In your mind you can see the image of a policeman
dispersing the crowd after an accident: “Okay folks, it's over.
Time to go home.” Disaster complete, Trump now occupies the White
House. No need for further drama. Normalcy
descends on Washington. No cause for alarm. Dictatorship is
elsewhere. It can't happen here.
Perhaps. New York Times blogger Charles Blow
recently asked if we are not alarmed (New York Times, Jan 19). For
sure I am alarmed, but I am not an American, not a US citizen.
Americans are proud of their democracy. They also seem to expect a
few hiccups to occur in the process without getting overly excited
about it. Having objections becomes akin to extremism, crying wolf.
Don't rock the boat.
So if I have held my tongue since
November it has also been to avoid stepping on toes in expressing my
concerns. I remember how it was talking to
colleagues in Washington in early 2003 - hardly a single voice dared
challenge the rush to war. I thought, this is America, the land of
freedom, of free speech, of devil-may-care opposition to "the
establishment". Why this silence? The best explanation I heard,
from a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, was that in his
reading of the prevailing consensus, it 'would be seen to be
unpatriotic' to object. He did not appear to be a Republican. I
remember thinking, "this must be how the Nazis got ordinary
Germans to support their cause." But I kept this thought to
myself, as it seemed exaggerated. Now I'm less sure. The election of
the new president in 2016 shows US democracy going off the rails.
What else do I see? Large numbers of
people who refuse to view governing as necessarily a complicated
thing. It's simple, easy as abc. Trump reassured them. Breaking the
stifling binds of political correctness was enough for many to flock
to him. The few who supported him out of a concern with issues must
have thought the flaws of the candidate would be rectified by the
system.
That is now our only hope. And I say
"our", because the way the world works these days a US
president is also the unofficial leader of the industrialized world.
Not "leader of the free world" the way US presidents and
many Americans take that label for granted, because such arrogance
has never been accepted outside the US. Rather, what we outsiders
want is an elected US leader which even a majority of Europeans,
Aussies, Canadians and Japanese could have wanted and would accept.
When the US electoral system shows its dysfunctionality the way it
did in 2016, that worldwide legitimacy goes out the window. The
overall US system of checks and balances is presently faced with,
historically, its most serious test.
A friend just made me aware of a
prediction made as much as a century ago: “On some great and
glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright
moron." (H.L. Mencken, writer,
editor, and critic, 1880-1956 – thanks, John!). That day has
arrived. The ignorance of this man is dangerous. His mind is
somewhere else, totally consumed by his own person.
Most dangerously, as emphasized by
Blow, is the military aspect. Military power is presently a part of his ego. War by accident
or by sheer shortsighted stupidity is suddenly on the horizon. Much
responsibility, informal and unprecedented, will henceforth end up on
the shoulders of military commanders in the field, to avoid needless
clashes by correcting or holding back adventurous schemes espoused at
the top. Dr. Strangelove is now in office.
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