His opponents see Donald Trump as a threat to democracy. In doing so, they would suppress the successes of his four-year term in office, writes political scientist Charles R. Kesler.
It falls short to accuse Trump of being a threat to democracy, writes Charles R. Kesler in his article. (September 2019 shot at Andrews Air Force Base)
Evan Vucci/AP
Why will millions of Americans vote to re-elect Donald Trump? It will be Trump’s third attempt at the presidency. So you can’t say that these people don’t know the man or his politics.
Trump has managed to become the dominant political figure in the United States, but also in Europe. He did not achieve this by convincing his critics or behaving like a classical statesman. Trump senses the zeitgeist with all its contradictions and tensions, and he highlights them instead of resolving them. He has seen his task so far as criticizing and rejecting the political institutions, which have also lost legitimacy in the eyes of many citizens.
If those in power lack true knowledge of the future, progress and its supposed inevitability, then all that remains is hubris or what Trump denounces as fake – false knowledge, false news, false hope and false change. This is the crisis facing the American and European left. Donald Trump did not cause the crisis. But he did point it out.
In America, Trump’s criticism hit both Republicans and Democrats. Trump’s target on the right was not the policies of Ronald Reagan, but those of the post-Reagan conservative establishment that lasted more or less from Bush the Elder to Bush the Younger – the “compassionate conservatism” that failed to secure a lasting Republican majority , to create a healthy middle class or just social peace in our own country. The “new world order” and the “forward strategy of freedom” also failed to bring peace to Russia, the Middle East and China, let alone democracy.
The Peacemaker
For these reasons, it falls short to accuse Trump of being a threat to democracy. This is how you ignore political reality. As president, Trump didn’t start wars, especially not the endless idealistic wars that many foreign policy experts love. He vigorously defended Israel, the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, and negotiated the Abraham Accords, which brought the entire region closer to peace.
January 6, 2021 was certainly the low point of Trump’s political career. However, the events were not a deliberate coup, as critics claim.
This campaign began in 2016, when many elements of his own administration, including the FBI and CIA, colluded with Hillary Clinton and the Democrats to orchestrate the “Russiagate” scandal. It was alleged that Trump was knowingly or unknowingly a tool of Vladimir Putin. Many investigations, including the anemic official one, concluded that there was a lack of evidence and that the scandal was essentially pure political propaganda – a hoax, as Trump said.
Democrats are betraying democracy
Almost all Americans were surprised at how easily the Democrats were able to switch horses in the middle of the race and replace their candidate Joe Biden with Kamala Harris. Harris last participated in a presidential primary in 2019, but her chaotic campaign was abandoned before Election Day. Still, Democrats did not require Harris to run in new primaries this year or undergo a nomination process at the Democratic convention. Any deviation or restriction on democracy can apparently be justified if it serves to protect democracy from Donald Trump.
Joe Biden’s unsuccessful re-election campaign heavily emphasized Trump’s perceived threat to democracy. This was also the topic at the Democratic Party Convention, but it was given over to the celebration of “the joy of [Kamalas] “Laughter and her light,” as Michelle Obama put it, is subordinated. They accused Trump and his vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance of being “weird,” strange.
Harris described Trump as “a dubious man in many ways.” She, on the other hand, described herself as the daughter of a happy, normal family of middle-class expatriates – but how many families have parents with two doctorates? She promised to revive the Democrats as a slightly hipper version of the party of hope and change.
Barack Obama’s slogan for re-election in 2012 was “Progress!” shrunken, with the telltale exclamation mark, as if his fellow Democrats didn’t know how to get excited otherwise. Kamala Harris’ official motto, which she presented at her party conference, is “A New Path Forward.” Not exactly rousing, but then the crowd chanted the campaign’s unofficial slogan: “We’re not going back.” What they meant was that they would not tolerate an America without abortion rights, without Obamacare-worthy national health care, and without positive discrimination.
But shortly before Election Day, the Democrats seem to have lost their joy. They can’t think of anything better than comparing Trump to Hitler. Harris and her colleagues warn darkly that Trump is a “fascist” who seeks “unlimited power.” This is their closing argument. This is their final threat.
Trans rights more important than property rights
Human rights, as the left in Europe and America understands them today, only emerge from the forefront of social change or evolution. For the left, only pioneering rights are truly compelling or vital, like trans rights, identity rights or environmental rights. Individual rights, especially property rights, deserve less and less respect and protection according to progressive values. Who decides what separates social progress from social regression? The answer is circular: those who are experts in “a new way forward”.
For all his rough edges, Donald Trump is courageous and makes it clear what is at stake in the choice between the two candidates. That’s why I’ll vote for Trump again. He stubbornly tells the truth about America, defending the idea of a color-blind, non-racist constitution based on individual or natural rights and the consent of the governed. His judicial appointments have happily made short work of racist admissions policies and restrictions on free speech and will help restore civil order at our borders and in our cities.
Charles R. Kesler is Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University. Most recently he published the book “Crisis of the Two Constitutions: The Rise, Decline, and Recovery of American Greatness”. – Translated from English by bgs.
