Today America is not the same as we used to think of it as a liberal democracy and a champion of liberty. Even its two party system that enables the Republican and the Democratic Parties to share the spoils of office between them, which political pandits consider a model of governance for other multi-party democratic countries like India, providing a good governance, is no longer secure.
The USA, under the administration of Donald Trump, stands divided racially, culturally and politically just as India under Narendra Modi is polarised on communal lines. It may be a quirk of history that the two largest democracies — India and America — are facing the greatest challenge to their Parliamentary and Presidential systems of governance due to illiberal and intolerant leadership.
Donald Trump, an outsider to the system, got elected as the president of the most powerful country, has shaken the American political system like never before, making the American politics personal. The midterm poll scheduled for November 6 is treated as a referendum on the personality of Trump. The midterm elections are held for the US Congress — all of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate — and two-thirds of the Sates. They assume significance as the future of American polity hangs in the balance, depending on who controls the two houses of the Congress. The Americans are divided into pro and anti-Trump camps.
The critics of Trump are targeted. The packed explosive devices — pipe bombs, inter alia — are sent to the former President Barack Obama, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, billionaire philanthropist George Soros and the media house CNN. Several high-profile Democrats and the critics of the US President are on the hit list. The Democrats call these threats a pattern and “a symptom of a coarsening brand of political rhetoric promoted by Trump.
The explosive devices — each six inches long containing battery, powder and broken glass — are packed in envelopes with bubble-wrap interiors. As the New York City mayor Bill de Blasio said, “The packages were clearly an effort to terrorise people politically to choose people for political purposes and attack them because of their beliefs.”
Trump more often singles out cable news network CNN and the other news media, whose reporting he does not like, terming them “fake news”. And he retorts, “A very big part of the anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the mainstream media”, and holds the media responsible for dividing America. The CNN chief Jeff Zucker has criticised the Trump administration for “a total and complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of its attacks on media”.
The US federal authorities have now arrested Cesar Sayoc — a registered Republican having criminal record-in Florida — a significant breakthrough in the nationwide bombing campaign against the critics of Trump, particularly those opposed to his policy on immigration. Sayoc is suspected of having mailed at least 14 pipe bombs to leading critics of Trump, reflecting the rancour of one of the most toxic election campaigns.
He made his political views evident by attacking Democrats, Muslims and liberals on Twitter and Facebook. However, his arrest does not necessarily end the threat, says FBI Director Christopher Wray and warned that some more packages may still be in transit and doesn’t rule out further arrests.
In the midst of all this, a gunman yelling ”All Jews must die” stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue during Saturday (October 27) services, killing at least eight worshipers and wounding six others, including four police officers. Before he was arrested, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu described the attack as “horrendous anti-Semitic brutality”. Pittsburgh safety director Wendell Hissrich says, “It is a very horrific crime scene, one of the worsts that I’ve seen, and I’ve been on some plane crashes.”
The gunman identified as Robert Bowers is active on social media, suggesting “a history of virulent anti-Semitism, filled with slurs and references to anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.” And Trump’s response was predictable — the killings might have been prevented if there was an armed guard inside the building: ”If they had some kind of a protection inside the temple may be it could have been a very much different situation.”
The Americans have a reason to be worried about the growing violence and divide in the society. The real danger is the destruction of its shared identity and values as a multi-racial-ethnic and cultural society. The land of migrants is no longer safe for emigrants. More harm is caused by the White House’s ongoing campaign to delegitimise the Press that is performing the role of promoting informed public opinion, making the government accountable for its acts of omission and commission.
The Seattle Time Editorial Board rightly observes: “This difficult chapter in our history is a triumph for our true enemies — the foreign nations with competing ideology, who have long sought to weaken American’s strength at home and abroad by sowing division, distrust and chaos, weakening Western democracy.” That is how Red China often mocks at American democracy.
G Ramachandram is a professor of Political Science and a retired Principal. He has published his magnum opus The Trial by Fire: Memoirs of a College Principal.
