QUESTION: Many people believe that the dark years of US is over as Joe Biden took the presidency of US. However, to mark a blemish, we have witnessed the violence at the Capitol Hill. What would be its long-lasting impacts? – Jeevan Jose

ANSWER: Saji Mathew Kanayankal CST

While the congress was ratifying the victory of Joe Biden on 6th January 2021, the violent mob attacked the US Capitol, the symbol of democracy and freedom. It was not a sudden reaction from a mob, rather the net result of the continuous denouncements of the former US President Ronald Trump negating the electoral defeat. Even though senior republican senators like Mitt Romney and Lamar Alexander asked him to withdraw the complaints and make a way for easy transition to the next president, trump refused it continuously, and he declined to allow Biden to have access to the crucial government resources. The tweet of Trump “We had an election that was stolen from us,” stimulated and intensified the antagonism of his followers. The refusal of Trump to accept the result of US election is not seen as the result of the power crazy and arrogance as well as a repudiation of democratic process, rather it is propagated as a fight for justice and an assault against the conspiracy to rob the ‘power’ from the ‘real people’ of the country. The blind followers of Trump took it as an invocation to a return to a lost authenticity of possession and power, not as a seditious and subversive call to destroy the ethos and values of democracy. “The election was stolen and we have to do something to save the country,” said Colleen Murphy, one of the followers of Trump and another who came to the Capitol commented that she was there to fight for the president, because she was convinced that the election was fraudulent. Many were behind Trump, vowing that he would never concede his election loss. After the long days of uncertainties, challenges and legal debates on 20th January, 2021 Mr. Joe Biden became the president of US.

THE VIRUS IN THE AIR

Technically speaking, Biden became the president of US and the power transition was rather smooth and nothing extraordinary has happened as expected at the moment of the transition of power. However, the exit of Trump from the office gives little hope to spell the end of Trumpism. It is an undeniable fact that over 74 million people voted for Trump, just five million fewer than Biden. I do not think nor argue that all those are supporting Trump are the mere followers of him. But the question is relevant: “Why have more than seven crore Americans voted for a man seen as a buffoon; a manic, greedy, power-hungry, corrupt tax-dodger and serial sexual predator; and somebody who arguably weakened the country globally and nearly ceded its pre-eminence as the global superpower in a uni-polar world to China?”
It is true that by the arrival of Biden in the bitter and violent era have been duly ousted, but Trumpism continues to retain all over US. There are a large number of ‘Trump republicans’, who are loyal to Trump himself personally. Many of them are blind by Trump’s toxicity having a particular ‘American Dream’ overshadowed by globalization and austerity. During the election campaign in 2016 and throughout his presidency, Trump was against the migrants, social minorities and ‘all foreigners.’ The political virus that he spread will continue in the soil of America and all over the world. As reported by the media that 8 in 10 Trump voters do not think that he should relinquish power, for they truly believe that the election was fraudulent. The violence at Capitol was the climax of the rise of this feeling and the direct execution of a new ideology, Trumpism. As it is remarked by a journalist, even if Trump is defeated, he won’t fade away like America’s traditional formal president. Though he may be away from the main stream as person, he will be still alive in the American community as well as all over the world.
The ideologies and resentments of Trumpism have affected the entire world far too deep and it is not easy to return to the original. We could easily see a wave of authoritarianism is rising across the globe. During the governance of Ronald Trump, many of his ideologies spread world-wide, even many political leaders took it as a strategy, especially, to win the election and to cover up their faults. Even after such long years of globalization, migration and the spread of the new information technologies, the narrowness of people are increased and widened. The polarization on the basis of religion, language or ethnicity in the countries is enlarged. The vast majority of the population become mere victims of the skills of demagogues, who used to divide the county just to enjoy or continue the political power. As per some reports, apart from US, the Trumpism affects at least half a dozen modern states today.
One of its clear mark can be seen in the political scenario. The democracy is manipulated very many ways and they win the elections by hook or by crook. Rather than common good and public welfare, politics became a mere win game. The great values of democracy are torn away. The ideologies of the new cultist leadership claims that that the state should be incorporated into the person of the leader. Here the truth is seen as something identified with the leader. People are sheerly brainwashed by the pronouncements and lies of demagogues and they blindly follow the ‘cult leader,’ who is considered as unquestionable. The public claim to believe whatever they say and ready to carry out the commands given by them. The leader does not allow to come out different opinions and questions, and he quells the voices of the opposition with all possible means. The opposition is suppressed either with power, money or media. The political opponents are treated enemies of the country and they are attacked by all kinds of means, especially by the agencies of the government.
The democratic institutions and the constitutional bodies are hijacked by the sole powerful leaders and people lose their trust in them. The sanctity of such bodies became doubtful. Only the ‘loyalists’ would be placed into the strategic positions so that the interpretation and implementation become in favour of the leader. Laws and pardons were to apply selectively to different segments of the populace, some to be hounded eternally, others never to be touched. For the powerful leader, democracy is a means to execute their power and even though the majority are against them, with the technical ‘majority’ and the ‘narrow victory margins’ they place themselves as the embodiment of the “general will”. Democracy is being threatened by these authoritarian leaders who live with the stigmas of selfishness and pride. We have millions of followers who believe their lies, ready to carry out their bidding.

