As the dust settled on Capitol Hill after Trumpsters’ assault on the pantheon of American democracy, we were wondering about the reasons as to why American democracy has reached the precipice. While the House resumed proceedings to formally endorse Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, this day on January 6 will go down in history as a day of regret, penitence and soul searching.
We could go on to repeat of what happened outside and inside the Capitol Hill and its historic and seraphic halls, where American democracy has matured over two centuries; it may be more pertinent to discuss the fall of Donald J Trump as the 45th President of the United States and how the most mature democracy in the world reached this stage. It is also crucial to analyse and discuss the undercurrents which led to this assault and where American democracy goes from here.
We have regularly followed Trump even before 2016 through our Op-Eds in Pakistani newspapers. Our syndicate published an article with the title, ‘Populism and Identity Crisis in the West’ published in The Nation on November 19, 2019, which pointed out some of the undercurrents which have become catalysts for populism in the west and beyond. A few extracts from this article may be helpful in understanding the phenomenon.
Post-World War-II, the west went through consequential changes in psychosocial and philosophical domains, challenging and altering basic premises of human relationship and behaviour. This included the rise of feminism, assault on church and religion to achieve requisite cultural space, creating chinks in the armour of the family system and curbing women’s desire for bearing children by declaring it burdensome. This was done so consistently that free culture became the new religion of the West and any deviation from or rebuttal of this new religion was considered the antithesis of progress. The erosion of the family system resulted in a dwindling white population and increase in the numbers of immigrants.
While Donald Trump may appear to distance himself from the faux pause of January 6, some analysts and media opinion makers believe that Trump had a plan for something called a ‘slow motion coup’.
A November 11 piece published by Politico Magazine with the title, “Yes, It Was a Coup. Here’s Why” points out about this soft and slow-motion coup. The article dwells upon along following lines:
The general perception about a coup is that it is supposed to be a sudden and violent seizure of power involving clandestine plots and military takeovers. Trump’s actions were taken over a period of months and in slow motion. Trump’s slow-motion coup addressed all power domains, i.e. informational, legal, executive and political.
Unlike old coup plotters, Trump did not seize the Central Telegraph, Post Office, radio and TV towers. Trump put a loyalist in charge of the Post Office. He did not take TV and radio by storm, but he discredited the “mainstream media” that was critical of his actions as the “enemy of the people” and recruited or pressured Fox News, Newsmax, OAN and social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook into participants in his efforts to sway public opinion in his favour. Twitter, in essence, was Trump’s equivalent of the TV and radio tower. He directly messaged the 88 million people who “followed” his account.
In the legal domain, Trump stacked federal courts with what he kept calling “his judges.” He successfully pushed through the appointments of three new Supreme Court justices ahead of the presidential election, this was achieved through Republican lawmakers.
While dealing with the executive, Trump purged Cabinet members and career officials who resisted him. He bypassed Congress and installed acting officials in crucial national security positions like the secretaries of Defence and Homeland Security, and, briefly, the director of National Intelligence. He made it crystal clear that personal loyalty was the primary factor for candidate selection.
In the political domain, Trump usurped the Republican Party. He claimed the more than 74 million who voted for him last November as his personal base—his popular support. He threatened to destroy the careers of Republican members of Congress who did not favour overturning the election result.
After the election was declared in favour of Biden, Trump refused to concede. He never stopped lying about the outcome to his base and the rest of America. He deployed Rudy Giuliani and his legal team to contest every single post election juncture. He harangued state election officials in phone calls and in person to intimidate them into repudiating or even changing the vote tallies. He told Vice President Mike Pence to block the formal election certification process in Congress, which was beyond his constitutional authority. When Pence refused, Trump rallied thousands of his supporters to “stop the steal” on Capitol Hill.
Where does American democracy go from here?
While the coup may appear to have failed, 74 million Trump voters have been fed with a populist narrative of Trump as a Messiah, a reincarnation of George Washington, a warrior on the Potomac River and above all a leader who is destined to clean the swamp. Politico Magazine described this swamp as a domestic enemy comprising of democrats, liberals, globalists, radical socialists, communists, antifa leftists, the Black Lives Matter movement, the mainstream media, George Soros, various other “bogey” men and women, deep state bureaucrats, and even congressional Republicans, whom he labelled “RINOs” (“Republicans in Name Only”) and the “Never Trumpers.”
Millions of Trumpsters still believe that the election was stolen from them in broad daylight and it was their democratic right to fight back and ‘take back their country’.
Trump may even get impeached, as the Democrats formally move for his 2nd impeachment, the political environment will remain toxic and a counter offensive from Republicans remains on the cards; what shape this counter offensive will take is a million-dollar question.