The value of democracy
- Tom Van Mierlo
- Feb 28, 2021
- 3 min read
Originally posted: 19th November 2020
“I told the president-elect he can count on complete cooperation as he makes the transition to the White House”. What else could President Bush say in 2008 after Barack Obama and his team got 365 electoral votes, marking an impressive election victory? While Bush might have been disappointed that the democratic party won the election over Republican candidate John McCain, he still chose to abide by the rules of the game and accept the election results. In Bush’s own words: “Across the country, citizens voted in large numbers, they showed a watching world the vitality of America’s democracy and the strides we have made towards a more perfect union”.
Now that, in 2020, the legitimacy of president-elect Biden’s victory has been called into question by President Trump, we, from Amnesty, want to take a moment to reflect on what this means for the aforementioned “vitality of America’s democracy”.
At its core, the ideal of democracy is held together by values, by those principles based on which we separate right and wrong. Core democratic values are freedom, equality, and cooperation. In 2018, the Pew Research Center published data on the attitudes of American citizens to statements closely related to democratic values, which are attached to this post. The reason for writing this article is that these statements, which are by most Americans perceived to be very important for their country, are not at all reflected in the rhetoric of President Trump, which draws into question the impact of his presidency on democracy in the US.
In the past four years, the US has started to become dominated by a winner takes all mentality, negatively impacting the opportunities of the average American to succeed. The Atlantic reports that by invoking a culture of fear, Trump has drawn out the worst in people, increasing the animosity towards minority ethnic and religious groups and towards humanity in general. “We have to keep the enemy out” he appears to say, where the enemy is everyone who is not voting for him. Working together with democrats on issues? No, they are enemies who are trying to steal the election. While there is no proof to substantiate such claims, these words are like poison infecting the minds of people loyal to the president. Trump believes that elected officials should be punished for misconduct, but only when they are not on his team. Trump believes in a transparent government when it suits him, he believes in the right to peaceful protest when it suits him, he believes in facts when it suits him, he believes in independent news organisations when it suits him and he believes in democracy when it suits him.
But that is the thing with values: they are not relative to the whims of changing personal interests. Values provide the foundation for the separation between right and wrong, informing our judgements. Democracy is important not because it will produce the best outcomes for me in every situation, it is important because I believe in human rights and the values of freedom, equality and cooperation that follow. Without values, we are lost. President Trump is showing a complete lack of values and is only consistent at favouring his inner circle and most of all himself. By drawing the election results into question he has shown his disregard for a system that all previous presidents held dear: democracy. Trump has shown himself willing to sacrifice the connecting principle of a country for private gain. Division, fear and hate are the result of a president whose only value is to put himself above anyone else. In the words of President Bush in 2008, Americans “chose a president whose journey represents a triumph of the American story, a testament to hard work, optimism, and faith in the enduring promise of our nation.” By drawing its foundational values and the democratic system into question, President Trump has defaced that promise and replaced it with a new one in which America is not one but two.
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