The eccentricities demonstrated by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in the last four years, which culminated in the insurrection at the United States Capitol recently remind me of Alex Tocqueville's predictions about the future of democracy in America, espoused in his famous work titled, *Democracy in America* The book published in 1835 and 1840, analyzes why democracy has succeeded in the United States while failing in so many other places. In his translation of the book, Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield describes it as *"the best book ever written on democracy and the best book ever written on America"*. That tells us how profound and influential the book is, and why it is a must read for anyone interested in American politics and democracy.
It would seem like Tocqueville's predictions in the book such as the tendency of democracy in America to degenerate into *"soft despotism" as well as "the risk of developing a tyranny of the majority"* have come to play out during Trump's presidency. Tocqueville was one of the first persons to study American democracy by examining its origin, strength and weaknesses and the future threats and consequences. Undoubtedly, even if this sounds academic, most subsequent studies of America's democracy derived their instrumentality from Tocqueville's insightful analysis of democracy in the United States. Therefore, irrespective of what his critics think or say, Tocqueville was simply a trailblazer in that regard.
In the light of the above, I can unequivocally say that those who have read Tocqueville's works would intellectualize the events of the 2020 United States presidential election differently from those who have not read it. The latter group tends to think that Trump's eccentricities have diminished America's pride and right of being the beacon of democracy globally. While the former group thinks otherwise. However, there are exceptions on both sides of the divide. As a prominent member of the second group, this engagement is to illuminate the path previously not seen by those who are tenaciously inclined to the supposedly battered image of America democracy based on the actions of Donald Trump and his benighted followers who on January 6, 2021 desecrated the hallow chambers of the Capitol after over 260 years of democracy.
My take, let's us imagine for once in our life time because this might never happen again, all what we have read or heard of American democracy, rule of law, free and fair election, constitutionalism, sovereignty of the people and strong institutions have been subjected to empirical test by Donald Trump. No matter how unnerving and embarrassing Trump's actions would seem to the American people and the global audience, at the end, the outcome did not only vindicate the reputation of America's democracy, but it also shows why American democracy is unique and worth emulating. Following Tocqueville, the uniqueness of America's democracy is imbued in the seed planted by its Puritan founding fathers. He believes that due to how America came into existence, the Puritans established a social order that cherish and protect political liberty that's uncommon in Europe, particularly in France, his own country.
It is in connection with the protection of their political liberty that the American voters ensured that Donald Trump didn't win a second term as their president. For the sake of political liberty, Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffenspersger, a Republican, refused to manipulate the results of the presidential election in favour of his party's flagbear, Donald Trump and also insisted that no forms of voters fraud were committed in the State of Georgia. Trump and his campaign surrogates encountered similar resistance in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in their bid to upturn the election results based on unsubstantiated allegations of voters fraud. For the sake of safeguarding the political liberty of the citizenry and the sacrosanctity of the ballot all the courts and the Supreme Court of the United States dismissed all the lawsuits filed in respect of the election without corresponding evidence. It didn't matter that the incumbent president, Donald Trump appointed most of the judges who handled the lawsuits.
Furthermore, when the despicable proud boys attempted to halt the certification process of the electoral college results by the United States Congress at the Capitol, the love for political liberty and country again overshadowed the support for the ambition of a president who was defeated at the poll. The Congress set aside their partisanship and confirmed Joe Biden as the 46th POTUS. Isn't that a demonstration of the ability of America's democracy to withstand cultural shock and emerge unscathed? How many democracies could come through those perils unscathed? So, how does that diminish American democracy?
From my observation, America's democracy is wired in such a way that no individual or institutions could successfully enable the president or governor to become a behemoth and trample upon the people's political liberty. No matter how hard you may try, like Trump did, the political system is structured in way to ensure you do not succeed to subvert the people's electoral will. That's the beauty of American democracy. Thus, if we look closely and think outside the box for once, we should be able to see that Trump's shenanigans didn't impact negatively on American democracy. Rather, it showcases the exceptionalism of America's democracy.
*Felix Akpan, PhD*
lixzito@yahoo.co.uk
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