The United States of America, the world's oldest and boldest experiment in democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights is after two centuries and a half century of existence beginning to tolerate in its body polity and embrace extremist views that would have been deemed wholly incomprehensible about fifty years ago. The great arsenal of democracy according to Franklin Delano Roosevelt has after fighting two world wars to defend human rights, the rule of law and check totalitarianism is itself beginning to be fatigued with the norms of the liberal democratic order and beginning a romance with extremist ideas in the guise of rejuvenating the American dream.
Nobody who lived through the Cold war and saw the determination with which the USA fought for the dignity of man , the rule of law and democratic norms would believe that he will live see a day when the American president will make it obviously clear that the non-native born immigrant or the vibrant American press with all its failings would be declared to be the enemy of the American dream or ideal.
That Donald Trump with the kinds of extremist views, falsehoods and deceptions he embodied in the course of his campaigns could receive the support of 62 million American voters and win the White House goes to show how much the respect for the liberal political climate has dimmed with the mainstream American voter. Donald Trump cannot and should not be held responsible for the shift in the liberal thinking of the average American today.The man is a business man, deal maker and an opportunist who could clearly see the moral breach opening up in the psyche of the average American voter and decided to explore it to win the White House.
The ideals of the founding fathers of the USA are clearly blurred and lost in the consciousness of many main stream Americans today. The huge price paid in blood and bounty to secure the democratic freedoms enshrined in the nation's polity are clearly eroded and degraded in the national consciousness today.
I make bold to say that there is not much difference between the political climate in the USA today and the the Italy of 1922 and the Weimar Germany of 1931 when the fascists in Italy under Benito Mussolini and the national socialists under Adolf Hitler began to make great gains and strides in the political order, coming out of the fringes of main stream political thinking and beginning to dominate the national consciousness. The idea was that these were strongmen able to bend the institutions of state to achieve their political aims and advance the national agenda rather than men driven by the lust for power who had no clearly defined political direction and were simply megalomaniacs who were egocentric and driven by the desire to be in the middle of the limelight and the national discourse.
That Donald Trump has no clearly defined political agenda or economic program is still not clearly discernible to his most rabbid supporters who are blinded by prejudice and sentiments. It will take a little while for many to realise that Trump has no real program, but the desire to win the White House and trounce his political enemies, paticularly Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. Running for the White House was meant to be the latest in his string of accomplishments as a born winner. Fulfilling his many campaign promises would be an after thought. For now it will suffice him to blame the American press and his many political enemies for his present failings.
When the American people chose to freely elect a man that despises the free press, disparages immigrants, has contempt for intelligence briefings, mocks the judiciary and denigrates judges, threatens to seize the oilfields of an independent nation, mocks the concept of NATO and the EU, has contempt for free trade agreements and sees climate change as a hoax, i knew the American dream was in for a rough ride in the hands of Donald J Trump. 250 years of democracy,freedom and the rule of law can sometimes be taken for granted and i daresay that the 62 million Americans who chose the Trump ride truly decided to take democracy for granted.
