As Hillary Clinton prepares her own ascension next week, the rise of inflammatory fear-monger Donald Trump was not the scariest thing last week for foreign observers of the current democratic process in America.
Rather, it was the astonishing collapse of ethics in Republican Party leaders and their unbridled greed for power at any cost to their own reputations and America’s prestige in the world.
The deep question now is whether the Democratic Party establishment stands at the threshold of comparable intellectual bankruptcy.
This cannot be ruled out since it seems ground down between the left wing radicalism of Bernie Sanders and Clinton’s somewhat plaintive cries of “Choose me because Trump is an ogre!”.
The worrisome dearth continues of positive arguments capable of overwhelming Trump’s demagoguery of fear, discord and hate.
Trump has conquered the Republican establishment’s elites, the people he most disdains, judging among other things from the 2016 Republican Party Platform’s apparent entitlement to stand above the US Constitution.
This startling scorn for the Constitution and the inalienable rights central to its protections gives much cause for new concern about where the American people are headed.
Governments around the world will have to review their takes on US democracy and the venerable Republican Party since the Constitution underpins America’s entire legal and governance systems and serves as a model for more than half the world’s republics.
“Veni, vidi, vinci” sums up Trump’s extraordinary performance judging by the rapturous applause, decibel levels and unprecedented length of his acceptance speech at the RNC.
The adulation was remarkable because his speech was composed mainly of staccato shouts, frequent incoherence and non sequiturs. although he did try to sound more Presidential by toning down some of his usually florid rhetoric.
The authoritarian Presidents of Russia and China, and scores of theological and other autocrats in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere must be rubbing their eyes with amazement at the choices America’s conservative voters prefer. They will jig with glee if November favors Trump.
Clinton might win in November because some may vote for anyone other than Trump. But the Republican Party with its almost theological, nativist, isolationist and protectionist Platform may block her every move during her four years.
The new gridlocks at Capitol Hill could be far shriller and “politically incorrect” than during President Barack Obama’s two terms and some sections of the Bill Clinton presidency.
There are many theses about why Trump is so admired and Clinton has so few fervent acolytes. Perhaps he says out loud what others merely dare to think.
Some opine that the populism, nativism and distaste for the ways of immigrants apparently fueling Trump’s engines may soon spread to France, Holland, Britain and several other European countries, including Scandinavia, Greece, Central and Eastern Europe.
Whatever happens across the great pond would not mitigate the damage to America’s reputation and its foreign policy. The greatness that Trump and his supporters pine for depends on dozens of sovereign countries in Europe and elsewhere working in favor of US positions rather than being opponents overtly or covertly in their regions.
It is quite conceivable that many of those countries will quietly turn against the economic, financial, social and military order that the US has lead mostly through compromise since the 1950s.
They will do so not because of Trump. If he is democratically elected, all governments will try of work with his administration.
But his election will have bared the weakness of the American people for all to see. The US military would continue to be the world’s most powerful and its economy the richest, most innovative and diverse – far beyond any competitor.
But the 2016 Republican Party Platform and Trump’s election on that trampoline will expose the deep flaws embedded in the processes of US democracy and the profound confusion plaguing the American people.
Any nation is strong because of its people. Military power and economic prowess are pluses but not the core attributes of a nation’s strength. The people’s attitudes and actions are its strengths.
The 2016 Republican Party Platform reveals that American conservatism is turning towards bigotry, blind hunger for power and disregard for the Constitution to occupy the White House.
And it is doing so unheedful of the harm caused to the Republican Party’s values and principles that conservatives around the world have long looked up to as models for their own thinking.
Emulation by others of this surrender of conservative principles to Trump is unlikely to lead to a world safer for Americans and America.
The religious dogmatism coloring the new American conservatism may also embolden religious fundamentalists around the world. That will certainly not be good for Americans.
graphic via shutterstock.com