THE DISRUPTED ORDER

The demagogues try to create a new-identity as the nationalists, forgetting the real facts and ignoring the historical realities. Pope Francis describe it as an instance of myopic, extremist, resentful and aggressive nationalism which is influenced by various ideologies that create new forms of selfishness and loss of social sense. Take the case of US, Trump won to divide the country by creating a feeling of nationalists and outsiders. In general, the White Christians in the present America claims to be the owners of the land forgetting the fact that except the ‘native American-Indians, no one can justly claim the status of ordinary inhabitants of the land, for all others are ‘migrants’ in the country. In India, the population is almost divided by the claim of the majoritarian Hindutva who make the claim of the inhabitants of the country and mark all others are mere intruders. By creating a fear in the majority that they would be overtaken by minorities and migrants, they plan out their hidden agenda to rip them off from the main steam of politics and economics in one way or other. They neither see the citizens are ‘equal’ in a country nor accept the right of all citizens, while making a division between the original ‘we’ and ‘them’. Though the people are different, the notion of the ‘other’ is widened. The minorities and immigrants are seen as the ‘ills of their country’ and create a phobia in the majority, narrating that they would be overtaken by the minority and their rights will be stolen in a short time. In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis describe it as end of historical consciousness where one is not open to the critical thinking, the struggle for justice and the process of integration to empty great words of their meaning to manipulate them. According to him, the words like democracy, freedom, justice or unity have been bent and shaped the tools of domination, as meaningless tags that be used to justify any action.
Today with the support of new digital app an ‘alternative reality’ is created and the mind-set of the public is formed or controlled by such devices. These alternative realities are ‘a bubble’ in which we live that may have nothing to do with the physical reality, the immediate here and now. They are not affected by the events of the real world. By theses sheer exploitation of such methods, the values of democracy are taken away, people are misguided, the words of ruthless leaders become the slogans of the country and the social and political order is disrupted. While relying on lies and misrepresentation of facts or ignoring them, they create an unrealistic world where the specific geography, history, heritage, culture and shared past and present are created or fragmented and many become its mere victims. As Harold Pinter already pointed out in his famous Nobel Prize speech, ‘Art, Truth and Politics’, “Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory [the real question of what is true and what is false] since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power, it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.”
The election of Biden gives us some hope even amidst these kinds of anti-democratic trends. However, even under the regime of Biden’s presidency, much of the Trump agenda will continue in US and the time only can answer how will it be overthrown in future. The push-back against Trumpism must come from a new vision, a vision that promote the ‘real nationalism and politics against the relentless analysis, propagation and mass mobilisation, rejecting a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured’. As Biden told in his inaugural address, there is much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build, and much to gain. Americans as well as the entire world community have to confront and defeat all kinds of ill and foes like, political extremism, racial supremacy, domestic terrorism, anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, and hopelessness. It is the duty and responsibility of every citizen to restore the soul of democracy. For realizing this dream what is needed is unity. Every disagreement does not be a cause of war, and it should not lead to disunion. If people can see the other not as an adversary but neighbour and can treat each other with dignity and respect, there is hope. The repair will be possible.