It is time to concede that the US is not the light on the hill of what democracy should be? Photo: GETTY IMAGES
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.
Once, this would have been a comforting thought. No matter how inept, foolish, cold-blooded in empathy, self-interested or just plain evil, a president was, one could steel oneself, or resign oneself, in the knowledge that when said leader’s time was up, they were gone. They could not return. Dust in the wind.
But after the recent ruling by the Supreme Court in the United States, the foundations of belief in that edict are suddenly fragile, and breakable. It’s not a stretch that if the Supreme Court can allow Donald Trump the immunity to do whatever he likes under the cloak of an official act, then who is to say what the future holds?
To change the Constitution requires that an amendment ‘‘may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, or, if two-thirds of the States request one, by a convention called for that purpose. The amendment must then be ratified by three-fourths of the State legislatures, or three-fourths of conventions called in each State for ratification’’.
Once, that is a month ago, this would have seemed a fairly steel proof safeguard, but America has gone through the looking glass. Who knows what is in the mind of Donald Trump?
These are beyond strange times. Reality is merely a concept, water through the hand. And America, once the beacon of freedom, is now being described as a failed state. It is time to concede that the country is not the light on the hill of what democracy should be. Democracy is barely flickering.
The man who lost the last election, who was the orator at the insurrection on January 6, who calls those who have been jailed for their part, hostages, who cannot concede the will of the people, who carries revenge against his enemies in his veins, who subverts truth to his ambition, is now the frontrunner to be elected come November. This is the ‘‘satanic energy’’ of Donald Trump’s world, as a friend and colleague described it.
In recent weeks, Trump has been on the hustings. These are some of the thousands of words, well gibberish and lies, he has been declaring:
‘‘All we have to do is stop the steal and we have it made. Just stop the steal. We can’t let that happen again. Last week, Crooked Joe signed an executive order that is pro-invasion, pro-child trafficking, pro-woman trafficking, pro-human trafficking, and pro-drug dealers. It’s a pro-drug dealer bill. It’s weak. It’s ineffective. It’s bullshit what he signed.’’
‘‘The entire world is emptying their prisons and jails, insane asylums, and mental institutions. They’re emptying them out into your state, but they’re emptying out into all 50 states. They’re coming in, and there’s no such thing as a border state anymore. That border is so meaningless. They just walk right through.’’
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“So there’s a shark 10 yards away from the boat, 10 yards or here. Do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking, and water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking. Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted? … But you know what I’d do if there was a shark or you get electrocuted, I’ll take electrocution every single time. I’m not getting near the shark.’’
Those three quotes illustrate his perversion of truth, his stereotyping of minorities, and his political self-interest. He used the last quote as a bizarre example of the dangers of electric vehicles. He often declares: ‘‘Drill, baby drill’’, at his rallies. He has asked oil CEOs for $1 billion to fund his campaign.
It’s a mistake to believe that as time moves forward, so too, does humanity progress. Enlightenment is not a given.
The Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC-43 BC) was no stranger to bloody power struggles. It cost him his head and hands (the severed parts put on display). He wrote on the dangers of tyranny.
‘‘No amount of power can stand up to the hatred of the people. I say it again, using fear to maintain power simply doesn’t work. But the leader who keeps the goodwill of his people is secure. Whoever tries to govern a country through fear is quite mad. For no matter how much a tyrant might try to overturn the law and crush the spirit of freedom, sooner or later it will rise up again either through public outrage of the ballot box.’’
In an imaginary dialogue between general Scipio and his friend Laeloius, he has Scipio say: ‘‘How can a state ruled by a tyrant be called a republic at all? For that is what republic means – res republica, ‘the property of the people’. No country where everyone is oppressed by a single man, where there is no common bond of justice, where there is no agreement among those coming together, can ever belong to the people.’’
Of the republic, he laments: ‘‘Our republic looks like a beautiful painting faded with age. Our generation has not only failed to restore the colours of this masterpiece, but we have not even bothered to preserve its general form and outline … Our country survives only in words, not as anything of substance. We have lost it all. We have only ourselves to blame.’’
Will it soon be, et tu America?
