American democracy is a sham

By Carlton Joseph

Carlton Joseph

President Vladimir Putin secured another six-year term amidst a crackdown on dissent on the war in Ukraine.  The Kremlin made efforts to boost voter turnout by allowing electronic voting over three days; voter turnout was reported at 74%, with Putin receiving 87.31% of the vote while the remainder was split between three other candidates, whose campaigns aligned closely with the Kremlin’s agenda.  The supporters of deceased Alexei Navalny, Putin’s archnemesis, organized protests against the Russian president, but they seemed not to have had an effect on voter turnout.

This is the backdrop to the upcoming November elections in the United States (US), where amazingly, with a population of 330 million, and approximately 168 million registered voters, the most powerful country in the world could only offer a repeat of the 2016 election – the same two old white men, Joe Biden and Donald Trump as presidential candidates to the American population.  Trump, authoritarian, racist, extremist, and ignorant, and Biden, effective with his domestic agenda, but stuck in the past with his foreign war mongering agenda, is the best America can do.  Worst, there are no young, intelligent viable candidates from either party capable of succeeding these two men. 

Trump totally controls the Republican Party (GOP) and has installed his daughter in law, Lara Trump, as co-chair and is removing officials, not loyal to him, out of the organization.  As to President Biden, despite a strong economy, only one-third of Americans approve of his handling his job as president, while 64% disapprove.  Unbelievably, the GOP is seen as better able to effectively manage the federal government, although under the Trump administration, the economy lost 2.9 million jobs; the unemployment rate increased by 1.6 percentage points to 6.3%; the federal deficit peaked, and rich people gained more than poor people.  Why is the Republican Party seen as more capable of managing the government?

President Biden took office at a time when millions were still out of work because of the pandemic, and Biden’s time in office has been dogged by political gridlock, inflation and surging borrowing costs, and aggressive attempts by the Federal Reserve to slow the economy.  However, the economy has defied economists’ forecasts and continued to be robust, with the strong labor market and rapid jobs gains fueling the economy’s blockbuster growth, strengthening household finances and improving consumer and business confidence.  In fact, employers have createdmore than 14 million jobs over the past three years. 

Biden’s victory at the polls would be easy if James Carville’s phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid” was applicable, but a recent NPR/PBS poll reports that republicans are primarily concerned about immigration and inflation.  The same poll reveals that Democrats main concern are immigration and inflation followed by preserving democracy, and for Independents, preserving democracy followed by immigration and inflation.  When one recall that Trump received more than 74 million votes in the last election, this election is critical, because it will define America, and determine its power, influence, and respect on the world stage.

On the hustings, Trump, facing the prospect of four criminal trials, proposes: giving the President more power to hire and fire government employees, replacing civil servants with political followers, and increasing the powers of police, claiming that democratic policies are leading to crime sprees in big cities. He proposes to give parents more control over local schools, including the right to hire and fire school principals, and opposes Biden’s efforts to cancel student loan debt.  Also, to reduce US defense commitments and negotiate with Democrats on abortion, and promises the biggest deportation and border arrest programs in American history.  Promising to increase the trade war with China and referring to the people who are in prison for crimes committed in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol as “hostages,” he promised to work on the first day he gets into office, saying: “We’re going to save our country, and we’re going to work with the people to treat those unbelievable patriots.”  Importantly, he vowed that there would be a “bloodbath” if he is not elected in November.   

Like Hitler, Trump now owns the GOP. Every state Republican Party is either under his control or about to be and, as they are being unseated if they are not loyal to him, they will be able to certify the electors, and/or replace them with fake Trump electors, thereby ensuring a Trump victory, even if Biden wins by a landslide, in the state. 

Trump will own the Senate if he wins and the GOP wins, he will get every vote, every judge that he wants and nothing will happen without his permission.  Recently, a bipartisan Immigration Bill failed to reach the house floor for a vote because Trump opposed it.  The Bill included money to build more border barriers, to greatly expand detention facilities, and to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges to reduce the years-long backlog in cases to determine asylum eligibility.  This is the power of a man who does not hold any political office, who owes $500 million in fraud and sex offender payments, and now controls his party and its finances, and he needs the money as he is not liquid to pay this off.

America is facing a major problem; one person or party cannot represent all views of a diverse constituency. Today, Trump represents all the views of a “diverse” Republican Party, and he is wicked and corrupt.  Worst, the electoral college ensures that minority interests supersede the majority interests because only 6 states will determine the presidential outcome.  It is time that America become a true democracy where one man one vote is the standard, and the person with the most votes wins. The current gerrymandered system is guaranteed to elect a wicked, corrupt idiotic government, where the minority interests supersede the majority interests.

A Trump victory will remove all the “guardrails,” assuming they existed, the Republican Party will do whatever he wants, they will alter the constitution and appoint  hundreds of judges.  His rich supporters will remove any regulations or restrictions on how rich they can get, and his poor ignorant followers will rejoice when he deports millions of people that he deems illegal.  Eventually, they might realize that they will remain poor and destitute and that Trump and wealthy people don’t give a damn about them.  Hopefully, his poor and middleclass supporters would realize that the solutions they desired would only make their situation worse and leave the cult before it’s too late.

(Trinidad-born Carlton Joseph who lives in Washington D.C., is a close observer of political developments in the United States.)

The perspectives and viewpoints articulated by the columnist unequivocally do not represent or endorse the official stance or opinions of the publication.