Garth Rattray | Trump trumps democracy

It was ironic that the person who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump with a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle, while he addressed a crowd, was 20-year-old Caucasian, and registered Republican, Thomas Matthew Crooks. His attack mildly wounded Mr Trump, but severely injured an attendee, and killed another before he was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Although it was a reprehensible act, it is speculated that Trump’s rhetoric may have led to the attempt on his life. A few years ago he refused to accept the results of that country’s free and fair election. He said that the election was stolen from him by fraud, corruption and that it was rigged. None of his lawsuits (in state and federal courts) seeking to overturn the election results were successful.

But it did not stop there. Trump has amassed a sizeable following of die-hard acolytes, a subculture within the Republican Party called MAGA (Make America Great Again). All the talk and inciting rhetoric led to the storming of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC, by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. It was an attempt to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat. The invading group violently entered the hallowed halls of democracy. Lawmakers were hurriedly ushered away to safe rooms and Trump’s Vice-President Pence came under threat of being hanged because he refused to break the law to suit Trump. Four lives were lost because of that incursion.

Trump is so convinced that the insurgent mob did nothing wrong that he told President Biden that he “… ought to be ashamed about how the Department of Justice had gone about prosecuting people who stormed the Capitol that day.” Trump plans to pardon the rioters should he become president again.

HOT WATER

Trump himself was in hot water for actively attempting to have certain election results changed. He was to stand trial for his wrongs but, the US Supreme Court ruled that no president can be held liable for anything that he/she does in his/her official capacity. This very controversial and dangerous ruling (which was along political lines) comes as no surprise since six of the nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents, including 3 by Trump. The precursor to dictatorship has been established.

Recently, some MAGA members have been floating the confabulation that the United States of America is not a democracy (“a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives”), they assert that it is a republic (“a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch”).

Designating America as a ‘republic’ and not a ‘democracy’ is much more than just nuance; it is an attempt to give their supreme leader leave to overturn elections that he deems were rigged against him, and to impose his wishes upon a populace by becoming an autocrat. When Trump said that he would want to be a dictator on his first day in office, his supporters cheered.

It is very troubling that Trump has exhibited great admiration for dictators. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he openly called on Russia (America’s cold war ‘enemy’ that is run by a veritable dictator) to find emails that were missing from Hillary Clinton’s personal server. It was around that time that Russia began targeting emails associated with Clinton’s personal and campaign offices.

PRAISED PUTIN

In October of 2007, Trump publicly praised Putin’s “intelligence” and “no-nonsense way”. He also praised Putin’s Russia for wanting to “edge out its neighbours so that Russia can dominate oil supplies to all of Europe”. Trump said that he wondered if Putin would be his new best friend. On December 18, 2015, Trump defended against allegations Putin had ordered the killings of journalists, he said “He’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country.” He went on, “I think our country does plenty of killing also.”

The United Nations has accused the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, of too many human rights and other atrocities to list here. Yet, Donald Trump said this in 2018, “I was really being tough. And so was he. And we’d go back and forth. And then we fell in love. OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they’re great letters. We fell in love. But you know what? Now, they’ll say ‘Donald Trump said they fell in love, how horrible. How horrible is that? So un-presidential’.”

The scariest evidence that Trump does not respect the US democracy came at the conclusion of the first presidential debate. CNN’s Dana Bash repeatedly asked Trump if he would accept the results of the 2024 presidential election; he evaded the question twice and on being asked for a third time he replied, “If it’s a fair and legal and good election, absolutely… I would have much rather accepted these, but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous.” We know that the last presidential election was fair and legal, but Trump still refuses to accept defeat. He certainly won’t accept defeat if he loses next time.

In a recent poll, 58 per cent of respondents (including one in four Republicans) believe that the MAGA movement is a [credible] threat to America’s democratic foundation. All that stands between democracy and autocracy is the upcoming presidential election.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com