This country has come a long way, a country that was built on the back of immigrants, fought for by immigrants and developed by immigrants. What makes the United States distinct is because of the ideology it presents to everyone, “The American Dream”. This country is one of the major pillars upholding democracy in the whole world, it represents liberty, equality and justice for all. Yet, its legacy is being ripped apart slowly by the audacious president, Donald Trump.
Donald trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on December 19, 2016 by the Electoral College. Donald Trump winning the 2016 Presidential election definitely struck the very foundation of democracy in the United States. How did a candidate who insulted a large portion of his potential voters/minorities and refused to gain support his political party still win the presidency? According to Independent, Donald Trump lost the 2016 Presidential popular vote by 2.8 million to Hillary Clinton, bigger margin than any other U.S. president in history. Yet, he was somehow still able to win due to the Electoral College. The question is who is to blame, the 63 million voters who voted for Trump despite his unconventional campaign promises and voters who didn’t exercise their right to vote? Or the possible Gerrymandering/electoral malpractice that ruled in his favor despite the great margin difference in popular votes?
Donald Trump’s promissory coups and attack on news outlets helped immensely in harnessing the people’s malcontent and deviating from democracy. Trump’s campaign promise to plan with his Generals to defeat ISIS in 30 days, he toyed with American’s emotions in order to gain more wind to sail to the White House. Promising to build a Wall to keep the Mexicans, whom he also referred to as “Drug Dealers, Criminals and Rapists”, was also another way of feeding on citizen’s frustration regarding immigrants taking their jobs. Which in a sense is also similar to the way Adolf Hitler was blaming the Jews for taking their jobs and that of Peru’s Alberto Fujimori calling his oppositions “Drug trafficker and Terrorist”. His promise to Make America Great Again (MAGA) is a great example of a dictator ideology. And it has already begun. Each steps Trump has been taking so far is an attempt to weaken the media and other part of governments in other to further his agenda. He criticized news outlet and used slanders like “enemy of the people” and “Fake News” to subconsciously appear like the honest and straightforward man who has nothing in heart but the goodwill of the American People. While at the same time using social media platform such as Twitter to further spread propaganda to his supporters. According to Steve Vladeck Article, “The questions are an intrusion into the President’s Article 2 powers under the Constitution to fire any Executive Branch Employee…what the President was thinking is an outrageous…..as to the President’s unfettered power to fire anyone” Trump utilized twitter to even threaten to fire oppositions who might be against his agenda. Based on a video from Vox Article, Trump criticizes the congress regarding the whole asylum system. In his speech, “Frankly, We should get rid of Judges. We can’t have a court case every time someone steps their foot on our ground.” Trump is instigating how the checks and balance system in the United States should be abolished. His speech displays how frustrated he is with the current democratic system. The same way Fujimori was frustrated with the checks and balance system and thought of it as a straitjacket. Donald Trump is attempting to break free from the same power that can check him and limit his power. He is attempting to get rid of the very foundation installed by our forefathers that limits an executive branch’s power and declare it whether it’s in regard to the constitution or not.
It is a shame that one of the oldest democratic nation and symbol to all has begun deviating from the path set by its founding fathers due to anxiety that their way of life is threatened. Who is to be blamed for initiating the Democratic Erosion? Are the voters to be blamed for supporting him and being the stepping stone for his rise to power? Or perhaps the system, whose integrity is in question for giving him 74 more Electoral College vote, overriding the 2.8 million voters? The democratic erosion in the United States began the moment we gave power to our insecurity than our morality.
This article gives a great overview of how Trump has challenged and exposed existing flaws in American democracy. The second paragraph highlights arguably the most undemocratic element of the U.S. Constitution, the Electoral College. The Electoral College has never served its purposed as a deliberative body meant to safeguard the presidency from the will of an uneducated or miseducated electorate. This fact is highlighted by the 2016 election. Trump’s election is the kind of populist movement that the Electoral College was created to prevent from obtaining the presidency. The Electoral College has put five presidents in office who didn’t win the popular vote. This is part of the reason why readers of political theorist Robert Dahl understand the American Constitution to be “virtually democracy-proof.”
I think this article does a good job highlighting some of the ways Trump exploited the fears of Americans to gain the support of Americans, as well as how institutional structures such as the Electoral College played a role in the election results. While these both certainly aided in Trump’s election, I don’t think singular action or institutional structure is solely responsible, rather their accumulation. Another idea that is instructional to consider is how polarization may have increased Trump’s chances of being elected. In Milan Svolik’s research, the case of Venezuela is analyzed. It is found that voters with more extreme party views are more likely to tolerate democratic erosion by their party’s candidate. The United States party system has become increasingly polarized since the 1980’s, with many scholars pointing to asymmetric polarization between republicans and democrats. Considering this, it may be the case that some republicans on the far right were willing to look past Trump’s anti-democratic promises in exchange for their party’s political win.
While I agree that Donald Trump has expressed nondemocratic ideas and rhetoric, I would not classify this as a “promissory coup” as you did in the third paragraph. According to Nancy Bermeo in “On Democratic Backsliding,” a promissory coup is the ousting of an elected official that is framed as a defense of democratic ideology and which contains the promise of restoring democracy as soon as possible. I think your blog post contains Bermeo’s idea of “executive aggrandizement,” which is when an elected executive weakens checks on executive power at a slower pace. Trump’s behavior of questioning the validity of the media and need for judges in asylum cases shows that he is attempting to limit the extent to which political institutions are able to check his executive power.