Trump, or the Degradation of American Checks and Balances

Never before has a former president of the United States, the foremost democracy in the world, been singled out for such a grave offense as has Donald Trump right now. The evidence presented by the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is devastating and concludes that the Republican president led a conspiracy to remain in power after he lost the election. The shameful and violent actions that followed that fateful day on which five people died were an attempt to subvert the constitutional order, for which Trump bore responsibility first of all for repeating the big lie that sharply polarized his followers, and then for failing to do everything in his power to defuse the situation. The committee consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans, which is why the former president’s supporters believe it is politically motivated. However, it should be noted that the committee has collected testimony from more than 1,000 witnesses and more than 140,000 documents over the last year. And Trump’s actions after he lost the election, as he continuously declared that the election was stolen, was so despicable that even some of his strongest supporters, including his daughter Ivanka, admitted as much to the House committee.

The select committee’s findings lead off a series of public hearings scheduled in the coming weeks. Nevertheless, the case is not likely to curb Trump’s intention to run for reelection in 2024, aware as he is that he still has substantial support among his base. This proves the extent to which the American institutional framework has been degraded, one that features that has

This all proves the extent to which the institutional framework of the United States has been degraded, a framework that for centuries has proudly boasted of a checks and balances process America claimed served as a liberal model for the rest of the world to look up to. Trump is a populist, a man who is the complete opposite of what we expect from a leader sworn to preserve the constitutional order. His presidency provided ample evidence of how the system’s ability to monitor itself is suffering. Part of the problem lies in that the parties no longer control their own primary election process, which prevents that from barring access to such controversial figures.