Several analysis have labelled the former President and Republican candidate to the 2024 presidential elections in the US as a threat to democracy, this call to purely scientific approach to the question in order to figure out the amount of relevant facts that is in such statements. In other words, is it possible to witness the death of the American Democracy with Donald Trump as leader?
1- Can Trump breakdown the principles of democracy in the US?
The traditional fundamentals of democracy are : the rule of law, the separation of powers and mostly a people centric approach in the process of chosing leaders, this entails to fair and credible elections. These fundamentals are observed to be more than a 200 years of practices that have already experienced the leadership of D. Trump in the past, and there is not evidence of the high probability of seeing this democratic system made of very strong institutions crumble because of a leader, be it D. Trump.
The MC Cain Institute idenfied 14 principles of democracy: Protection and Cultivation of Fundamental Freedoms and Civic Space, Election Integrity and Political Pluralism, Inclusive Policymaking, Solidarity against Authoritarian Pressure, Media Freedom and Resistance to Disinformation, Human Rights on Digital Platforms, Rule of Law and People-Centered Justice, Safeguards against Corruption, Gender Equality, Youth Political and Civic Engagement, Equal Rights for People with Disabilities, Economic Opportunity for All, Freedom of Conscience and Religious Belief, Comprehensive Freedom from Discrimination. A deep look at the content of each principle and how the american society has managed to adopt them reveals clearly that it will be suicidal for anyone to take down and violate without being punished and call to order severely, unless the AMERICAN PEOPLE. If that ever occurs, it will be fully in order with the democratic core principle which is the power to the people. Thus, the only threat to a democratic system is the people, and that is not threat, but the ESSENCE of democracy. It becomes therefore obvious that Donald Trump is more a threat to the status quo than a threat to democracy in the US.
2- Trump as an “expression of the American people”
The troubling challenge that several experts are faced with is how could so many americans support a candidate such as Donald Trump. The fact that the persona of the candidate is facing many legal charges and seems to not share the same morality with what some people are used to does not make him less than an expression of the American people as much as the president Biden. For the records, the candidate lost the previous presidential elections having the highest popular votes and currently it seems like he is rocking the place within the republican camp. It is therefore impossible to ignore the fact that Donald Trump is an expression of the American people, and as such he cannot be considered as a threat to democracy. Actually any attempt to refute such fact is rather the threat to democracy.
However, the perception of some analysts is highly understandable as they are focused on what they do consider as acceptable practices in democratic leadership, and based on that they conclude that Donald Trump has demonstrated in his previous leadership that he is a threat to what they consider as democracy, putting aside the fact that an outstanding support of the people is a critical factor of democracy. It is important to highlight that what is happening in the USA as far the presidential elections of 2024 are concerned showcases the vitality of the American Democracy which upheld by the strenght of the institutions of the country. It is true that once could be tempted to question the constructiveness of democracy at this junction when you are of the view that we should not have quite a controversial candidate as D. trump running for presidency. But scientifically the question does not stand within the framework of a democracy.
What is your take?
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