Aziz Huq Writes About the Remains of Democracy After the 2024 Presidential Election
PS Roundtable: The Return of Trump
After the 2020 US election, it took days for major news networks to project the winner of the presidential race, and many more weeks for Americans – and the world – to know if there would be a peaceful and orderly transition of power. There wasn’t. The incumbent, Donald Trump, conspired to overturn the results, and then encouraged a mob of his followers to storm the US Capitol.
In 2024, Americans – and the world – have been spared that agonizing uncertainty, but will now confront instability in a more virulent form, because voters in the United States have handed Trump (now a convicted felon) and his party a decisive victory. How did it happen, and what does the outcome portend? Below, Project Syndicate commentators consider what another Trump presidency will mean for the US and global economies, domestic policy, and the future of democracy.
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Aziz Huq
Americans voted for their pocketbooks and not with their conscience. Among the values set aside in the 2024 presidential election were humanity, decency, democracy, and the rule of law.
It may seem paradoxical, or even contradictory, to say that “democracy” lost in a vote that yielded, if nothing else, a clear snapshot of popular sentiment and a corresponding presidential choice. But there is nothing odd, or incoherent, about saying that a democratic choice can undermine democracy – the twentieth century saw a lot of that. It is entirely possible for a polity to choose a candidate or party that has demonstrated, and then loudly reiterated, its refusal to abide by the established rules of democratic competition, and its determination to use the awesome power of the government to overwhelm or handicap its opponents.
The now thoroughly Trumpian Republican Party has shown no hesitation in using rhetoric and violence that scorns the idea of mutual tolerance and forbearance. Expect that political movement to entrench itself in, and transform, the federal government into a tool not just for its policies but more generally for its enduring hegemony. Expect the rule of law to be bent increasingly into an instrument for turning whim into command, without any prospect that power will be bridled in ways that make it predictable rather than arbitrary.
There will be talk in the coming weeks or months about whether America’s democratic institutions are likely to prove resilient. It is important to observe that these institutions have already failed an important test: There are a range of legal mechanisms that are meant to prevent an incumbent president from violating the public’s trust, and existing laws, to stay in power. Impeachment, disqualification for “insurrection” or “rebellion,” and criminal prosecution – all failed. They failed as a means to bolt in the rule of law. And they failed as signals of unfitness for office.
On the back of that failure, the public has now repudiated those votes against Donald Trump by using their own votes to re-elect him. What remains may be resilient, but whether it is enough to count as “democracy” remains to be seen.
Read more at Project Syndicate