Frank's Musings

If Donald J. Trump wasn’t a classic tyrant, was he only a lucky would-be one? Did he really think he could get away with just energizing a violent following to do the work for him of suppressing opposition?

How was that different from other authoritarians, like Hitler, Mussolini, Peron, De Gaulle, Putin, Orhan, Duda, Pinochet, etc.? Is the US democratic system vulnerable to the same corruption of its system and values?

Did Trump’s election evidence his mesmerizing attraction or was he a convenient (and opportunist) avatar for virulent reactionary impatience with the democratic consequences of the country’s increased diversity and education?  In cases of tyrannical rule, the end of authoritarianism can usually be brought about by peaceful and persistent domestic resistance.  That makes Biden and his hoped-for successors combatants in a struggle to retain the democratic heritage of America. 

This is something that must be made clear to a majority of voters as long as we are able to retain an equitable electoral system.  It is therefore important to strengthen voters’ rights; but it is also necessary to publicize what is at stake.  The publicity campaign must be done in a way that appeals to the obsequious and committed group of willing demagogue-acolytes, the large politically apathetic bunch that was Trump’s base. 

It has been estimated by a professor at the University of Chicago that there are twenty million disaffected voters in the U.S, who support the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.  Those are people who want things “both ways.”  They have gained materially in the American free democratic system, but jealously refuse to share that success with the multitudes of others who have managed to immigrate here or who have risen above centuries of racial discrimination to compete for equal rewards in a capitalist economy.  The ese incumbents ignore the inevitability that the benefits of a free society will not last if its advantages are not shared with all who agree to join on those terms.  These fruits of freedom carry an unavoidable obligation to offer them freely to anyone who accepts the two sides of the equation.  If this trade-off was nothing but a birth-right, the hard work that is the basis of the American character would be a fool’s errand.  A self-fulfilling result of holding that attitude would, of course, be fewer newcomers to the country as well as lasting existence of a racial underclass; but that result would also diminish the future well-being of everyone.

The Trump Presidency constituted a warning of how near is the possible collapse of even a centuries-old democratic system of government.  That system is fragile because it still is not a corollary of human nature.    All man’s instincts drive hm to provide for himself before others.  A would-be tyrant plays to that side of individuals’ character; if he succeeds, it could spell the end of their freedom and welfare.  Constant vigilance is needed to protect that heritage.