America is in the eye of the storm and many are wondering if the land of liberty can still flaunt the title of the beacon of democracy as it is wont to. While I admit that there is a big question mark on America’s moral right to police the entrenchment of democracy anywhere else, I still believe that America’s democracy remains a model, even in spite of the brazen assault it suffered in the hands of President Trump and his allies.
What is playing out in America only reinforces the fact that human beings are the same, irrespective of race or colour. What regulates the excesses of man is law and order which is what America prides itself on. The event at Capitol Hill on Wednesday the 6th of January, 2021 was only a crystallisation of a feud that was sown when Donald J. Trump was voted as The President of The United States on the 8th of November, 2016.
I wrote an article shortly before President Trump took his oath of office in 2017. The article was titled “Lessons from America”. Before then and in the build up to the elections, I was a vehement critic of Donald Trump’s fitness for the Oval Office and I did it without apologies. Writers, they say, are more of idealists but writers, most times, are able to see into the future not because they are soothsayers but because history is not lost on them. Hence, they are able to project into the future, even at the risk of backlashes.
The world was shocked when Americans voted Donald J. Trump to lead them. My jaw dropped when I woke up on the 9th of November, 2016 to discover that Donald Trump was President-elect. For a candidate who ran a campaign of hate, racial discrimination, white supremacy, gender insensitivity and character deficiency to be chosen to lead the world super power, USA, was not what an average pundit imagined but America decided and the world stood behind America’s choice. Like every other person, I respected America for their choice because there was no other choice.
As I congratulated America for their choice, I remember saying that the ascension of Donald Trump to power is not a model for leadership students. Coming closely on the heels of BREXIT, when the United Kingdom chose to leave the European Union, pundits, including me, expressed worries that world order was retreating from globalisation to nationalism and I expressed fears that Donald Trump would deal a big blow on decency in the most powerful public office on planet earth. For every single moment he has spent as POTUS since 2016, President Trump confirmed my fears.
Bad as the political climate appears for America today, it has been proven for the umpteenth time that the institutions are well entrenched in America to salvage whatever ruins President Trump may have inflicted on the foundation of America’s democracy. It is for this reason that Vice President Mike Pence could tell his principal that he does not have the power to stop a process that is clearly defined.
That President Trump was able to find connivers in Congress in his dirty ploy to scuttle democracy only confirms that there is no perfect human being anywhere. What shapes human behaviour is law and order and it is for this reason that cries are thickening for all who aided and abetted the insurrection at the Capitol to pay the price for lawlessness.
Professor Allan Lichtman was one of the very few pundits who tipped President Trump over Secretary Hillary Clinton for the White House in 2016. Soon after his inauguration, Professor Lichtman predicted that President Trump would be impeached. The time may be too short to conclude impeachment process with the senate convicting President Trump but Donald J. Trump will go down in history as the first President to be impeached twice by the House of Representatives in the history of the United States of America. If only for the records, President Trump will be impeached, even if not removed from office before the end of his tenure.
Even in her trying moment, it would appear as if America has not learnt from the rise and fall of a narcissist leader, Donald J. Trump. America still suffers from over bloated feeling of self importance as implied by President-elect Joe Biden when he said that the event of Capitol Hill must be investigated because it looks like what would have happened in a “third world dictatorship”. That is an uncomplimentary statement from the new symbol of America’s democracy. It is an assault on the third world that has shown better examples than Mr Biden’s America.
Americans look up to Joe Biden to restore her dignity in the eye of the rest of the world. For an extremely polarised America, this is a Herculean task for Biden. If he must succeed in this difficult task as he takes his oath of office on the 20th of January, 2021, incoming President Joe Biden should, by now, know that there are positive lessons to learn from the third world. Maybe if America had admitted that there are lessons to learn from the third world, they won’t be at this lowest ebb in their democracy. Former President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria is a good example of a democratic experiment that Nigeria can export to the United States to teach America the true meaning of civilised democracy.
Congratulations President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. May your tenure be smooth.
©️ akinjnr 2021
