What is happening in the United States following Donald Trump’s re-election is not something we can afford to normalise
However bad you think it is, I can tell you that it is worse. It might even be existential. Every news story that comes out of the United States right now should be considered a five-alarm fire for democracy. However much you think you are following the real-time disintegration of US politics, there are fresh outrages you will have missed.
Attempts to ignore court rulings and threaten judges with impeachment; government investigations into critical media; unlawful firing of civil servants, replaced by loyalty-test-approved partisans; and plans to create a “cryptocurrency reserve” which experts fear would be a licence for money laundering and funnelling illicit wealth towards those in power.
These are not the actions of people who believe that future elections are any threat to them. And why should they believe that?
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Donald Trump's administration is changing things for the worse at a pace that few of us can keep up with (Picture: Carl Court)Donald Trump's administration is changing things for the worse at a pace that few of us can keep up with (Picture: Carl Court)
Donald Trump's administration is changing things for the worse at a pace that few of us can keep up with (Picture: Carl Court) | PA
Mad, incomprehensible but true
After all, this is an administration led by a man who attempted, directly and indirectly, to overturn an election four years ago; who incited a violent mob to attack the heart of US democracy; who has proven time and again to be a corrosive force in the democratic system – and then was re-elected. No matter how many times that mad, incomprehensible fact is stated, it cannot be stated enough.
Donald Trump is back in power, surrounded by those who share his values (if that is the word to use), and all the guardrails are gone. If we value our liberal democracy – and we should – then we cannot ignore these facts or what they imply for our future.
This is the problem for those who act as though Trump 2.0 is just a bump in the road, and blithely talk about turning the tide back in four years’ time: every indication is that, if given the opportunity, this administration, emboldened, will seek to tilt the deck in their favour irreversibly.
A dangerous defence mechanism
As human beings we often seek to normalise problems; a defence mechanism in the face of an often-confusing and fear-inducing world. But what is happening to the United States is not something we can afford to normalise. This is not part of the cut-and-thrust of politics; if we are not careful it could quickly become the end of politics as we have known it.
Whether or not the situation is retrievable is still hard to say, but the signs are not good. The last levers of power which could reverse the direction of travel in the US are in the hands of Republican politicians who have shown every willingness to bend to Trump when demanded.
Instead, our best hope may be in the basic fact that those leading this far-right, anti-democratic charge were not chosen for their competence. For all its flaws, liberal democracy is still a better, more effective system than plutocracy or oligarchy. With the weight of power and resources so heavily stacked on one side, however, it is going to be an uphill struggle.
I often tell friends that when you work in politics you have to believe that things can get better, because believing that things can get better is that only way that things do, in fact, get better.
That belief is going to be tested to its limits in the coming weeks.
William Deans is chief of staff to Alistair Carmichael MP, and holds an MSc in nationalism and ethnic conflict