America at the Crossroads: The Presidential Election and the Clash of Democracy

By Mahboob Khawaja, PhD

Mahboob Khawaja, PhD

“We have let the government’s evil-doing, its abuses, power grabs, brutality, meanness, inhumanity, immorality, greed, corruption, debauchery and tyranny go on for too long. We are approaching a reckoning. This is the point, as the poet W. B. Yeats warned, when things fall apart and anarchy is loosed upon the world.” John W. Whitehead “Monsters with Human Faces: The Tyranny of the Police State Disguised as Law-and-Order.” Information Clearing House: 7/25/2019 (Quoted by Mahboob A. Khawaja, “Democracy of Inhumanity and We, the People of Global Consciousness”. Information Clearing House: 1/01/2020).

Trump’s Absolutism and the Clash of Democracy

President Trump embarked on deceitful triumphalism after a fair and free outcome of the 2020 Presidential election. While denying the facts and enlarging the scope of hype, false rhetoric and wickedness to claim a political win utterly divorced from the prevalent facts on America’s – We, the People landscape. Enticing questionable stance on the results of the election and constantly blaming the Democratic Party and Joe Bidden –President-Elect– as the unlawful and fraudulent winner of the election. President Trump’s domestic spoilers are few and those 126 GOP House Republicans supporting the Texas lawsuit to nullify the results of four US states’ elections, brought a slap to their expectations today when the suit was rejected by the Supreme Court.

President Trump failed miserably to understand the vitality of an effective leader to console the masses in situations of unusual crises, to know his own strengths and weaknesses, and to analyze the wisdom of people around him conducting the governing circle. Intelligent and conscientious leaders unite the masses in crisis but Trump is focused on dividing and driving the American people to violence and unpredictable political chaos. It is this type of insane egoism that brought the downfall of so many leaders in human history. This author recently observed (“American Presidential Election and Democracy Look for Change, Moral and Intellectual Leadership.” UncommonThought:11/19/2020.)

Wickedness and piety cannot be combined in one human character. Trump inflicted disharmony and racial discrimination against the population of color. There is always inconsistency in a delusional mind and so it is with Trump’s paranoia and vengefulness. He has incapacitated the inborn moral and intellectual faculties of Americans and besieged the nation in its conduct of the basic tenets of liberty, justice, and democracy. This was not accidental but a planned scheme – despite being unknown in its short-long terms consequences over the nation’s ability to cope with the change phenomenon for a sustainable future. America under Trump became insane – a victim of its own obsession with power and fearful of its future.

To glance ahead, America and its claim to a working democracy will haunt future generations with suspicion and extended discard. Trump and his coercive puppies could not think of America as part of the global community except as conforming to their own fantasies, phobias, prejudices, policies, practices and preferences, favoring Israel and Netanyahu and nothing else for the pandemic entrenched people of America. History will tell of this time when Trump plagued the body politic with the deliberate misinterpretation of the election and outrageous futuristic hypotheses leading nowhere in a civilized society. The sudden and inexplicable democratic plunge into self-geared wickedness must be catastrophic for future generations. What happens in America affects the global culture of human thoughts, freedom and justice. President Trump lacking the capacity of wisdom cannot control his feelings and is a of being a misfit to hold that office. The American masses are caught in a storm of ugly confrontational democracy as they appear unenlightened and unprepared to cope with its aftermath. Time is critical for American short- and long terms political culpability to sort out a sustainable political future. The logic of reason shall call for a smooth transfer of power to Joe Bidden-President Elect on January 20, 2021. But American pride and prejudice could change many events into defying assertions of working democracy.

