Trump bids farewell with another assault on democracy by carlos matÍAS
The assault on the Capitol by Donald Trump’s supporters, encouraged by Trump himself, has not been the last one in a long list of anti-democratic actions, perpetrated by “the worst president of the United States” throughout its History, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, former governor of California from 2003 to 2011, is not the only Republican who has used harsh words to describe how this billionaire businessman who achieved his electoral success thanks to the rise of populism in the world has performed. Before the Austrian-American actor, other top-level Republicans spoke out, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State; Chuck Hagel, former Senator from Nebraska; Charlie Dent, former representative from Pennsylvania, and a very long list that includes former President Bush and even Trump’s own Vice President, Mike Pence.
We say that the savage assault on the Capitol, the seat of democracy in the United States, which resulted in five deaths and an undetermined number of wounded people, is the “second to last chapter” in the “darkest history” of this great country, because the last one will be on January 20, when President-elect Joe Biden takes office in the absence of the still President Trump.
What happened to “America First”, Trump’s campaign slogan? Under his presidency, our country has walked out from, broken or seriously damaged major global pacts and international bilateral agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Economic Cooperation Agreement (three days after taking office); the Paris Agreement on Climate Change; UNESCO; the UN Global Compact on Migration and Refugees; the Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) signed with Russia; the Nuclear Agreement with Iran (a country which, by the way, he has recently wanted to attack and was prevented from doing so by Congress); the UN Human Rights Council; the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees…The list is endless.
Trump has distinguished himself by backtracking on the great global consensuses and has shattered the United States’ good international reputation as a serious country that could be trusted to deliver on its commitments. Joe Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, have a hard job ahead of them in rebuilding this shattered reputation. But they also have a hard job of reconciling and neutralizing the tension that Trump has instilled in his exalted and mindless supporters, including the white supremacists who are heirs to the Ku Klux Klan, a group who also wrote one of the most shameful episodes in our History last century.
The greatness of this country makes it capable of overcoming stages like the one that is about to end, starring a Donald Trump who is no longer wanted around by the Republicans or even the neighbors of the luxury Florida residence that he himself built. He has already been reminded in a letter that he will not be able to stay there as a permanent resident. A new and very optimistic stage is opening. But the political parties, both Republican and Democratic (especially now, the Republican Party) will have to take good note and implement measures to prevent a person unworthy of reaching the White House from running again under their name as a presidential candidate. And it is time to ask for accountability, political and criminal, for the possible crimes that Trump may have committed.
