Faced with Trump, We Must Rescue the Dignity of Politics

Donald Trump holds a comfortable lead so far in Republican Party polls. Absent a judicial decision that prevents him from participating in the November presidential election, it is almost certain that the former president will be the candidate of that party — and, eventually, president again.* Should this prediction come to pass, it will have unfortunate consequences for democracy, both in the United States and worldwide.

Many politicians, journalists and analysts believe that since the United States is one of the oldest and most solid democracies on the planet, voters should be the ones to pass judgment, approving or condemning the abuses of the businessman who already served a term in the White House.

That opinion seems to me to be irresponsibly naive and dangerous for the entire American institutional system. Trump does not deserve indulgence. He has a very powerful communication network at his disposal. On Jan. 6, 2021, he encouraged people to disregard the will of the people expressed at the ballot box in November 2020, when President Joe Biden triumphed at the polls and in the popular vote with a clear majority of more than 7 million votes. Trump opposed the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, breaking a tradition of more than 200 years in the history of the republic. He encouraged the violent seizure of the Capitol by a mob of supporters inflamed by the hoaxes and slander spread by the president and his propaganda machine.

The business magnate promoted a coup d’état which fortunately failed because he did not have the support of the U.S. Armed Forces or the majority of his base in Congress. He was confronted by his own vice president, Mike Pence. The coup’s failure saved American democracy, at least temporarily, and served to discourage some of the many would-be dictators around the world. It also served as an example in the few countries where the democratic model still prevails.

One can only imagine what the world would have become if Trump’s plan to hold on to the presidency had succeeded. Imitations of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Il Sung, Daniel Ortega and Nicolas Maduro would have spread throughout most of the world unimpeded.

Those who were among the most aggressive participants of the Jan. 6 event have paid the consequences of the Trump-promoted riots of Jan. 6. Certain members of the Proud Boys and other groups of supremacist, ultra-right and ultra-nationalist fanatics were sentenced to multiple years in prison. However, Trump, the primary instigator of the riots, has neither been prosecuted nor convicted. Justice has been expeditious with the underlings, but complacent with the boss who ordered the invasion.

This imbalance, in itself, is an injustice because it represents the class discrimination between the billionaire former president and those citizens who were manipulated to rip the constitutional fabric by the Trumpist propaganda apparatus.

American “justice” has marched so slowly in dealing with Trump that they have reached the point where the Republican Party primaries will soon begin. Republican Party caucuses will take place on Jan. 15 in Iowa, the first event of the 2024 election cycle, without any determinative outcome about Trump’s culpability by the judicial system.**

Only the Colorado and Maine courts, invoking the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, have barred Trump from appearing on the Republican primary ballot in those states. Of course, the would-be candidate has already appealed the Colorado decision to the Supreme Court and has filed a separate appeal of the Maine’s ruling. It is likely that the courts will overturn the rulings in Colorado and Maine.

Like a good autocrat, Trump made sure during his presidency to have a majority on the Supreme Court. He was already thinking about his reelection, even an indefinite one, according to some New York Times analysts and other major media.

It is possible that the Supreme Courts will not obstruct Trump’s presidential aspirations. The polarization encouraged by the Trumpist culture also extends to that institution, which is divided between Trumpists and anti-Trumpists. The correlation seems to favor the former. The outcome remains to be seen.

If the courts fail to offer the correction that blocks the former president from being a presidential candidate, alternatively, there should be a civil movement within the United States capable of confronting the outrage that Trump’s candidacy means for planetary democracy and the unfathomable risks it entails for the nation and the world at a time when liberties are widely subject to permanent impediment. This movement should include the media, politicians, intellectuals, social leaders, artists, universities and all those who want to defend freedom and the dignity of politics.

Joe Biden pointed it out clearly and brilliantly in his speech last Jan. 6 in commemorating the assault on the Capitol: In 2024, the United States faces the options of dictatorship or democracy. It will be forced to choose between the two.

Trump has vowed revenge on his detractors. Americans should remember what happened in Nazi Germany and in Venezuela at the end of the 20th century, when liberal courts initially pardoned the actions of the leaders who led coups in their countries, leaders who went on to win an election later.

*Editor’s note: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a ruling by a Colorado court that barred Donald Trump from appearing on the state’s Republican primary ballot because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

**Editor’s note: The Iowa Republican caucuses took place as scheduled on Jan. 15.