Donald Trump Is Attacking Democracy, and You Should Be Concerned
By: Sylvain Saurel
Tags: Politics, Republican Party, Democracy, Donald Trump, Civil Rights

Donald Trump Is Attacking Democracy, and You Should Be Concerned

Image: John Lewis by Sam Falk/The New York Times

During the four years of his presidency at the head of the United States, Donald Trump will have accustomed us to all kinds of excesses. Those who elected Donald Trump in 2016 chose Donald Trump for his unconventional side.

Donald Trump was a man from civil society, and he clearly had nothing to do with the politicians who usually end up leading the United States.

To say the least, Donald Trump’s supporters have been getting their money’s worth over the past four years. Donald Trump is a master in the art of provocation, but also in the art of sudden and unexpected decisions.

He has also become an expert in the aggressive tweets that ignite the powder keg of an American company, whose divisions he has constantly accentuated. This was clearly part of Donald Trump’s strategy: divide and conquer.

The more America is divided, the better chance Donald Trump has of being elected.

Over time, you got used to Donald Trump’s style. You have never accepted it, because seeing a President of the United States behave in this way is unacceptable, but you have done the only thing you can do: keep moving forward, hoping for a renewal in 2020.

That renewal came in the U.S. presidential election of 2020. On November 3, 2020, tens of millions of Americans came out to vote for the president who would have the heavy burden of guiding the country for the next four years.

Facing Donald Trump stood Joe Biden.

This veteran of American politics has emerged over the months as the only chance to put the disastrous experience of Donald Trump as President of the United States. This American presidential election turned into an anti-Trump referendum.

The big question that was put to the American people was therefore whether they chose to continue the Donald Trump adventure, or whether they made the decision to choose democracy by voting for Joe Biden.

On November 7, 2020, the results were announced as usual by the major American media, including the Associated Press. Joe Biden would become the next President of the United States. The numbers don’t lie. They are relentless in this election.

Joe Biden gets 306 electors against 232 to Donald Trump. If the expected blue wave did not take place, Joe Biden won a great victory with 77 million votes against 72 million to Donald Trump.

While it is customary for the defeated candidate to concede defeat quickly by congratulating the winner of the presidential election, Donald Trump once again decided to act differently from everyone else. While the results have been known for almost a week now, Donald Trump is multiplying his appeals.

Its supporters have filed lawsuits in several states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada. The reason given? The one that Donald Trump had already been talking about for months.

The election would have been marred by massive frauds. Of course, Donald Trump is unable to prove those. He can’t prove them, because these frauds never took place. Joe Biden was elected honestly, and he is completely legitimate.

Donald Trump has requested recounts in several swing states. To finance these recounts, he launched donation campaigns. Emails arrive non-stop in the mailboxes of his supporters, as well as Facebook messages.

Donald Trump’s strategy begins to emerge when we dig a little deeper to see where the money collected is being redirected. The money goes to “Save America”, a political action committee formed on Monday that aims to pay for Donald Trump’s post-presidential election operations.

If Donald Trump refuses to concede defeat, it is primarily to serve his own interests.

Donald Trump wants to continue to weigh in. To do so, he must convince his Republican voters that Joe Biden is not legitimate. Reading the latest polls, this is starting to work, since 70% of Republicans say they believe that Joe Biden was not honestly elected.

Under these conditions, there is a great risk that they will not recognize him as the legitimate President of the United States.

However, Joe Biden is legitimate. Joe Biden was elected through the democratic process which is the very foundation of the United States. The one who attacks this democracy is Donald Trump.

You may be accustomed to all of Donald Trump’s dubious behavior, but this time you must react and not let him trap you into undermining Joe Biden’s upcoming presidency. With a Republican Senate that is likely to prevent Joe Biden from carrying out his ambitious reforms, Donald Trump can continue to carry weight in the GOP.

His 72 million votes give him even more comfort. Trumpism is an enduring revolution that is now at the heart of the Republican Party. Donald Trump wants to embody his ideas over the next four years so that he can take his revenge in 2024.

Everything he is currently doing is aimed at enabling him to move towards this goal. For Donald Trump, the 2024 presidential election has already begun. In order to protect his chances by keeping his base loyal and united around him, Donald Trump is ready to trample on democracy.

The problem is that this kind of attitude endangers democracy in the long run. Contrary to what many believe, democracy can never be taken for granted. As citizens, we must all fight to preserve it.

Before he died in July 2020, Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis had written an essay that he hoped would be read on the day of his funeral. The New York Times then published this essay that will go down in history.

Here are John Lewis’ strong words about the precarious side of democracy:

“Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.” — John Lewis

This essay was there to remind all American citizens, but also those around the world, that they must seize the opportunity to vote in an election.

The vote is the most powerful non-violent agent of change in a democracy.

Voting in large numbers in this 2020 presidential election, American citizens have embraced John Lewis’ legacy message. Their choice was Joe Biden.

Donald Trump is trying to attack the very foundations of American democracy through his current behavior. As a citizen, you should denounce his behavior, and force him to concede defeat. This is the attitude that you also have a right to expect from your political representatives, whether they are Democrats or Republicans.

This is the only way to preserve democracy in the United States and elsewhere in the world. By recognizing the legitimacy of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, you are making the only valid choice: that of democracy.

This is what is at stake in what is currently happening before our eyes with Donald Trump’s embarrassing behavior.