In Search of Vaccine and Cure for the COVID-19 Pandemic

The US media highlights the COVID-19 Pandemic surge – more than 16 million cases of infection, and more than 300K deaths now more than 3K daily. This is pandemic carnage that could have largely been averted if there was a responsible federal administration thoughtful of – We, the People. Could there be a revulsion against the capitalist democracy in-waiting to take its shape and form once Trump and his supporters submit to the will of the people? Apparently, the vaccine against Covid-19 is ready to be distributed but one must be cautious not to imagine a magic cure in days or weeks or if the vaccine will do the job as it is claimed to be by the manufacturers both in American and Germany. Covid-19 is a global pandemic and its remedial approach should have organized global sharing and pooling of knowledge-based scientific resources all across the world. We are One Humanity – natural disasters and fatalities know not any borders, flags, or nationalities but surge like wildfire as is being witnessed in the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Not so, Americans and the EU still buried in the past would not consider the Russian Covid-19 vaccine already prepared and administered or the Chinese vaccine because they are manufactured by the politically opposing entities. Again political absolutism heightens animosity and hatred rather than human understanding and cooperation for a precious cause of saving the lives on Earth. To save the life of one human being is to safeguard the whole of humanity. We are all born equal: One Humanity:- the Divine Message of Al-Qur’an states it clearly:

“Proclaim in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created,

Created man (human being) out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood,

Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,  He Who taught (the use of)  the Pen,

Taught man (human being) that which he knew not.”

It is sheer ignorance and a human tragedy to highlight the political differences when mankind is in urgent need of a viable cure for the Covid-19 pandemic. Politicians are not the medical experts to authoritatively speak for scientific reasoning. Most often medical practitioners prescribe medication on experimental basis, often not certain about the ultimate impact. The masses across the globe are fearful and losing faith on political leaders leading medical propagation of various vaccines for human consumption. It seems illogical to expect sober, judicious and reasonable undertaking when politicians are indulged in abusing truth and honesty in their behavior. If human life can be deceived and cheapened in America and across the globe, one wonders how to evaluate the importance of human rights, freedom and justice in any viable context. Joe Bidden and some of his colleagues appear to be rational, enlightened and self-disciplined folks to assume the next governance of world’s powerful Government. He promised to vaccinate 100M Americans during the first 100 days of his presidency –  a planned and rational optimism for change and to restore normalcy for the future. Destiny and future-making are always timeless and constantly moving phenomenon as we look beyond the obvious critical horizon of human anxiety and sufferings to come.

1. Be the leader who is open to listening and learning and with a spirit to engage with the masses across America and the world as you claim to be and listen to voices of REASON, even to the dull and ignorant – they all have a story to tell.
2. Plan, organize and set your strategic priorities in writing – like the statement of top objectives and monitor and achieve success by doing the best. The WHO, Global Warming  (a time bomb in waiting) Climate Summit and Global mankind is waiting for you and so are the neglected people targeted victims of color, ethnicity, and creed- all leading to more man-made disasters.
3. The COVID-19 Pandemic is a critical issue and a priority to be dealt with cautiously and scientifically for the good of the masses.
4. Mankind looks for Hope, Unity, Peace and co-existence amongst the divergent cultures and nations of the world. You take initiatives to bridge gaps between cultures and civilizations, including Russia, China, the Muslim world and others abhorred and hated by Trump presidency. If Immanuel Kant’s ‘Perpetual Peace’ was taken seriously, today’s America and Europe would have been at peace, not wars within themselves and with the global community.
5. Trump lacked imagination and visionary foresight and neglected advice and reasoning in all official endeavors. He opted for transgressors, killers and morally corrupt dictators, kings and princesses across the globe.  You Mr. President (elect) will have the opportunity and time to take corrective actions to enhance human equality, human rights – be it in America’s Black Life Matter, Kashmir, Palestine, Myanmar-Burma, China or elsewhere and take initiative to legislate changes to ensure participation of the indigenous, black and people of colors as equal citizens in American political systems.
6. Your Chief Justice will administer your oath in the name of God –The Beneficent – The Merciful – the Creator of the World – Who created human beings from a living sperm and sustained life on Earth – and you will perform the art of leading mankind as being part of mankind on a living Universe and Earth as we are accountable for all of our commitments and pursuits.

Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Publishing Germany, May 2012. His forthcoming book is entitled: One Humanity and The Remaking of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution