Donald Trump’s triumphs and Bernie Sanders’s successes have opened a can of worms already gnawing at the core of democracy as it is understood and practiced around the world.
So far, the US election looks like a circus trying to entertain rather than a democratic contest of alternatives to structure social, economic and political life in the world’s most influential nation around policies that supporters of each contestant can fight for.
Trump provokes incredulity and some guffaws while Sanders seeds twinges of the heart by evoking dreams of fairness that no nation has ever reached and few social philosophers think attainable.
Each might incite passions and fierce fervor among slices of America’s electorate and some onlookers around the world. But the damage being inflicted to the example and practice of democracy is enormous.
This damage is not easily reparable. The risk now is that the Trump, Sanders and Hilary Clinton mud fights will defame American democracy so profoundly as to push others towards alternatives allowing the authoritarian Chinese and Russian systems to gain admirers across the world.
Worse still, more admiration for the unfolding nightmare of totalitarian theocratic systems similar to Iran or the Islamic State no longer seems farfetched especially if American democracy persists in covering itself in disrepute.
Now Trump is demonstrating that making America great again is a pipe dream since President Trump would have little of the greatness of character capable of bestowing prestige upon America as a nation or stirring admiration for the American people.
Sanders is demonstrating that the future we can believe in will have a Democratic Party that we can no longer believe in because the loathing of Hilary Clinton he deliberately stokes among his loyalists will make the fissures too deep to be papered over.
Most countries practice democracy as best they can and sometimes against great odds. They have long admired and sought to emulate the two party system that has formed the bedrock of US democracy since the American Constitution’s birth.
Suddenly, Trump and Sanders are punching gaping holes into the two-party system. Their populist pugilism from the right and left has badly fragmented America’s bedrock.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties may not remain much more than sieves bereft of even fig leaves of policy platforms that kept each party unified within predictable parameters for decades.
Absent those platforms, neither party would inspire the loyalty that comes from people rallying around ideas they admire to form communities capable of advancing their standard bearers inside America or in other countries.
There is nothing admirable about the Clinton camp’s rage at Sanders’ tenacity despite her convincing lead in delegate numbers or his derision of her qualifications and claim at CNN on Thursday that there was “no way” she would lose the nomination to him.
Rowdiness at the recent Nevada state convention and Clinton’s waffling over the booby-trapped Sanders call for a debate ahead of California’s primary on June 7 add to concerns about the Democratic Party’s future cohesion.
Despite her obvious superiority over Trump as an experienced leader, Clinton is still struggling to be perceived as a more trustworthy person or convince her Party and its usual supporters to cross the chasms carved by Sanders to jointly face Trump.
Even if Trump manages to coalesce the Republican Party establishment, many still loathe him and would come on board only to avoid another Democratic Presidency. That underlines the fragility of his campaign’s foundations and potential presidency.
Only US citizens vote in American elections but they are also the world’s elections because their results touch all crannies of humankind, since the US military, corporations and currency dominate the globe.
No country, not even powerful China and Russia, lies beyond the reach of financial pain imposed by US Presidents and Congress, the predations of American corporations or the menace of US military power.
Many countries aspire to democracy, some are struggling to stabilize it and others like China and Russia are promoting alternative models of governance to erode American influence by attracting nations towards their authoritarian alternatives.
The denouement of US elections so far offers few inspiring signals to the vast majority of peoples struggling under governments that give them little or no influence over how they are ruled.
photo credit: can of worms via photopin (license)