Is Trump’s defeat enough to save democracy?
Margaret Randall
La autora es poeta, académica y activista.
Foto de la autora: © Kory Suzuki
Don’t let’s lull ourselves into believing that a Biden/Harris win will solve all our problems. Trump still has a large chunk of supporters. They will continue to think of him as their «president» and act accordingly. Trumpism is now deeply ingrained in the minds and hearts of a great many citizens.
This week has been excruciating for us all. The roughly half of our population that supports Trump is, I know, as frustrated as those of us who want Biden/Harris to win. Since Tuesday’s election, we have been waiting for votes to be counted in several outstanding states. Each day brings us closer to a Biden/Harris presidency. The Democratic duo has already achieved a resounding majority of the popular vote. But our system requires each state to certify its verdict and then for the electoral college to declare the winner. We will see this in the coming weeks, if not days. We are on the threshold of being able to rid ourselves of a president who arguably did more damage to our nation and the world than any in recent history.
Still, I am troubled by a number of things: Most media and academic pundits continue to analyze this election and its results as if we are dealing with trying to rid ourselves of a racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic and authoritarian president whose polarizing effect on the country is simply a logical extension of his «rude character.» In fact, we are dealing with a sociopath, whose behavior—minute to twittering minute, and the rest of it—threatens us in ways our logic cannot comprehend. Donald Trump has nurtured an army of brown-shirt shock troops ready to do battle in his defense. He has repeatedly said he cannot lose, will not cede the election or leave the White House. Since votes in many states began diminishing his possibilities, he has steadily woven a narrative of baseless accusations and lies as well as instigating judicial proceedings that he hopes may reach a Supreme Court he has just succeeded in packing with yet a third right-wing ideologue. With an Attorney General who has done his every bidding, our Justice Department cannot be counted on to deal equitably with this situation. It remains to be seen how our Military may react if called upon to preserve the peace. Civil war is not out of the question.
Although slow to react in some quarters, lately our mainstream media has been doing its best to report the facts and call out the lies. On Thursday, when Mr. Trump gave a press conference filled with unfounded accusations, several major TV networks cut him off. But, as president, Trump has benefited throughout the entire presidential campaign from free advertising, in social as well as other media. Our journalistic outlets must stop giving him this platform from which to spout his venom and sow his seeds of rightwing rebellion.
The machinery of the Democratic party has failed to live up to its discourse of inclusion and equality. While some Democratic senators, such as Bernie Sanders and some representatives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortéz and the other three in «the squad» are working tirelessly for social change, the party bureaucracy has long defended the neo-liberal interests of an advanced capitalist state. This defense has been arrogant in the extreme, and it is perceived that way by many women, minorities and youth whose resentment has pushed them into the Trump camp. They may not like his behavior, but he has convinced them that he is «an outsider» and it seems more transparent to them than the Democratic line. Many of us who voted for Biden/Harris did so knowing we must get Trump out, even if it means replacing him with a mediocre alternative. We are all working within a system that is far from perfect. I believe that we must work within that system while laying the solid groundwork for a better one. But I am troubled by the latitude many give the Democrats when they have proved such a lukewarm, even opportunistic, alternative.
Language is important. It leads to action. If we let absurd labels such as «socialist» or «communist» go unchallenged when they are used to describe neo-liberals such as Joe Biden, we promote a narrative that has nothing to do with reality. Every time we excuse racist, misogynist or homophobic language, alleging that «it’s not what a person says but what he does that matters,» we are fostering a culture where hatred of the Other is the norm. When we do not hold Trump and his cronies accountable for every lie they tell, we are robbing ourselves of future.
This week continues to be intense. On top of a climate crisis that is decimating our habitat, on top of a pandemic that is every day taking more lives and livelihoods, we are in the midst of a Constitutional crisis that is complex and frequently misrepresented. Don’t let’s lull ourselves into believing that a Biden/Harris win will solve all our problems. Trump still has a large chunk of supporters. They will continue to think of him as their «president» and act accordingly. Trumpism is now deeply ingrained in the minds and hearts of a great many citizens. Many of them live in rural areas and see their adversaries as big-city thugs who denigrate their values and needs. We must find a way to come together, not just to heal but to listen, really listen, to one another.
If we look to history—Germany in the 1930s, Vietnam in the 1960s and ’70s, the southern cone of Latin America in the 1970s, Central America in the 1970s and ’80s—we know the kind of irreparable damage fascism brings. It is up to every one of us to stop the threat here and now.
