5 Lessons from a Dangerous Presidency

This Wednesday, Donald Trump will leave the White House. That is one of the year’s best pieces of news. Hopefully, his presidency will be remembered for a long time to come. Not since World War II has one of the greatest constitutional democracies in the West come so close to a coup or civil war. For so long, Western democracies saw existential threats primarily abroad. Trump demonstrated above all that they are now lurking at home. His rise and chaotic presidency are a modern warning against autocracy, and have revealed five weaknesses that could push even a seasoned democracy to its limits.

First, there is the poison of propaganda. Trump himself did not lay the foundation for his presidency; America’s raucous right-wing media did it for him. For years, they have denigrated the integrity and competence of their leaders and continually pointed to supposed existential threats. Thus, disgust with “the system” grew, and with it a yearning for a guarantor of law and order who would finally clean things up. Fox News in particular, as a propaganda apparatus of the Republican Party, invented this allegedly broken America that had to be saved by the populist Trump.

Appeasement Does Not Work with Egomaniacs

Second, there is the allure of the rule-breaker. For a while, Republican Party leaders believed that an angry outsider like Trump could win only a fraction of the party’s base for himself. But when a larger portion of the people feels politically abandoned or unjustly treated, they are more receptive to egomaniacs and rule-breakers. Many Republicans were sick of the wars from the George W. Bush years and sick of the financial crisis. President Barack Obama, a Black man, definitively embodied their loss of control. So they sought refuge with Trump, despite — or precisely because of – his shamelessness and racism.

Third, the office does not always restrain the person who holds it. A widespread misconception was that Trump would change once he took office. He would either give up his campaign antics himself, or his advisers, cabinet members and members of Congress would tame him. But Trump constantly preferred to stay true to his formula for success: spreading chaos and discord. Advisers, elected officials and even certain judges managed to keep Trump grounded when it came to the law for a while. Many reasonable people remained in the administration, less out of loyalty to Trump than out of concern for their country. But by the time Trump finally lost the election, he was out of control, pressuring election officials and attacking the Constitution. The silent acquiescence of his fellow party members in Congress who, out of opportunism or fear, had stayed quiet in the face of his excesses for years was shameful.

Fourth, truth can die. With the air of a fascist, Trump presented himself as the sole holder of truth. Above all, he used the irresponsibly led and insufficiently monitored platform, Twitter, to spread thousands of lies, misinformation and abuse. With this well-proven channel of communication, Trump then hammered home to his fans for months the fairy tale about a stolen election. Millions of Americans are convinced today that the recent election was conducted unfairly, even though every court to review the matter rejected this proposition. The The Trump followers who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 thus saw themselves as part of a mission to retake their country — with fatal consequences.

Racist and Anti-Democratic Currents Run through Every Democracy

Fifth, violence is not taboo. Whoever comes to power despising the system knows no bounds in destroying “the system.” Trump began with attacks on the media and the courts, and eventually discredited the electoral system. (The U.S. is not the only example of how a party can take power democratically and then undermine the rule of law from within. See Poland and Hungary.) Of course, Trump did not hesitate to sugarcoat, legitimize or even incite violence. If he had insisted that he won the election and set the National Guard to confront any protesters, the U.S. would have come very close to a civil war.

So, whoever wants to sketch out how even a well-established democracy can drift into autocracy and eventually fall apart no longer has to look very far back in history. Trump has offered a perfect case study for how that happens right now. The ingredients are the same as ever: egomania to a point of a complete absence of scruples, a long-smoldering bonfire of lies and hate, and a divided society with weakened defenses. Running through even well-seasoned democracies are racist and anti-democratic currents that energize people, and, through social media, are strengthened by those shameless enough to participate. If all democracies can now sharpen their senses and consider the impossible possible, then at least Trumpism provided a useful lesson.