How America survived the Presidential Coup?

 

 

 

How America survived the Presidential Coup?

On President Xi Jinping getting his term extended for life by the Chinese Parliament National People’s Congress in 2018, President Donald Trump praised him, expressing a wish that he could do that: “I think it’s great. May be we’ll have to give that a shot someday”. That demonstrated his personal ambition of clinging to power somehow.

January 6, 2021, will go as the darkest day in the history of America. Ever since Trump lost the Presidential race for the second term, he refused to concede the defeat, falsely claiming Joe Biden stolen the victory through fraudulent means.  He filed more than 60 law suits in several courts challenging the election, which were dismissed. As a last resort he pressurized the Secretary of State Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to invent votes for him to nullify Biden’s victory and asked Vice President Mike Pence to overrule the verdict. They refused to oblige him.  Having thus failed to discredit the victory of Biden, he addressed a rally of his supporters in Washington DC, that day, exhorting them to march on the Capital. And thousands of armed thugs sieged the Building, when the two Houses of the Congress-House of Representatives and  Senate- were holding a joint session to certify Biden’s win, and ransacked the Offices of the Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Vice President, forcing the lawmakers to flee.  Fortunately, the Aids carried the boxes containing the Electoral College Certificates, making sure the vandals could not steal the election results.

 It was a Coup. The violent mob saw it as a last-ditch, desperate attempt to overturn Biden’s victory.  Anything could have happened; a worst case scenario would have been that of heavily armed extremists taking control of the Congress and the military intervening. The vehicles with arms, ammunition, pipe-bombs and molotov cocktails found in the vicinity added to the anxiety of what could have happened that fateful day.  In the clashes between the rioters and the police, five persons, including a police officer, were killed and several persons injured.  Trump called the armed thugs “American patriots”.

This could happen in the oldest democracy, not in a banana republic of the third world, was indeed shocking and unbelievable. It was a new low in the history of America. The assault on the Capitol was an assault on democracy. America witnessed the bloodshed, because Trump, the demagogue, chose to spread falsehood and sow distrust of his own fellow Americans, making provocative speeches all the time and stoking the racial prejudices.  George Washington, the first American President, had foreseen this:”The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”

The most important transformation under Trump has been “the institutionalization of the infrastructure of hate and demagoguery across institutions, from media to civil society… a touch of cultural nihilism”, says Pratap Bhanu Mehta. The political analysts hold the view that Coups take place only in the third world developing countries, as seen in our neighboring countries -Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar- and in Afro-Asian countries and not in advanced countries of the first world. That notion is proved wrong. The Coup, staged by the President, had failed because of absence of military. Nevertheless, it was an attempt to force the Congress to overturn the victory of Biden.   

In a system of governance that expected to provide checks and balances, the Republican Party proved disturbingly unable to step up the task of reining in Trump.  Its silence in the face of his repeated assertions that the election was stolen from him became a tacit acceptance of his false claim, encouraging him to attempt to subvert the democratic process. The US process of electing the President is too cumbersome and time consuming. It needs immediate reform to avoid the repeat of what had happened and insulate the election process in future. The attack on the Capitol demonstrates the failure of the Police. Some of the Police officials were seen taking SELFIES with the rioters as if in appreciation of the storming the citadel of liberty. How could the rioters run amok in the halls of the Congress? The police sounded partisan, compared to the brute force they used against the peaceful protesters of ‘Black Lives Matter’, a few months back.

How could America survive the Presidential Coup? The credit goes to the US political ecosystem and its inherent resilience, the commitment to both constitutional principles and rule of law.  First, the independence and integrity of Judiciary.  Although the Supreme Court was packed by conservative judges appointed by Trump, it refused to entertain his false cases challenging the election of Biden. He was boasting that many of judges in federal courts appointed by him would come to his rescue. However, the Courts acted promptly and decisively and dismissed all his cases, as based on unsubstantiated claims and charges. The Courts defined the permissible limits of politics.  Second, though many States were ruled by the Republicans, they acted in a non-partisan manner and refused to be pressurized by Trump. The swing States, particularly Arizona and Georgia- which have Republican Governments- did not bow to the pressure of Trump, choosing legal propriety over partisanship. Third, the Fourth Estate rose to the occasion, the media backing Biden and denouncing the highhanded tactics of Trump. Even the social media platforms like Face Book, Twitter, Instagram and You Tube blocked Trump’s accounts to prevent incitement to violence. And lastly, it was the US Congress which had shown a remarkable resilience and bipartisan spirit, displaying a rare resolve to uphold the constitution, with the close and trusted Republicans turning against Trump, and condemned the deadly attack on the soul of American democracy. It resumed the session, within the hours, sat past midnight and discharged its constitutional responsibility, confirming the victory of Biden in the wee- hours.  It was the ultimate triumph of Democracy.

There is a striking resemblance between the two largest democracies- India and America- as far as the political developments are concerned.  Both the countries have witnessed the rise of authoritarianism, posing serious threat to liberal democracy.  Indian democracy too is under siege: (a) the right wing Hindu extremists and rabble rousers in India, like the white extremists in America, represent hatred and violence, polarizing and spreading communal discord; (b) Moditva, like Trumpism, is  about capturing power and then sustaining and perpetuating power by adapting questionable means; (c) contempt for opposition and intolerance of any dissent; (d) undermining Parliament and Parliamentary Institutions; (e) a muzzled media and (f) the  judiciary’s reluctance to intervene and check the abuse of executive power- these are some pointers that democracy in India is not secure. And, unlike in America, we do not see the institutional integrity in India to defend the constitutional democracy and uphold the rule of law.

Trump’s actions are dictated by ideological and personal motives. His commitment to a political order that restores white supremacy and the fear, that once out of power, he might be prosecuted for crimes-  on charges of tax fraud,  corruption, abuse of power and violation of campaign fiancé laws. And now he faces the most serious charge of incitement of insurrection. The pressure is building on him to resign or face a fast-track impeachment, as he is seen increasingly unpredictable, capable of creating fresh trouble before he demits office on January 20.  Nancy Pelosi spoke to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley,“to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable President for initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes” for nuclear strike, as she said the situation of “this unhinged President could not be more dangerous.” The President is  the Head of the nuclear command authority and is ‘the finger on the button”. The codes are contained in a briefcase carried by an Aide who is always in close proximity to the President.