Donald Trump has already subverted U.S. democracy

OTTAWA—In 2020, incumbent American leader Donald Trump said that he wouldn’t accept the results of the presidential election if he lost. And indeed he refused, going so far as to incite an insurrection at the United States Capitol that came close to overturning Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory. That single undertaking by Trump redefined American democracy in the modern era. There were some hints at the time that the outgoing president had gone too far, even for the Republican Party he had turned into a cult since entering politics. But in the years since, the party has come around to accept the idea that one of the presidential candidates in what was once the world’s citadel of democracy is allowed to take the position that only he can legitimately win when Americans go to the polls. Amazingly, this dictatorial prescription is not rejected out of hand by Americans. In fact, Trump seems to have convinced his followers that the violent attempt by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, to overthrow the results of the 2020 election was an act of patriotism, and that those charged in the attack on the U.S. Congress are hostages of the current government. And it continues. In March, he told an audience in Ohio: “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath ... It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.” His backers later maintained Trump was talking about the auto industry, but he hadn’t specified. Despite Trump’s rejection of the most fundamental of democratic principles—the peaceful exchange of power to the winner of an election—tens of millions of would-be voters, including most Republicans, appear ready to entrust their government and their democracy to him again. That willingness by maybe half of U.S. voters to accept this kind of authoritarian behaviour in opposition to everything democracy stands for already amounts to a kind of de facto coup by Trump. Accordingly, there is little doubt the ex-president (the first in the U.S. ever to face criminal charges) has translated his allegedly illegal behaviour in various criminal and civil cases into positive political motivation among his blinkered supporters who see him suffering on their behalf. The Republican Party and its backers are sticking with Trump even though—in true dictatorial fashion—he is trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to write a new law giving the president absolute legal immunity. In this and other cases, Trump’s indictments are driving the U.S. judicial system into totally uncharted and treacherous territory, including scenarios in which a president gets elected despite a felony conviction, a president gets elected from prison, or a president tries to pardon himself. Over the years, he has also managed to undercut the public discourse crucial to democracy with his endless lies, denunciations, racist rants, and attacks on the media. If there is any need for proof as to the extent to which Trump has managed to wipe out many Americans’ concerns about the principles and goals of democratic institutions, one only need look at his and his followers' overt plans—if re-elected—to exact revenge on their political opponents, and turn the non-partisan U.S. Justice Department into a Republican political machine. In all, this is a record compiled by a man who is more than willing to run roughshod over his fellow citizens’ constitutional rights, turn the U.S. democracy into a repressive authoritarian state, and risk political violence—all in the service of his unquenchable personal aggrandizement. That Americans are as likely as not to reinstall Trump back in the White House despite all this shows that he has to a large extent eliminated the guardrails and principles meant to protect Americans from despots. In typical fashion, Trump’s 2024 campaign is based on his “heads-I-win, tails-you-cheated” tactic, making it almost harder to tell whether it would be worse if he wins, or if he loses. Most of his current speeches are laced with accusations that the Democrats are trying to rig the Nov. 5 election and cheat him out of victory, as he still claims happened four years ago. And he has declined to say if he will accept the results of the 2024 presidential contest unless he comes out on top. As with his interactions with the U.S. judicial framework, Trump’s position that he could not lose a fair election appears more problematic than ever for Americans’ political system. Inasmuch as a majority of his huge voter base has swallowed the lie that he was cheated in 2020 despite all evidence to the contrary, and given what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, the potential for turmoil, chaos, or even violence of unknown dimensions in the U.S. post-election now looms large. Les Whittington is a regular columnist for The Hill Times. The Hill Times