Editorial | Bracing for Trump

Elections sometimes deliver unwelcome and confusing outcomes.

Usually, though, the consequences of those results are felt only in, or overwhelmingly by the citizens of the countries where the ballots were cast. But if you believe in democracy, and that the conduct of elections are free and fair, and free from fear, there is little to do but to abide by the decisions of voters and allow the institutions of democracy to function as they should.

In that context, this newspaper respects the decision of American voters on Tuesday to elect Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States, notwithstanding that we find it perplexing and contemplate his coming four-year tenure with deep apprehension.

Indeed, Jamaica – as does the rest of the rest of the world – had a stake in Tuesday’s election; in who leads the United States; and in the general governance of that country. And not only for the sentimental reason that Mr Trump’s rival, the Democratic Party presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, is partly of Jamaican descent, with family who still reside in this island.

Ms Harris’ father, Don Harris, a Jamaican, is a renowned economist and emeritus professor at Stanford University. Her mother was from India.

Indeed, Jamaica has a large diaspora in the United States.

More importantly, the United States is still the most powerful country in the world. It has the largest economy, is culturally influential, and possesses the globe’s most technologically advanced military. It also dominates the world’s major multilateral institutions and exerts great ‘soft power’.

In other words, who sits in the White House is not a concern exclusively of Americans. It has global consequences.

AUTHORITARIAN ASPIRATIONS

On the first point, on the domestic ‘ownership’ of the US presidency, while The Gleaner pays due deference to the absolute right of Americans to elect whom they wish as their leader, we are nonetheless surprised at their choice on this occasion, given Mr Trump’s character and the threats many people perceive that he holds for the institutions of American democracy.

There is evidence from Mr Trump’s chaotic first (2017-21) term, when, among other things, he attempted to orchestrate an executive coup to remain in office.

Against all evidence and multiple rulings by courts, Mr Trump instigated a campaign claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

When that failed, he urged his vice-president, Mike Pence, while conducting the constitutional formality of certifying the electoral college votes to confirm Joe Biden as the new president, to reject the ballots. The votes of an unconstitutional alternative slate of electoral members would instead be counted.

Mr Trump also egged on his supporters who stormed the US Capitol, where the votes were being officially tallied. Many among the marauding Trump supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”

During the long campaign for Tuesday’s election, Mr Trump reprised the nativist, misogynistic and racist tropes of his previous period; he was convicted in a civil court of sexual assault and was criminally convicted of doctoring business ledgers to hide hush-money payments to a porn star.

But even more notably, Donald Trump made no discernible effort to hide his authoritarian aspirations, and was equally open about using state institutions to settle scores with political opponents. These are postures that seemingly strike against the ideas and ideals upon which America’s democracy was founded.

It perhaps says much about the disconnect between the Democratic Party and large swathes of the electorate that, despite her relatively late entry into the race, Ms Harris could not prevail against a man with a clearly deficient moral core and whose articulation of policy was largely incoherent.

COLLECTIVE INTEREST

Mr Trump’s sense of grievance, his rhetoric against illegal aliens, and blaming the Biden administration for high (now moderated) inflation resonated with working-class Americans, who feel that they have been left behind, or forgotten by the rest of the society.

The next four years will tell how much of his promise of economic well-being Mr Trump can deliver.

And if Mr Trump continues along his declared trajectory, it will also show the resilience of America’s institutions of democracy, or whether the president can bend them to his will, in the fashion he has achieved with the Republican Party.

With respect to America’s external posture under Mr Trump, an immediate concern for small island developing states (SIDS) like Jamaica, and the others in the Caribbean, will be the administration’s attitude to global warming and climate change.

During his first administration, Mr Trump denied that climate change was real, played down its effects, and promoted the continued, and expanded, use of fossil fuels, which is the greatest source of Earth-heating greenhouse gas.

Jamaica and the Caribbean, in concert with other partners, including in the Global South, will have to find the language to persuade the new Trump administration that it is in the collective interest of the countries on Earth, including the United States, to reverse global warming and the effects of climate change.

The Global South will also have to find ways of having the United States accept their stake in, and right to influence in international institutions of governance, and therefore their need for reform of these bodies.

This must mean that Jamaica and the Caribbean can remain good neighbours, friends and partners with the United States without forfeiting their friendship with, say, China.

They must do these things without being unnecessarily confrontational, but without grovelling or a surrendering of sovereignty.