The Urgent Need to Renovate Democracy
Democracy is sick. It is not American democracy alone that is sick. Democracy around the world is sick.
Analysts around the world are diagnosing the weaknesses to find the leading causes of this sickness.
This is what American analysts are saying. President Donald Trump has damaged the democratic process with his claims of fraud in the November elections in the US.
Is it a cause to effect in this situation? Trump has acted waywardly and this has caused American democracy to weaken?
We can never believe or agree that one man could do such damage to a century-old system.
It is the centrality of the democratic system that is weakening and the Trump effect is only the tip of the iceberg.
In the US the ruling government went a notch too far in trying to impeach a former president. Many see it as a violation of democracy by the ‘persecutors’ who say they are its ‘defenders’.
VINDICATION
As a matter of fact, the ruling faction is ignoring the voices of the other half of the US. This is adding to the ailment. This is not the solution. The Democrats are to blame for that.
As a result of the attempt to impeach a former president, Trump came out broken but yet able to claim vindication in the end.
What history will say is another thing because it is what he does next counts. Will he fix democracy? There are doubts that he is capable of doing so.
We should look at the future of the Grand Old Party to see if American democracy will remain intact.
Trump’s actions have left the Republican party spineless and it is now a headless chicken.
In pure democratic principles, Trump should have left the leadership of the party to another politician. He lost the elections, he ruined the party’s chances to keep the Senate and the party lost the Congress under his leadership.
The party needs fresh leadership to decide its future and move on from the Trump years. But Trump is still clinging, threatening the creation of a new party, Patriot Party to drain support from the republicans.
Some reports say he has the support of a majority of the Republican base. If that happens, it will be a new dawn in American democracy.
The Republicans had a chance to correct the devastations under Trump, but it is now apparent the party has missed this chance.
THE TRUMP PARTY
It looks like the future of the Republican party is intricately linked to Donald Trump and to what he decides.
Break the party or remain to dominate the party’s nominations for the 2024 presidential elections?
This will be the biggest nightmare the Republican party has seen since its inception.
And the fact is the party has chosen to support Trump in his darkest moments after the election defeat.
There is no doubt Trump believes in the burnt earth policy. He will probably use the same tactic to maintain his grip on the party.
Anyone raising the voice against him will be tagged public enemy with threats of erasion from the party’s list.
For analysts around the world, the state of affairs within the Republican party is nefarious for American democracy.
If the Republicans fade, and Trump shines, they say it means the US will be straying away from its proven democratic credentials.
They believe it is not American democracy that is sick. They say it is the Republican party that is the sick man of America.
But we believe they are wrong.
A GLOBAL SCOURGE
Analysts in other countries, for example in Malaysia, are saying it is the betrayers of democracy who should be held accountable for the current state of chaos in the country’s system.
Far away in Africa, the Mauritians are claiming in street protests it is a fraudulent and corrupt regime in power that is posing a threat to democracy.
All these are alleged crimes committed against democracy from the US to Africa and India. Oh yes, India. TIME magazine now calls it a failing democracy.
They are all at the bedside of the sick man of the 21st century but no one seems to have a proper ailment for the problem.
Democracy is failing in many countries. There is the manipulation of voters in some, corruption and vote-buying in other cases.
Democracy has reached a point where it needs renovation. Trump’s solution is not a renovation that will save democracy.
It will only enhance division and the culture of overstaying the gratitude of the party after defeat. This is the practice in some countries where leaders of the party would not quit despite their defeat.
Now that the Republican party is adopting this strategy, the rest will follow. The defeated leaders who are still holding office in their party as the leader will find solace in Trump’s defiance.
