You know he’s won, right?
Yes, Trump has improbably won the US Presidential election, which is why the damage to the geopolitical and geoeconomic standing of the US that he represents will be incalculable — and in some ways irreversible. Even in the past year and a bit that he’s been campaigning, he has hacked away at virtually every pillar of Constitutional propriety and democratic institution within the US and has single-handedly served to erode the modicum of moral goodwill that the US enjoys internationally. His victory will only accentuate these failings.
Surely you exaggerate?
Not at all. It’s true, of course, that every US election seems more bitter and rancorous than the previous ones. And it’s also true that the debasing of political norms in the US pre-dates Trump’s candidacy. But what Trump’s victory has done, effectively, is to mainstream and validate hate speech, sexism, racial bigotry and sheer idiocy on policy matters in a way that sets back the political discourse — both in the US and abroad — for a generation or more. ‘Trump’ clones will likely be spawned around the world.
But everyone knows all that is just election ‘jhumla’.
Experience from around the world tells us that toxicity, once injected into politics, is impossible to exorcise. The increase in the incidence of hate crimes and racism in the UK following the Brexit vote bears this out. In fact, both the Brexit vote, and the Trump victory have given electoral democracy a bad name: these are the case studies that authoritarian governments gloat over as illustrative of a failed political model, since both fed off disinformation — even outright lies — and mindless populism.
But didn’t Trump also raise substantive issues that resonated with voters?
He did. For instance, his stand against trade deals appealed to those who lost US manufacturing jobs to globalisation. And based on Europe’s recent experience with terrorism, voters are wary of waves of immigrants from troubled lands. But even on these and every other ‘substantive’ issue (such as fighting ISIS) that Trump took up, his policy prescriptions — protectionist tariff barriers, building a wall, ban on entry of Muslims, resort to torture of terrorists, and so on — are worse than the problem he addressed.
Surely the checks and balances in the US political system will rein in President Trump?
Consider this: Republicans will now control the Presidency and both Houses of Congress. Trump will also get to nominate one or more judge to the Supreme Court, tipping the balance on the side of conservatism. In other words, a President who has been selling snake-oil to gullible voters, and a party with a regressive agenda, will have absolute control of all levers of government. Good luck with the checks and balances.
Could a Trump-style politician emerge in India?
India is, in many ways, a flawed democracy, and we have our own political gridlock and political charlatans to agonise over. But it’s fair to say that given the peculiarities of our parliamentary form of governance, and the multiplicity of parties and the social and demographic plurality of the population, no political ‘outsider’ can emerge Trump-like in India — or wield as much power.
Does Trump’s rise hold any lessons for democracies?
Eternal vigilance is, of course, the price of democracy. What Trump’s rise establishes is that the threats to democracy from within the ‘system’, by demagogues who can harness the mindless passions of the uninformed, is no less dangerous than external perils.