When democracy begins with a peaceful relinquishing of power, it is certain to endure. On home soil, this was made evidently clear with the infamous ‘Rubicon’ speech by P.W. Botha. Despite this, the ANC was unbanned in 1990 and the country held its first democratic election just four years later. The same holds true for US President Donald Trump. He was not elected by popular vote and it is unlikely that he will be able to hold on to power. The majority of America’s population will ensure that 200 years of living in the land of the free will strengthen its democratic processes. The hardiness of the American way of life will be protected, even it comes at a cost to white supremacists, wherever they sit in in society. History has taught us, after all, that all men are created equal. – Ronda Naidu
By Hamilton Wende*
America is heading in the right direction. It may not look like that to many outside observers, but it is. And has been for some time now. The arcane, rusted wheels of American democracy, as flawed and cumbersome as they remain since the adoption of their constitution in 1788, are beginning to turn in earnest. Their constitution is not a perfect document neither then, nor now, but it represents a fundamental step in human history. It was the first post-feudal society in the Western world to reject the absurd notion of the divine right of monarchs to rule. It has been a model, or, at the very least, a starting point for many revolutionary leaders, from Robespierre in the French Revolution to the early thinking of Ho Chi Minh when he quoted directly from the US Declaration of Independence in the opening lines of his own declaration for Vietnam as the Japanese conquerors of the country were about to be defeated in 1945:
‘All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.’
America abused that belief and goodwill, and became embroiled in the bloody, oppressive Vietnam War which led to their first defeat and humiliation as a world power.
Today, under President Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic and dangerous leadership, America finds itself in a similarly weak and humiliated position. This administration continues to disrespect and even utterly betray its allies, squandering its international goodwill and along with it, its ‘soft power’. From the terrifying abandonment of the Kurds in the Middle East, to the bitter and unnecessarily vengeful treatment of its staunch European allies, America under Trump has become a nation that has no longer has a coherent role or even moral standing in the world.
At home, chaos reigns. Like the psychotic emperors of Rome, Trump rules from a palace of illusion, guided only by his own narcissism. In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and the wave of anti-racist demonstrations that are tearing America apart, it is scarcely believable to witness the woeful litany of racism, anti-scientific gobbledy-gook and unapologetic lies that he utters now on a daily basis. Even some Americans now say that their country is more to be pitied than to be admired.
But this is not whole picture. America is going through a long-delayed reckoning with the shameful truth of much of its past. At the heart of Trump and his supporters’ idiocy is a centuries-old belief in white supremacy. White South Africans cannot glibly point fingers at another society for its inevitable confrontation with this evil set of assumptions and beliefs. However, as I watch America in crisis today, I am reminded of the early to mid-1980s in our own country. At that time, when P.W. Botha was president, the power of white supremacy seemed invincible. I remember hearing him give the ‘Rubicon’ speech in August 1985. He was widely expected to announce a number of reforms to the apartheid system, including the release of Nelson Mandela, but he stubbornly backed down and refused to utter any of these hoped-for changes. The Rand crashed, international sanctions were tightened, and white supremacy in this country doubled down in response. We endured a continually tightened State of Emergency. Police and army units patrolled the townships, secret assassination squads killed off opponents of the regime, and we existed in continual fear. It seemed then that the cruelty of white oppression was unassailable.
In truth, that wielding of extreme power was, in fact, the moment when the true weakness of the entire system began to manifest itself. Within months, secret talks with Nelson Mandela and the ANC intensified; white business leaders and journalists travelled to Dakar to meet with the ANC. The Rubicon speech had been a desperate attempt to thwart the inevitable. By the end of 1989, it became clear that white supremacy could no longer hold political power in South Africa. Nelson Mandela was released, and the ANC unbanned in February 1990. Our country became the democracy it is today – with all its flaws and injustices, it is still a vastly better society than it ever was.
Four years is it all it took. President Trump’s tragic incumbency is about to run out of its four years. The election of Joe Biden is not a certainty, but the revealing of Trump and his allies’ cruel weaknesses is now in its final phase.
Even if Trump is re-elected, which seems increasingly unlikely, America will not be swamped by his clear, and growing fascism. The country, the people and its ancient, sometimes corrupt and often creaking, political system are still too big and too powerful to be destroyed by a handful of white supremacists, even at the top of government.
There will be more trouble, lots more of it, whatever the outcome of the election in November this year. However, increasing numbers of people, white and black and all colours in between, are fed up with the old ways and with Trump.
Today, under Donald Trump’s misrule, America’s tragic racist history and its myriad other societal failings are being openly revealed in all their horrible ugliness, but it is that very openness that will move the country forward. Of course, it is not going to lead to a golden era of pure harmony and social and racial equality, but America is on course to becoming a very different country.
Trump never won the popular vote in 2016. He is unlikely to win it this time around. Some are worried that he might try to stay in power whatever the outcome, but let us remember that American democracy did not begin with the revolution in 1776, nor even with the adoption of its famous constitution. It began with its first president, George Washington, stepping down in 1796. This peaceful relinquishing of power was the seminal moment of American democratic identity. At times, like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this has been strained to its utmost, and yet, it has endured. You can be sure that the majority of its people today, despite the terribly mismanaged crises they are living through, are not going to forsake over 200 years of this unbroken reality.
- Hamilton Wende is a South African writer and journalist who has worked on a number of television projects and films for National Geographic, CNN, BBC, ZDF & ARD and a number of other international broadcasters. He has written and published nine books: novels, non-fiction accounts of his travels as a war correspondent in Africa and the Middle East and two children’s books.
