Viva American Democracy! A Foreign Take On Why The “Trump Interlude” Will Pass

-OpEd-

BOGOTÁ – Donald Trump and Elon Musk … one day, they too will pass. The pair will be recalled as nothing more than a bad period, a rough patch in American history. A country like the United States, with its democratic traditions and abundance of vitality, forged through vast migratory waves and racial diversity will simply never swerve into a totalitarian ditch.

It can never belong to a supremacist minority or an élite lording over an entire society. It won’t happen. We may well see in the next four years threats and efforts to bring this about, perhaps even traits of totalitarian rule emerging briefly, but none of it will last. We will not see, as in China and Russia, a socio-economic nomenklatura crushing all democratic rights and civility, entrenched for years and brutally eliminating anything not serving its ambitions.

Strength in diversity 

I have never been in awe of American wealth and living standards, for that wasn’t what I found attractive about the country. For me, the admirable traits in American society are its endless ability to assimilate human faces and features and the creative forces of other nations, cultures and histories.

I am talking about the people and a nation’s historical progression

They’ve done it for centuries, which is what allowed them to build such a wide-ranging, diverse, multi-racial and humanly potent nation. We’re talking about 330 million people! There is something profoundly humble and wise about the way Americans (most, not all) have always managed to assimilate, incorporate, mix, transplant, learn and renovate everything coming its way.

I am perfectly aware that in the process, they also turned into the world’s wealthiest nation, which meant there were times when the state, its politicians and supporters acted and behaved badly. That means with deceit, violence and adopting the ways of thugs and imperialists. I know, it’s nothing to be proud of. But I am talking about the people and a nation’s historical progression — and there, undeniably, the United States has been a source of energizing renovation for the entire world. That was particularly the case in moments when Europe languished and the East appeared unreachable.

Art that lasts

A measure of a nation’s heartbeat is its artistic production, for that can certainly become universal and transcendental. The rich and powerful will pass on, wealth and being temporary affairs, nor is any nation admired more for having billionaires and plutocrats. Thuggish and thieving politicians will also come and go, being a product of circumstances.

But artistic creation is outside time. Nobody cares today about the richest man in Greece in the 8th century B.C, or who ran the land and its cities. No, it’s Homer the poet we care about, his revitalizing work, its themes and characters. We care about Penelope and her long, epic wait for Odysseus in The Odyssey. We care about Don Quixote, charging at giant windmills to win Dulcinea’s love.

Look again at the paintings, literature, the music and cinema of the last 150 years to see what the United States really is. Consider how it renewed the world and you’ll see that such a source of vitality will find the strength needed to ride out this current, dismal juncture in its glorious history.