Democracy in crisis – VG

In this election campaign, it is very clear that the electoral system of the Americans is not good enough. Donald Trump lost the election four years ago by nearly 3 million votes, but he still became president. If he is president again, which at this point seems unlikely, it will surely also be with a minority of votes behind him. Now there is an incipient debate about the electoral system that makes it possible.

Holding a presidential election amid a pandemic has also highlighted other weaknesses in the system. Republican politicians in states like Texas and Florida have implemented measures that will obviously make voting more difficult. Democratic voters in particular are affected by this. Young, poor, African-Americans, and other minorities. This is not a new problem. But now it’s getting more attention.

Trump distance

Trump has devastated the Republican Party. It has been depressing to see how almost all of his fellow party members have bowed their heads and accepted everything the president has said and done.

Trump has turned the party that cares about as little public debt as possible, as little status as possible, and as much international trade as possible, into the exact opposite. He ended trade agreements and went to trade war against close allies. Under Trump’s leadership, America’s debt has increased dramatically – government spending has skyrocketed. It speaks of the opposite of a smaller state.

Thus, several high-profile Republicans have distanced themselves from Trump, either publicly or more in the background. Some hope in their calm minds that Trump will lose the election, so that they can begin to rebuild the party to what they want it to be. But … it has been a long time since the Republican Party began to move away from the political center of the United States towards a more aggressive and populist right-wing party.

With Trump out of the White House, Trump’s critics in the Republican Party will still get a slightly easier job. If, on the other hand, Trump has four new years in the White House, the Republican Party will likely be even more destroyed than it already is.

Easier to kick

That outcome will also lead to the United States we know further undermined. Trump has consistently weakened, during his years in power, the institutions that lead this country. Last week, the Washington Post reported on the work that has been going on in the White House for a long time, which will allow the president to fire public officials and women with whom he is dissatisfied.

America basically has a lot more politically appointed bureaucrats than we do in Norway. Around 4,000 people follow the president in and out of elections. These are purely political appointments. However, these still represent only a very small proportion of the total number of public servants and women. That workforce consists of more than two million people and includes bureaucrats, investigators, and diplomats.

There are many of these people that Trump and his people now want to make it easier to kick. It is currently unclear what proportion the new directive will cover. It is estimated that everything from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of officials and women.

Derogatory comments

There is little doubt that the changes are really about being able to elect people who are loyal to the president, and not having to deal with professionals who come up with their independent advice and recommendations. A politicization of the civil service, contrary to American culture and tradition.

Fewer and fewer decent people choose to join the Trump administration. That’s right, with a leader who does what he pleases, adhering to neither basic democratic principles nor good manners.

This becomes a self-reinforcing process, where those who imagined making an effort for the nation, walk away seeing how they have fared with others who have tried. Many of Trump’s former employees have been fired, accompanied by disparaging and harassing comments and tweets from the president.

Even the Supreme Court is up for grabs after Trump’s nearly four years in power. For many years there has been a political dispute over appointments to the Supreme Court. With the inauguration of Amy Coney Barrett as the new Supreme Court Justice, this has been taken to a new and even more fiery level. Contrary to tradition and earlier promises by Republicans, Trump and his people lobbied Barrett just eight days before the election.

Hope? yes

Some Democrats have responded to this by proposing that they increase the number of Supreme Court justices if they win. If Democrats start such a process, it could further compromise the credibility of the entire Supreme Court. The United States is a society founded on law and order. People must be sure that judges make their decisions based on legal considerations. The more political games around the Supreme Court, the lower the confidence of most people.

So where is the hope in all of this? The hope is that Americans have always emerged stronger from national crises. And they have had many of them. A bloody civil war in the 1860s. Fight for civil rights, Vietnam War, Nixon and Watergate. And many more.

But as a rule it should be dark and gloomy before the Americans get together and clean up. It’s pretty dark now. Many things have gone wrong in recent years. You may need to get a little worse before you get better.

But the Americans have risen before. They will do it again.