The Atlantic: A Disgusting Night for Democracy
Toyin Falola
A Disgusting Night for Democracy
Donald Trump made it so, and Chris Wallace let him.
Read in The Atlantic: https://apple.news/AzS8XdNGNTr6y8gVw3rfbZg
Shared from Apple News
Emmanuel Udogu
Opinion: American Democracy
In a way, “Charles Taylor syndrome” is what the current political situation in America illustrates. Taylor, the warlord and former president of Liberia, literally told fellow Liberians that if the country failed to elect him president, he would sow chaos in the country. In the final analysis exhausted by the political instability in the country, many Liberians voted for him not because he was the best candidate but because the electorate wanted stability.
Indeed, President Trump since 2016 has been promising fire and brimstone if not elected and reelected. The president’s political tactics for staying in power are somewhat similar to those of Taylor in that he threatens the political stability of the country. He has claimed that elections in America are rigged; has discouraged Americans from going to the polls; has questioned the legitimacy of the forthcoming election; and has indirectly encouraged his supporters to take up arms should he be defeated in November, inter alia. These strategies (unlike the outcome of Charles Taylor’s in Liberia) will not work because of the political sophistication of American electorate.
Additionally, Trump claims to be the best president America has ever produced since 1776. Thus, he probably cannot fathom why Americans should dare to vote him out of power. The theatrics in Tuesday’s debate bares my preceding theory out. The debate flabbergasted me. It was the worst I have watched in over thirty years. Uncomfortably, to paraphrase a popular saying, “it takes a century to build up one’s reputation and just a day to destroy it.” I hope and pray we have not gotten to this point in American history and politics.
I am watching on PBS the 100th anniversary of “The fight for women’s suffrage.” It reminds me, too, of the 1960s civil rights struggles for freedom. To see the hard fought democracy that Americans won through blood, sweat and tears suffocated in this way troubles most students of democracy.
Here is hoping that all Americans, regardless of political ideology, will fix the contemporary threat to democracy this November.
Ike Udogu
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Harrow, Kenneth
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2020 4:58 PM
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Atlantic: A Disgusting Night for Democracy