US President-elect Donald Trump.
An election like no other has concluded in America, unquestionably the world’s most dominant state. Donald Trump, the one-time President is now President-elect. He handily defeated Vice President Kamala Harris who would have become the first woman and person of African-Asian descent to assume the highest office in the United States.
But that’s not all. Mr Trump’s Republican Party has retaken the Senate and kept the House of Representatives. The Republicans will control all branches of government – the Executive, Congress, and the Judiciary. They will husband total power in the country.
In this piece, I want to ruminate on what Mr Trump’s sweeping victory will mean for America, Africa — including Kenya — and the world. Let’s understand that Ms Harris, his able opponent, had a diametrical vision of America and the world. That’s now water under the bridge. In one sense, any democrat (lower-case “d”) should be concerned about Mr Trump’s policies because he will have enormous – virtually unchecked — power to implement them. This post-mortem of Mr Trump’s victory dives into what’s at stake because the territory we are about to enter is totally uncharted. We know this for sure – the next four years will be full of tumult. I urge caution on irrational exuberance on the part of Mr Trump’s supporters.
I stipulate upfront that democracy is now on trial in America. I say this as someone who has fought for democracy all my life. But I am not doctrinaire or possessed of naivete about democracy. As a critical thinker, I know that ideas are fallible. That’s why I have always argued that democracy has its own in-built perils. Winston Churchill, the British imperialist, opined in one of his pithiest witticisms that “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all others.” In this juxtaposition, democracy is empirically and normatively better than personal rule, dictatorship, orligarchies, and other murderous forms of rulership. Meaning that democracy is the “least worst” form of government. It says that democracy is very flawed.
Democracy
In yet another memorable quote, Mr Churchill said that “the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Here, Mr Churchill was pointing to what could be a fatal flaw in the foundation of democracy. People with less than an erudite understanding of democracy often like to say that the “voice of the people is the voice of God.” That’s naïve because in a democracy the people can, and often do, get it wrong. They clearly got it wrong when they elected Adolf Hitler in Germany — or other fascists and dictators who have since come to power through the popular vote. But it’s also true that in democratic elections, voters more times than not get it right.
It's, however, in the instances where the voters get it wrong that should concern us, and why Mr Trump’s second term in the Oval Office may lay bare the perils of democracy in America. One thing is clear – we should not contemplate any other legitimate methods of capturing power unless there has been a total collapse of the state. Thus coups, revolutions, military takeovers, and other forms of unconstitutional changes of government should be off the table unless the government in power has brought about an existential crisis of the state. That’s why no matter how much it hurts, Democrats and others who didn’t vote for Mr Trump have accepted the result. The people have spoken, and convincingly done so.
Dictatorial leaders
It's clear to me the majority of Americans made the wrong choice in electing Mr Trump and giving Republicans a carte blanche to the state. Mr Trump is a strongman in the tradition of other illiberal and dictatorial leaders around the world. He doesn’t believe in the rule of law, or in democracy itself, which ironically brought him to power. We know this because he led an attempted coup after he lost the 2020 election. He’s awakened America’s most vicious demons. Naked racism and misogyny drove his victory among a large, mostly white, electorate in the country. These are people who don’t believe in democracy unless they win. They believe it’s their birthright to alone rule America, even by force.
To Mr Trump, Africa is a benighted and, as he put it, “s***hole countries.” He joins the league of other dictators to dismantle democratic institutions around the globe. It’s going to be a very tough four years for the world under Mr Trump. Joseph De Maistre, the French philosopher, wrote that “in a democracy, the people end up with the government and leaders they deserve.” American have made their bed, and they must now lie in it. Because America leads the world, the rest of the globe will have to lie in that bed too for the next four years. American democratic institutions will attempt to mitigate the worst excesses of a Trump presidency, as they did in his first term. I seriously doubt they will be successful this time.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. @makaumutua.
