By Theodore Dzeble
“The American president was the quintessential repository of stately virtue, democracy, legitimacy, wealth, elegance, majesty, and freedom! Like the women of Jerusalem who cast down their garments on the highways for Christ’s motorcade, American presidents before Trump enjoyed such audacity of praise that even the angels coveted!”
Since 1788 when the Constitution of the United States of America was adopted (it was the very first formal blueprint of modern democracy), America’s democratic governance, (albeit unfolding in stages) became the city on the hill that inspired all leaders and nation-states. America was the dream everyone wanted to experience.
Through
deliberate foreign policy, and working with allies in Europe, Asia, and Africa,
America would spend many years of tax payer’s money and the blood of its
citizens to defend the ideals of freedom, democracy, justice, equality, and the
rule of law in foreign lands. Its mission then was to create a new world order
based on equal rights and justice for all.
America
was the city on the hill that the oppressed people the world overlooked up to
for deliverance. She was our Uncle Sam, the big brother we depended on to ward
off the threats of Communism, political illegitimacy, social injustice,
economic tyranny, repression and authoritarianism in every form!
In
my youthful days, it was a spectacle, indeed an impossible miracle for an
American president to visit a residual country. When President Obama or his
predecessor, President Bush landed on the shores of Ghana several years ago,
they received such thunderous welcome, exaltation and general acclamation
preserved only for liberators and saviors of the people!
The
American president was the quintessential repository of stately virtue,
democracy, legitimacy, wealth, elegance, majesty and freedom! Like the women of
Jerusalem who cast down their garments on the highways for Christ’s motorcade,
American presidents before Trump enjoyed such audacity of praise that even the
angels coveted!
I
am not sure about that now! Donald Trump has almost completely obliterated any
lofty consideration we used to have for these long queues of immortal American
freedom fighters! Suddenly, over two centuries of American democratic idealism
seems to be on the verge of extinction under the watchful supervision of Donald
Trump! This President has been accused of every vice conceivable by the
imagination, including exploiting institutional loopholes to augment his
business interests.
But
that is not all. After surviving impeachment last year for actively courting
foreign interference in American elections to bolster his re-election bid, the
President has come under fire for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic
which has led to the death of over 200 000 Americans. The President himself,
together with a tall list of his most trusted White House Staff have all been torched
by the rampaging virus, turning the revered seat of government into a national
emergency unit.
Unpopular
with the mainstream media, and fearing a possible walloping defeat in the
November polls, he has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power to Joe
Biden, if he loses the elections.
His
recent criticisms of mail-in voting and his scandalous request to his base to
vote twice in the elections is every way and every breath contrary to his
obtuse philosophy of making America great again! Indeed, Donald Trump would not
condemn the Proud Boys, a far-right, neo-fascist, male-only group that promotes
political violence in America and Canada. When asked to openly condemn the
organization, he denied he even knew about them!
The
visual of heavily armed soldiers loaded in huge military armor vehicles
shoving, pushing, and tear-gassing peaceful protesters on the streets of the
White House is a relic of dictatorship familiar with oppressive, fascist,
communist, and totalitarian regimes. To unleash the National Guards on peaceful
protesters is a reminder that no democracy, no matter how perfect, is immune
from retrogression!
And
yet despite his iniquities (both great and small) Trump still enjoys formidable
support among evangelicals who perceive him as the friend of God and enemy to
the enemies of God!
So
what would become of Ghana and this Republic in the advent of the emergence of
a local Trump in our national politics? I shudder at the thought! Ghana has
been blessed with some astute politicians who have put love for the country
over and above all other parochialisms since the advent of the Fourth republic!
But with a profusion of iniquities and a thousand and one loopholes in our
28-year-old Constitution, the emergence of a local Trump could sabotage our democracy.
There is enough fodder in our Constitution to ignite such a vexation! Look to America, my people!
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