Tayo Oke(drtayooke@gmail.com)
In an off-the-cuff remark regarding the Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza (1937-1947, 1950-1956), the United States President, Franklin D Roosevelt (1933-1945), said something about Somoza, who had lived in the US before returning to his country to lead a US-backed coup which toppled President Adolfo Diaz. Thereafter, Somosa captured and ruled Nicaragua with an iron grip, so brute that it attracted rare condemnations across the normally placid neighbouring Latin American countries and beyond. Somosa had been hell-bent on turning Nicaragua into an outpost of the US. However, when the disquiet and murmuring about him started swirling around the corridors of power in Washington too much, Roosevelt was said to have snapped: “He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he is our son-of-a-bitch”. Today, in America, there are many people within and outside the Liberal establishment, who are so disdainful of current US President, Donald Trump, so much that they see his cantankerous approach to political debate, and his lackadaisical attitude towards national security matters as simply madness. Meanwhile, conservative America; the hinterland in the suburbs, and the few dedicated core of Trump’s “Right-Wing” supporters; his “base”, understand the tempestuous streak in him. They see a method in the “madness”, and would not be swayed from their resolute loyalty. A case of; “He may be mad, but he is our mad man”? They see through the dusty political wind blowing across their faces, and are happy with what they view as the bold steps Trump is taking to “make America great again”. They are wrong.
First, let us highlight some of Donald Trump’s notable achievements and see how they represent a vindication of the loyal support he enjoys. His anti-immigration rhetoric during the election has been given effect in the building of a partial wall along the US-Mexico borderland. He has relentlessly and deliberately been reversing almost all of his predecessor (President Barack Obama)’s signature achievements: path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, tighter regulation of the financial markets, Paris Climate Change Accord, the Iran Nuclear Deal Agreement, etc. The administration has tried several times but failed to dismantle the ”Affordable Care Act”, widely seen as the most audacious legislative act in America this century, and President Obama’s most important accomplishment in office. It guarantees health coverage for millions of Americans previously left out. Trump has given licence to oil companies to continue digging for new oilfields, contrary to the stance taken by the previous administration. He has aligned himself with Saudi Arabia, culminating in a multi-billion dollar arms deal, and creating thousands of jobs for Americans. He stopped short of condemning the Saudis for the wanton killing of one of their own citizens, the US-based Washington Post correspondent, Jamal Khashoggi; pulled the US troops out of Syria without consulting allies; renegotiated trade deals with Canada, and Mexico; tearing up the previous North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement negotiated by his two predecessors; slammed high tariffs on China for “taking advantage of America” by building trade surplus to the detriment of the US workers, nominated and pushed through the appointments of conservative Justices onto the Supreme Court, with a view to reversing the US liberal abortion laws at some point in the future. Most of all, he drove a major tax cut legislation through the formerly Republican-led Congress, largely favouring the top three per cent of earners in a “trickle down” economic strategy.
The US economy has since been booming, creating jobs, and the stock market skyrocketing, although 45% of Americans do not own stocks. The tax cut has pushed up the country’s budget deficit from $19tn to $22tn. This used to be a major point of fierce economic debate under the previous administration, but now, no one really cares, it seems. Tax receipts from the booming economy will eventually help offset the budget gap, so the thinking goes. Only last week, the Trump administration announced an end to “birth tourism”; a liberal visa regime, which basically allowed pregnant women from any part of the globe to enter the US for the sole purpose of giving birth, leading to automatic citizenship as it does, to anyone born on American soil. All of these policy initiatives are what make Trump unimpeachable in the eyes of his supporters, even if he was caught at a crime scene with his hand soaked in the victim’s blood.
Surprisingly, Trump is not short of admirers amongst Africans, and even amongst African-Americans in the US itself, in spite of his unabashed racist utterances. Despite trashing the African continent as “shithole”, including talking of how “lifeless” the Nigerian President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), looked on his visit to the White House last year, he has, nonetheless, built up a sizable fan base amongst the African political and business elite. Why is this? The reason is simpler than it appears. Trump’s faults aside, he has managed to tap into the African nostalgic yearning for patriotic leadership; one who would act to put their country first, hence, their willingness to forgive what they see as his “loose tongue” on occasions. The US President had once boasted that he could stand on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (the White House), shoot someone dead, and he would get away with it. Something, somehow, makes this crass conjecture possible. This is a President who was impeached by the House of Representatives, but acquitted by the Senate last week of the most egregious breaches of national security and abuse of power in the US history. If this was happening in Africa, we would naturally put it down to financial “settlements” of the protagonists, or “silencing” of the opposition. This is clearly not the case in the US. So, why is it proving difficult to hold Trump to account for his numerous misdeeds?
The answer lies in how individuals conceive the United States of America. America is a country, but it is also an idea. America as a country; “rags to riches” mind-set, self-interested individualism; “America first” syndrome, is what Trump (who built a life-long career in real estate), is marketing to his compatriots and the rest of the world. America as an idea; Republicanism and Constitutionalism do not resonate with Trump what-so-ever. The rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances, restraint on executive discretion are time-honoured Republican ideals for which Trump has no patience. Also, the idea of America as a “shiny city on a hill”, beacon of hope and liberty; American exceptionalism, are all rooted in its enduring constitution. The Statute of Liberty on prominent display in the New-York harbour says it all.
Supporters of Trump conflate America as a country and America as an idea. That is a tragic mistake. They have been sold only the spirit of, and indeed, bought into America as a country. America as an idea is a bitter pill to swallow for the core Trump supporters especially at times of economic hardship. And, for a transactional President such as Trump, it is easier to lead America as a country, than it is to lead America as an idea. In an ideal world though, a combination of both is what the Presidency should be all about. It requires tenacity to principles and high moral values which cannot easily be reduced to the outcomes of today’s trade negotiations, and commercial agreements. It also requires painful sacrifices for the higher goal of liberty and individual freedom across borders. Trump and his legion of supporters clearly think there is a trade-off between the two. In so doing, America has become just another country in some part of the world. That is a pity, because attempts by successive US administrations to acknowledge, if not live up to, the founding of America and its timeless values is precisely what makes it greater than any others.
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