Trump’s Threat to Democracy: The Last Peaceful Change of Power in the United States?

MORE TRUMP? – Democracy presupposes a demos (people) that can stand up to a demagogue, writes the award-winning Swedish author Göran Rosenberg. Photo: Thomas Nilsson / VG

If Trump becomes the Republican Party’s presidential candidate again, the United States will probably have seen its last peaceful and democratic change of power, regardless of who wins or loses.

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This is a chronicle. The chronicle expresses the writer’s attitude. You can submit chronicles and debate posts to [email protected].

GÖRAN ROSENBERG, author and writer

It is entirely possible, and right now highly probable, that the Republican Party’s candidate in the US presidential election in 2024 will be called Donald Trump.

This despite the fact that he will then stand trial for a number of serious federal crimes with a combined sentence of more than 600 years. Last week, he was indicted for the role he played in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Conspiracy with the intent to defraud the United States, reads one of the charges.

On top of it all, we are talking about a person who has not made the slightest attempt to hide what he intends to do with the presidency if he gets it back, such as overriding the US Constitution if it should stand in the way of his exercise of power.

AUTHOR: Göran Rosenberg.

He has actually also said that the constitution gives the president the power to do whatever he wants, which is not true, but not out of thin air either.

The powers that section 2 of the constitution gives the president are very extensive, such as the power to pardon anyone for any crime, including close relatives and friends.

Also himself, if necessary.

He also has the power to hire and fire ministers and officials in US departments and other administrative agencies, in addition to being the US commander-in-chief – commander in chief – which has been interpreted as the power to alone decide whether and when to use nuclear weapons.

The strong presidential power was a product of the American founding fathers’ fear of internal collapse and war. But they ultimately believed that they had created a form of government where the strong presidential power was offset by a legislative power independent of the president, namely Congress, and a law-interpreting power, the Supreme Court, which was also supposed to be independent of the president.

What they could not foresee, hardly imagine, was that a president would be able to use his power to short-circuit the separation of powers and make himself king, which is what Donald Trump is now accused of trying to do.

Which in turn was due to the fact that they were unable to imagine that a person like Donald Trump could be elected president. Even less could they imagine that the same man could be elected president a second time to complete the vandalism.

How this could happen is a story in itself, but it shows that no constitution, no matter how ingeniously designed, can protect democracy from committing suicide.

A democracy commits suicide when it legally elects a leader who will abolish democracy, which is what Donald Trump has more or less bluntly said he will do.

Such as, for example, abolishing the laws and rules which in 2020 prevented him from winning the election which he had lost according to democratic laws and rules.

If Trump becomes the Republican Party’s presidential candidate again, the United States will probably have seen its last peaceful and democratic change of power, regardless of who wins or loses, since far too many people will contest the election result – whatever it may be.

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A democracy that cannot carry out a peaceful and democratic change of power cannot remain a democracy.

A democracy there demos – the people – do not have confidence in the institutions and procedures of democracy, nor can they remain so.

Democracy presupposes a demos who can stand against one demagogue – a people seducer – who with beautiful words and false promises seeks the people’s support to take power into his own hands.

Not necessarily by formally abolishing democracy, that is no longer needed, but by attacking the foundations of democracy with formally democratic methods.

This is what we have seen in countries like Hungary, Poland and Turkey, what we are now seeing happening in Israel and what may very soon happen in a United States where millions of Americans now seem willing to put power in the hands of a person who, in words and actions, has shown his contempt for the foundations and principles of democracy.

“Democracy dies in the dark” is the slogan of the American major newspaper Washington Post.

Democracy can also die in broad daylight and by its own hand, I would add.

Translated from Swedish by Bård Kranstad.

Published:

Published: 08.08.23 at 14:35

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2023-08-08 12:35:13
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