Juan Nuño, the renowned Spanish philosopher, who contributed to the education of numerous generations of Venezuelan students with his sound knowledge, often said that all citizens of democratic countries should vote in the U.S. presidential election. The professor was right: The northern country is the most important nation on the planet. The decisions adopted by its leaders usually have important consequences for the rest of the world. Nuño’s vision has more meaning today than at any other time.
Democracy and the values linked to it — respect for the rule of law, inclusion of minorities, independence and balance among public institutions, freedom of thought and opinion, among many others — are currently blocked in much of the world by autocrats who have built hegemonic and exclusionary political models. The United States should be a model of democracy.
One such leader is Donald Trump, who jumped into politics from the business and entertainment world without ever having had to negotiate a budget in Congress or connect with a community’s problems from a governorship or as a mayor. In 2016, when he was elected president, Trump was very much a political outsider. Now, eight years later, he has gained some experience. Yet the upstart’s own traits remain intact.
He still continues to repeat, without any evidence, that fraud was committed in the 2020 election and that he was the real winner of the election. He downplays the serious events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of fanatics inspired by his insurrectionist diatribes stormed Congress, violating a tradition of more than two centuries in which the act of reaffirming the outcome of Electoral College votes has been conducted peacefully.
He considers the assailants of the Capitol, many of them on trial for sedition, to be national heroes.
Trump has incorporated his quarrelsome style as a substantive part of his crusade for reelection in 2024. He does not see election campaigns as a time for contrasting differing political, economic, social and cultural proposals, but as offering an arena in which the competitor must be destroyed. For him, there is no adversary, but an opponent to be annihilated. The nation does not exist as a unitary concept; there are only, unconditionally, subordinates and enemies.
That is how Trump behaved with Joe Biden when Biden aspired to reelection, after he had won the Democratic Party primaries. Trump rarely offered any interesting or profound idea that contrasted with those of the incumbent president — not even in the debate between them. Trump engaged only in televised denigrations and slander against Biden.
Trump transferred his villainous style to his confrontation with Kamala Harris, the vice president, whom he needed to disqualify simply because she is a woman. Yet, Trump didn’t even try because Harris had already bested him when he agreed to debate her face-to-face in a television studio: No fanatic audience to applaud him was present. For a primitive mentality like Trump’s, that face-off was an ordeal.
However, the perverse side of the aspiring candidate has become most evident in his campaign profile. That fundamental value of Western society, respect for minorities and vulnerable sectors, has been dynamited. The take Trump has given that topic is a combination of segregation, male supremacy, misogyny, hoaxes and contempt for people.
One of the victims has been the truth. Trump said that in some U.S. communities, Haitians are eating citizens’ pet cats. After an investigation, several journalists proved that such a statement was a lie. Of course, no apology has ever come from the lips of Trump or any of his advisers. The latest thing to be aware of is the cruel insult to Puerto Ricans at the Madison Square Garden event, where a “comedian” close to Trump said that Puerto Rico was a pile of garbage floating in the Atlantic Ocean (the subject does not even know that this area is identified as the Caribbean). The candidate disassociated himself from the insult, but did not condemn it.
The predominant tone in the candidate’s harangues is the denigration of ethnic, religious and political groups — and his own personal disqualifications.
When Trump does have an idea, it is usually disconcerting. For example, he said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was responsible for the invasion of Ukraine, suggesting in passing that the United States, with him in office, would not continue the financial support of Ukraine. Regarding China, it is not known whether he wants to unleash a trade war with a return to radical protectionism, or whether he aspires to foster intelligent cooperation between the two powers.
The same goes for his vision of Europe and NATO: Trump is a motley mix of populism, liberalism and nationalism within a vessel dominated by improvisation and authoritarianism.
God save America and the world. Kamala, defeat that mob!
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