It couldn’t have happened, but it did. The most powerful nation on the planet was led by a madman. The list of his follies is staggering. Internally, it disorganized public administration; unleashed terror against immigrants; threatened the best universities; put scientific research at risk; blackmailed the media and spread uncertainty about what is to come.
On the external front, world trade has been turned upside down; treated allies as enemies; threatened to annex sovereign nations; cold invaded one, , and kidnapped its dictator; started the one that sets fire to; cursed.
Now, he has perpetrated yet another act that would entitle him to a straitjacket: on Monday (13), an AI-produced image appeared on the Truth Social network in which he hovers dressed as Christ blessing a sick person.
Unlike autocracies, democratic regimes have the resources to contain aspiring dictators — less, or more, sick in the head. These are the famous institutional and social checks and balances — among them, — and elections. Everyone, however, has their limits. And what the civilized world, although appalled, is witnessing in the USA is a great experiment in the possibilities and limitations of these instruments of containment.
Checks and balances erect barriers to the discretionary power of the elected official. They come to life in the prerogatives of the Legislature and the Judiciary; the existence of independent supervision and control bodies; in the responsibilities of subnational governments in federative systems. They also take shape in the existence of a free and plural press, social networks critical of the government and autonomous civil society organizations. Even under Trump, the US has well-oiled social checks and balances: just look at the mass demonstrations under the banner of “No Kings”; solidarity networks that try to protect immigrants; the free press and the daily battle in universities to ensure freedom of thought.
Institutional mechanisms have shown limited effectiveness. Lower courts have managed to reverse many of the White House’s initiatives, but the Supreme Court, with a Republican majority, has done little. Within their borders, Democratic governors are a loud voice and a protective shield against the excesses of the Trumpist bureaucracy. But the Republican majority in Congress blocks any more forceful measures — especially the extreme resort of impeachment.
Free and fair elections, although they have not stopped Trump’s rise, are a possibility of containing him, if the Democrats obtain a majority in the Senate at the end of the year; or to shorten his stay in power, if conditions for impeachment are created; or even the opportunity to dismiss him at the end of his term.
Contrary to pessimism about the fate of democracy, elections have been a way to defeat authoritarian populists. It happened in Brazil, Poland and, now, in . They can also be the way to rid the world of those who, even if they are not the deities they are delusional to be, can lead us to armageddon.
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