The tragedy of democracy in the divided states of America

I had said, more out of faith, that I thought American institutions were strong enough to withstand Trumpian assaults. I was relying on the history I was familiar with: Washington district judge John Sirica demanding that President Richard Nixon’s administration hand over tapes during the Watergate trials; Republican senator Howard Baker asking about Nixon, “What did the president know and when did he know it?"; leading US newspapers defying the White House and publishing the Pentagon Papers, a leaked report that showed what the Defense Department knew about the Vietnam War and wasn’t revealing; and more recently, former secretary of state Colin Powell, who served under Republican presidents, defending Democrat Barack Obama from rightist smears. In the US, institutions mattered.

To be sure, there was always partisan politics, especially when relations between the executive and legislative branches worsened, with government shutdowns and impeachments of Bill Clinton and Trump. In the run-up to the 2002 Iraq War, the US press did poorly, with some reporters becoming the administration’s cheerleaders, parroting government propaganda. And the judiciary too opted for expediency at times, such as when the Supreme Court enabled George W. Bush’s 2000 election after the poll stalemate in Florida.

My friend was polite about my optimism. “Trump does not have to break the law; he will attack the norms," she said. “And once those norms are undermined, anything is possible." Institutions are fragile, she implied; they work only if those in charge adhere to rules followed for generations.

Breaking rules is not difficult. Clever people find ways to do so. The Republican-controlled Senate would not give a hearing to Merrick Garland, whom Obama appointed to the US Supreme Court, saying such nominations can’t be made in the president’s final year, even though there is no such rule. And yet, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would hold hearings for a new Trump appointee (if there is a vacancy in the next two months), even though this is an election year, because the same party controls the Senate and the presidency. Again, there’s neither such a rule, nor a convention. Such sophistry erodes norms.

In fact, the Trump administration has violated not just norms, but also laws. Think of the number of his associates and appointees being indicted or sentenced. The administration has been fatal for many of its citizens. More than thrice as many Americans have died due to coronavirus than the number of US soldiers killed in the Vietnam War. But, like a bull in a china shop, Trump acts audaciously because he knows he can get away with it. There is a Yiddish word, chutzpah, but that doesn’t explain it, because chutzpah has a certain charm—it speaks of street-smart roguishness. Trump’s audacity is raw, that of a dangerous bully.

Whether or not Trump wins, he has transformed the Republican Party. It is no longer the party of the rich American who wanted to pay less taxes and upheld the benign paternalism of noblesse oblige to fix societal ills that the state couldn’t and shouldn’t fix. Trump’s party uses the state’s power to intrude in people’s lives, interferes with markets and the economy, tears up international commitments, and has made it easier for bigots and racists not only to flaunt prejudice, but brandish weapons with impunity and intimidate (sometimes even shoot) those who look or think different.

In early 2017, when I lived in London, my friend Nirmal Ghosh, the Washington correspondent of Singapore’s daily Straits Times, came visiting. He was to speak at a university about how he reported US politics for an overseas audience. An American in the hall asked him if he saw any difference in covering the US after nearly three decades of reporting from Asia. Ghosh had reported from Singapore, the Philippines and India before his last Asian posting, Thailand, where he covered Indo-China. “Not at all," Ghosh said. “It is very easy to understand Trump—he operates exactly like some Asian leaders I have covered," he added, pointing out the relatives Trump was appointing to key positions and the cronies he was rewarding. Ghosh had covered businessmen-turned-politicians in Thailand, a comical strongman in the Philippines, and seen the collusion of business and politics elsewhere. He spoke of how leaders in Cambodia and Zimbabwe did it, and said Trump would be no different.

That is the ultimate tragedy for American democracy. It was never perfect, for no democracy is. Aspects of it still inspire. The spontaneous support for the Black Lives Matter movement; the lawyers fighting inhumane administration policies that target refugees; the journalists who ask tough questions of the administration; and the judges who uphold the law and not the legitimacy of temporary rulers. America will need more of these, if those fragile norms are to survive and for the nation to become united again.

Salil Tripathi is a writer based in New York. Read Salil’s previous Mint columns at www.livemint.com/saliltripathi