. Corruption is an almost inevitable consequence.
In the months and years to come, Trump’s opponents will have to make it clear once and for all what the effects of oligarchic power and strongman rule are on ordinary Americans. There is likely to be a lot of corruption and self-centeredness.
If Trump’s opponents can make their case, and at the same time defend the integrity of the electoral system, the liberal democratic revolution can still succeed.
