Bad time for US democracy

Judged alongside the post-coup purge within Turkey, Brexit and the burqini ban, a Trump presidency doesn’t seem completely outlandish. As it is commonly accepted, an informed electorate is the prerequisite for democracy. Unfortunately for the world, the bastion of democracy appears to be suffering a breakdown at the hands of an ill-informed electorate. Truth or facts don’t matter anymore; this is clearly visible at every Trump rally where his supporters eagerly absorb one lie after another. According to PolitiFact, almost 70 per cent of Trump’s fact-checked claims were false. On the other hand, a third of Hillary Clinton’s statements that were analysed by PolitiFact were lies. As it happens, Trump and Clinton are the most despised candidates ever.

Both political parties are also to be blamed for the break-up of citizens’ trust in the establishment. After Barack Obama’s win in 2008, the Republican Party in particular went berserk and eventually birthed the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement. In pandering to these, the Republican Party became more and more radicalised until it finally lost support from the more moderate base, resulting in the nomination of Trump as their candidate. Clearly, Trump is intellectually and emotionally unfit for the job. Rumours keep getting floated that the GOP will supplant Trump with a more stable candidate prior to election day, but that would be the quickest route to political suicide. ‘The Donald’ was, by a large margin, the most voted for candidate in the Republican primaries. He easily fought off 16 other hopefuls, some with significant financial and political backing, to become the GOP nominee.

Clinton is not exactly revered among many Democrats either and nearly six in 10 Americans don’t find her trustworthy. She is perceived to be a symbol of oligarchy. Despite her claims of representing the future by being the first female US president, people are not buying it since she’s been entrenched in the system for decades, all the while contorting herself to side with the most politically popular positions. More young Democrats, including women, were supporting Bernie Sanders. He approached rock star status amongst the youth due to his anti-establishment message. For that very reason, the long-time independent Sanders was not welcome among older Democrat stalwarts. When it became clear that he wasn’t going to win the Democratic nomination, Clinton adopted some of Bernie’s ideas and he capitulated by supporting her in an effort to prevent Trump from winning in November.

The GOP is stuck supporting Trump in order to satisfy his supporters — a monster of their own creation described by Stephanie Coontz as “the crudest alliance of racists, nativists, misogynists, and ‘know-nothings’ that America has seen in any national election since before World War II”. The Democratic establishment, on the other hand, managed to secure the candidate that they pre-selected before a single primary vote was ever cast. As ironic as it may seem, a Hillary Clinton victory may be a win for stability and sanity, but a Trump victory would be evidence that a frustrated citizenry has the ability to install a fringe candidate from outside the confines of a rigged system. Either way, the world will be waiting with bated breath until the last votes are counted on November 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 22^nd,  2016.

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