The Anti-Democrat
Donald Trump is prematurely declaring himself to be the winner. He wants to stop the counting of hundreds of thousands of votes in the courts. That turns the election into a farce.
In many nations on this earth, U.S. democracy was long considered the great, glowing model. That’s over. That U.S. President Donald Trump is prematurely declaring himself to be the winner and accusing his political opponents of fraud, even though hundreds of thousands of votes have not yet been counted, is grotesque, absurd — and antidemocratic.
The right to vote is the most important right of a citizen in any democracy. And every citizen has the right to have their vote counted. When Trump acts on election night as if mail-in ballots that were submitted in Pennsylvania or Michigan had somehow been manipulated, he violates these basic principles.
He has no evidence for his claims. Counting votes just takes time, especially during a pandemic. So it all seems like the plot of a second-class autocrat who needs a backup plan in order to preemptively argue against a possible defeat. One wonders, what’s the point? Why can’t the man just wait and win — or lose — in a fair contest?
Even if Everything Goes to the Dogs
It’s sad, but it fits his image: Trump doesn’t care about respecting the norms that sustain a living democracy. Since he has been president, he has destroyed, piece by piece, people’s trust in the democratic institutions of his country. He talks badly about them; he suspects betrayal at every turn and incites his followers. Whoever is not on his side is either branded a fraud or an enemy of the state. First, the media were “fake,” then members of the judicial system were “corrupt,” and now he is undermining the electoral process. Just as he likes it. That’s his modus operandi: The only thing that matters is his own success — even if everything goes to the dogs in the process.
Who can contain this president? The good news is that votes are still being counted. The states are responsible for that. The president cannot do anything about that for now. Democracy will not just be abolished in the U.S. overnight, and not because of a single speech.
Trump himself has announced that he will petition the Supreme Court to have further vote counting stopped. It’s unclear how that would all work. But Trump clearly assumes that “his” new majority in the Supreme Court of six to three votes will find him in the right.
It would be a blessing for American democracy if he is wrong.
In many nations on this earth, U.S. democracy was long considered the great, glowing model. That’s over. That U.S. President Donald Trump is prematurely declaring himself to be the winner and accusing his political opponents of fraud, even though hundreds of thousands of votes have not yet been counted, is grotesque, absurd — and antidemocratic.
The right to vote is the most important right of a citizen in any democracy. And every citizen has the right to have their vote counted. When Trump acts on election night as if mail-in ballots that were submitted in Pennsylvania or Michigan had somehow been manipulated, he violates these basic principles.
He has no evidence for his claims. Counting votes just takes time, especially during a pandemic. So it all seems like the plot of a second-class autocrat who needs a backup plan in order to preemptively argue against a possible defeat. One wonders, what’s the point? Why can’t the man just wait and win — or lose — in a fair contest?
Even if Everything Goes to the Dogs
It’s sad, but it fits his image: Trump doesn’t care about respecting the norms that sustain a living democracy. Since he has been president, he has destroyed, piece by piece, people’s trust in the democratic institutions of his country. He talks badly about them; he suspects betrayal at every turn and incites his followers. Whoever is not on his side is either branded a fraud or an enemy of the state. First, the media were “fake,” then members of the judicial system were “corrupt,” and now he is undermining the electoral process. Just as he likes it. That’s his modus operandi: The only thing that matters is his own success — even if everything goes to the dogs in the process.
Who can contain this president? The good news is that votes are still being counted. The states are responsible for that. The president cannot do anything about that for now. Democracy will not just be abolished in the U.S. overnight, and not because of a single speech.
Trump himself has announced that he will petition the Supreme Court to have further vote counting stopped. It’s unclear how that would all work. But Trump clearly assumes that “his” new majority in the Supreme Court of six to three votes will find him in the right.
It would be a blessing for American democracy if he is wrong.
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