• Ponmala

American democracy is now on the line. All lovers of democracy are awaiting the results of the upcoming American elections with bated breath. Opinion polls show Kamala Harris and Donald Trump neck and neck. And yet, no two candidates have been as poles apart as they are in what they stand for: Harris is a liberal democrat to the core and Trump is a fascist dictator to the core; Harris is a black woman of South Asian origin and Trump is an American White Supremacist; Harris is a humanist and Trump is a narcissist; Harris thinks global and Trump thinks American; Harris believes America is the greatest nation on earth and Trump thinks America has lost that status; Harris wants to uplift the disadvantaged and Trump considers them vermin; a third of America thinks Harris is a radical communist and a third of America thinks Trump is an agent of the devil or the Antichrist.

Except for Trump’s dictatorial friends Putin, Xi Jinping, King Jong Un, Netanyahu, Victor Orban and perhaps Modi, and ultra conservatives like Elon Musk, Boris Johnson, the rest of the world shudders to think Trump will ever return to power. There could be many among them who might be spending sleepless nights imagining the scary scenario that may unfold in the aftermath of the elections. If Trump, who has already hinted that he will not accept the election results if his rival wins, loses by the wafer-thin margin that pollsters are predicting, all hell could break loose. And what if his followers are girding up to reenact the January 6 attack of 2021 on the Capitol all over the United States, triggering a civil war! Tump recently called that January 6, which narrowly missed the wrecking of American democracy, ‘a day of love.’ And the scenario will not be any less scary if Trump wins.

One is left to wonder how Trump, whom the Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell describes as “a despicable human being who is stupid and ill-tempered” and almost all the members of his previous cabinet consider unfit for the office of the President, is able to garner so much support. Trump’s former Chief of Staff stated about him: “He surely falls into the general definition of a fascist. It’s a far right ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement characterised by a dictatorial leader. The former President is certainly an authoritarian. Using the military to go after American citizens is very very bad. He admires people who are dictators. He commented more than once that Hitler did some good things too.” A quarter of black men have rallied around Trump. Barack Obama pointedly asks how Blacks, of all people, can support a man who denigrates them day in and day out.

Trump appeals to people by playing on their grievances – fear of migrants and inflation. Both these grievances have an economic undercurrent: migrants are a threat to the employment opportunities of locals and inflation eats into household budgets. But they overlook the fact that he obstructed the passing of the Border Security of Act of 2024, which his own Republican Party had thrashed out, with an eye to using the border security issue to win votes. They also turn a blind eye to the fact that unemployment and inflation have already ceased to be matters of concern in their country. The unprecedented backing Trump gets from both non-college Whites and Blacks signals a cultural backlash: They are not willing to accept a woman as president.

Trump was right when he said that this will perhaps be the most important election in American history, but for the wrong reasons. A victorious Trump will act true to his word and wreak vengeance on those who oppose or criticise him, ‘sending the military after them’. He will cancel the licences of media houses that are not favourably disposed towards him. He  threatened Jeff Bezos of Amazon with high tariffs if The Washington Post, which he owns, continues with the practice of endorsing the Democratic candidate. Bezos caved in and killed the endorsement of Kamala Harris. Trump will cleanse America of migrants, who he believes have “crushed wages, crashed school systems… wrecked the standard of living and brought crime, drugs, misery and death.” But how will he then find the manpower for the boost in manufacturing that he intends to promote by imposing hefty import tariffs on goods? The tariffs will, besides pushing up prices, isolate America from the rest of the world. In short, he is selling dreams that will ultimately hurt America and her people.

Trump will further isolate America by withdrawing from NATO and leaping into Putin’s lap. He has also thrown enough hints that he will betray Ukraine to please Putin. Trump’s chum Elon Musk too has fallen for Putin’s dictatorial charm. Both have business interests in mind. The business opportunities Putin can offer them in Russia is limitless. Like Faustus, they are willing to pledge their souls and the soul of America to any dictator who can offer them avenues for making huge money.

Trump calls every influential American who opposes or criticises him ‘the enemy within’. But if he wins the elections, Americans will soon know that he is the real enemy within. Biden can prevent that from happening if only he uses the unquestionable power the US Supreme Court has given him to act as he likes as President: Just cancel the elections. But Biden won’t do that, because he is not Trump. He has proven that he is an unbreakable American who puts his country’s interests over his own.