COULD THIS BE THE END OF AMERICA’S GREAT EXPERIMENT WITH DEMOCRACY?

….This is how sane people feel about the Trump presidency

 

 

We have lived in a relatively stable global period…up to now!

 

I know it’s hard to believe, but with all the problems that we have dealt with over the past 75 years, things have never been better for mankind at any time before.

 

The rate of deaths due to war war has steadily declined, while global growth and improvement in life expectancy and living standards has increased. Yes, the progress is so slow it seems sometimes we are standing still, and this point is not well shared, but we Americans have never lived so well. This has been driven by remarkable developments in human interaction, especially in science and technology, and a relatively stable global order that had been previously underwritten by the United States.

 

Unfortunately, because of the man that is currently in the White House, we may be at the end of that period.

 

One well-known national publication was being very kind when they said that for the first time, we may have what they called a “post-rational president”.  They were saying that the results of having that kind of leadership is showing that President Trump has rejected all of modern science on global climate change; embraced economic forecasts and trade theories outside the range of reputable opinion; and he continually relies on “alternative facts” rather than evidence-based truths.

 

Regardless of their conservative natures, our former statesmen such as the former actor, and president, Ronald Reagan, former Texas Governor, George W. Bush and former Nixon supporter, Henry Kissinger, the idea of the US being part of a "community of nations" has always been accepted.

 

Today, even President Trump’s most rational and global minded advisers have proclaimed in the conservative Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that “the world is not a global community”.  They have also advanced a theory of international relations not unlike the one that animated the British and French back in the defunct Versailles agreement at the end of World War I.

 

What this means is that the objective of international negotiation is not there to establish a stable, peaceful system or to seek cooperation, or to advance universal values through compromise.  These individuals have written that this negotiation would be primarily for striking better deals in “those  areas where nations, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses, compete for some advantages.”  (Sound's like Trump's book, "Art of the Deal"...)

 

For proving this theory, the current president in the past two weeks renounced any claim to US moral leadership by failing to convincingly reaffirm the Article 5 security commitments to NATO.  Now by abandoning US participation in the Paris Global Climate Agreement, this was probably the most consequential error since the starting of the War in Iraq, and it may well be felt even longer.

 

There will be consequences to all of this, but one does not need to refer to when a rising power causes fear in the established power of the US, which could then escalates toward a real war.  That is, as it relates to worries about how China as a rising power that may fill the vacuum left by the United States. In reality, how can US adversaries and allies alike not follow German Chancellor Angela Merkel in concluding that the United States is absolutely far less predictable and reliable?

 

 

How can the responses to all this be other than a total destabilization across the globe?

 

It is essential that leaders in US clearly signal their disapproval of the course the Trump administration is taking. History will judge business leaders poorly who retain positions on Trump administration advisory boards because they hope to be in a position to cut favorable deals.  Elon Musk of Tesla and Robert Iger of Disney, they have rightly taken the correct and principled stand by resigning their presidential appointments to the White House CEO committee. More will probably follow.

 

So, what is America going to do?

 

The world will be watching to see whether Trump’s words and deeds represent an irrevocable turn in the nation’s approach to the world, or will it just be a temporary state of mind for the country?  The more that leading figures in the US can signal their continuing commitment to real reason, to common purpose with other nations, and to addressing global challenges, the more the damage can be contained, but will that happen….?

 

Of course, Congress has a central role to play in preventing dangerous and destabilizing steps.  But being that the White House and the Congress, and even the US Supreme Court is stronger for the GOP than for the Democrats, what are the chances that they will not support the current administration?  As of now....none.

 

Worst case!  This could be the end of America's great experiment with democracy.

 

Let’s hope that the American public will wake up and keep this from being the final result.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017