In Like a Lion, Out Like a Kitty
A lot of whimpers and whines are coming out of the White House as the sun sets on the Trump presidency. The man in question is convinced that he has been cheated out of power. A "subtle conspiracy" has overturned his flow of votes, and we won't be surprised if there is a call for "neutral caretaker government" somewhere down the road even though he himself has appointed a large number of judges during his tenure.
Even before the election, Trump brewed a conspiracy coffee to toxify the mail-in votes knowing very well that his supporters were likely to ignore the call for social distancing and come to vote in person. In contrast, his opponents were likely to play it safe by sending in their ballots. The voting pattern was thus proportional to the attitudes of the two party supporters towards the coronavirus. For one group, it was nature's revenge and needed a better and cautious management based on scientific information. For the other group, it originated in a foreign country under a very suspicious condition and eventually got exported overseas like immigrants creating unnecessary nuisance. While one group insists on masking the self, another group insists on demasking the other. The diatribe has become an endless source of amusement for the rest of the world who are tweeting back to the tweet-land.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not waste any opportunity to rub salt into the wounds of democracy. "What a spectacle!" Khamenei tweeted soon after the US election. Adding, "One says this is the most fraudulent election in US history. Who says that? The president who is currently in office." And then there is the ruling party's spokesman of Zimbabwe, Patrick Chinamasa, who said: "We have nothing to learn about democracy from former slave owners." Even the mainstream US media warned of such backlashes from the "undemocratic" world. They compared the disgraceful attitude of the POTUS as the leader of the free world with those dictators and autocrats of countries sans democracy. The news of pre-emptive presidential pardons for three members of Trump's family as well as his personal lawyer solidifies the media suspicion.
In a post-Cold War unipolar world, the US positioned itself as the wholesale exporter of democracy all around the world: MacDonald's in Vietnam, Coca-Cola among the Taliban, or Nike in Russia, have been the symbolic images of liberalisation and democratisation instrumented by the US. While the country's military might gave the US a political high-ground, the moral and social fabric of the country was being constantly tested. Over the years, the country has departed from the Puritan belief in which America was once founded. The reverse of the Great Seal of the United States offers one such example. On the United States one-dollar bill we see the insignia that includes an overseeing eye and an unfinished project symbolised by an unfinished pyramid. The two Latin slogans accompany the images on the seal: annuit coeptis (the eye of providence) and Novus ordo seclorum (new order of the ages). The founding fathers of America believed that God had favoured them in giving them the promised land and it was up to them to complete the unfinished mission under the watchful eyes of the old world as well as of God. It is no coincidence that with such strong religious underpinnings, the Crusade tenor appears in American discourse every now and then.
One can, however, argue that Trump's behaviour has been far from that of a true Christian even though he has strong support among the right-wing Christians. Many evangelicals see him as a divine ally who has come to their aid to testify to God's habit of working in mysterious ways. Trump himself curated his "Bible thumper" image and went on to compare himself with Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the US who "wrote, spoke and thought in terms of Scripture". Ironically, some of the Republicans who turned against their leader to prevent Trump from re-election called themselves as the Lincoln Project. The betrayal is also symptomatic of a far reaching change within the Republican Party. Under Trump, who lost in popular votes in two successive terms, the party that pivots on him has become a white fraternity who has no tolerance for ethnic minorities and immigrants.
In his effort to make America great again, Trump has ended up building a wall around the exemplary pyramid, making the project a site for private viewing. His detachment from many international bodies including the UN, his isolationist view on climate change, and his trade deals have made him lose the political high-ground for the US. No wonder, Trump's campaign relied on provoking fear about a leftist, socialist, globalist opposition that will end religion, gun rights and oil use. In a campaign rally, Trump said in Texas last year, "The radical Democrats want to destroy America as we know it." If these opponents are allowed to have their way, he said, there will be "no guns, no religion, no oil, no natural gas." And then he goes on to overtrump his nationalist Republican role model to boast, "Abraham Lincoln could not win Texas under those circumstances."
Well, Trump did win Texas. America, however, presents itself as a country that is divided more than ever. What lessons can be learned from the rise and fall of Donald Trump? The red surge that brought him to the White House four years back is now blocked by a blue wall. The thunderous roar with which he came to power four years back is fast fading into ridiculous meows. There are lessons to be learnt from this rise and fall of Trump.
Shamsad Mortuza is the Pro VC, and the Head of the Department of English and Humanities at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.