It seems like a very, very long time ago, in a world which does indeed seem far away. But it is only four short years since I wrote this pair of posts:
The Dark Night of the Soul in the City on a Hill
Night in the City on a HillIt is safe to say that the American republic has not had its best years since that day. Every week of the Trump presidency has been such a rollercoaster, it would be impossible to try and recount all of it. The coronavirus catastrophe, which has killed more Americans than most wars the country has ever fought, is the best, most vivid, most raw example of that. The whole presidency has been bad, both for those in the United States, but for everyone around the world. Yes, many of the worst fears have not come to pass. The system of checks and balances the US prides itself on has by and large held. Trump remains the only president to preside over a government shutdown when his party was in full control of government. Many of his gestures were just that, gestures.
But you cannot argue these have been four good years. Indulging white supremacists, authoritarians, conspiracy theorists, climate deniers, and all-round lunatics hasn't done anything for the United States. The world stage has cowered in fear that he subscribed too much to the madman theory, and his ripping up of the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran Nuclear Deal is just downright dangerous. Above all, Trump shows that democracy is not inevitable. Americans believed it was, and so they didn't mind when the beast made its way into the White House. He has sewn carnage in his wake. The United States is a young country. It is still younger than Athenian democracy was when it was conquered by Alexander of Macedon, and only half the age of the Roman Republic when Caesar led his armies across the Rubicon and brought it crashing down. It is not inevitable that the poster child of democracy around the world will remain as such. Trump is the symbol that yes, it can happen here.
I think what has surprised me the most is that anyone cares. Plenty of countries are run by authoritarian strongmen, by quasi-fascistic lunatics who shouldn't be allowed to run a race let alone a nation. Their mismanagements and outrages go unremarked day by day. For some reason though, those of us who live in democracies hold the USA to a higher standard.
Maybe it’s because we live in the world it created. The world we live in is culturally American, and is defined by global institutions and power structures which were set up by the United States. We do care when it lets us down. It will go on doing that, even under a President Biden. But it will be ten times worse under a second term Trump.
If Joe Biden wins tomorrow, that isn't the problem solved. Trump, as has been written many times by many people, is a symptom, not the disease itself. But if he wins again, that message will almost be worse than him winning in the first place. Consigning Trump to the ash heap of history is a powerful message that it can happen here, and it can be undone.
I can see all the evidence that points to Trump losing. And yet I cannot truly believe it. As John O'Farrell said of those who despaired that Labour would win in 1997, in the face of similarly overwhelming evidence, we are like brides who have been abandoned at the altar, and cannot accept that they will ever be happy again. In the words on Fox Mulder's office wall in the X-Files, I Want to Believe.
Everything I said in those posts four years ago still stands. If America still sees itself as the city set on a hill, a shining light to the rest of us, then it bloody well better show it. Once again, we all have to go through that long, dark night of the soul with them.
Good night, and good luck.
