ON Wednesday, November 6, Donald Trump, the 45th U.S. President, pulled off what, to all intents and purposes, is an extraordinary political comeback - an exceptional feat that has catapulted him once again to the enviable position of the president-in-waiting. On January 20, 2025, he will take another oath of office as the 47th U.S. President.
When Americans went to the polls on Tuesday, November 5, to elect President Joe Biden's successor, the odds weighed against Trump. Here is a president who was impeached twice during his presidency, refused to accept electoral defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol before vacating the White House and was subsequently convicted of felony charges.
But with this victory, Trump has chalked up many firsts: first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election, first person convicted of a felony to be elected president and, at 78, the oldest person elected to the office.
This is despite the fact that Trump never pretended to be who he is not. He said things no other politician before him dared to say. I doubt if anyone after him will dare play the Trumpian game. But because Trump will always be Trump, he promised to launch the largest deportation effort in the nation's history, use the Justice Department to punish his enemies and dramatically expand the use of tariffs. Yet, the people rooted for him.
In the course of the campaign, much to the chagrin of his campaign managers who wanted him to be politically correct, Trump acted the political gadfly. Without mincing words, he warned that he would deploy the military to target political opponents he labelled the "enemy from within," hinted about suspending the Constitution, even as he threatened to take action against some news outlets.
Yet, in spite of all these, Americans preferred him to Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate. And on January 20, 2025, he will return to the White House with powers to do what no other American president could contemplate with the U.S. Supreme Court, early this year, giving judgement that afforded presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
Warts and all, this is what democracy is all about - the people's choice. It is in this sense that Joseph De Maistre, one of the forefathers of conservatism, once said that: "In a democracy, the people end up with the government and leaders they deserve."
I have stated here many times that democracy does not guarantee that the best will be elected to govern. But for any system of government to be deemed democratic, the people must be the critical mass that will, at all times, determine what happens.
And that is exactly what one of Trump's predecessors, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the U.S. meant when he defined democracy as government of the people, by the people and for the people.
The beauty of democracy is the fact that though it does not guarantee that the people will always make the right choice, the periodic elections afford them the opportunity to self-correct. So, democracy comes with an in-built guardrail that ensures the people end up with the government and leaders they deserve.
Now, look at it this way. Eight years ago, a certain Donald Trump, a Washington outsider, happened on the political scene, picked up the Republican Party's ticket and squared up against Hillary Clinton, a Washington insider, former First Lady and powerful Secretary of State under President Barak Obama. Everyone expected that Clinton will win the election easily but when the result was announced, Trump came out tops in the all-important Electoral College votes even when Clinton won the popular votes.
Many reasons were canvassed why Clinton lost. Having had a Democratic President for eight years, some said Americans wanted a change and rooted for the candidate of the Grand Old Party, GOP, who happened to be Donald Trump. There were some others who reasoned that a Clinton Presidency would have been a third term for Obama and, therefore, opted for the outsider not corrupted by Washington. There was also the factor of masculine America not being ready for a female president. Whatever was the case, the fact was that Trump won and became the 45th president of the most powerful country in the world.
But four years thence, when it was time to renew the mandate in 2024, the same electorate snubbed Trump and went back to the Democrats. In just four years, they had had enough of the Washington outsider and his very unorthodox ways.
Biden did his bit and four years after when it was time to either renew or withdraw the mandate, Americans flipped. It all boils down to the all-important question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? Americans said no and this time gave a bigger mandate to the man they rejected four years ago. Unlike in 2016, Trump won both the popular and Electoral College votes.
That is the colour of democracy, a very beautiful colour, indeed. All the attention was on the people. The candidates did all they could to convince the electorate to look their way. Up until the last minute, even as people were voting, the candidates were working the phones, encouraging the undecided to go out and vote.
The stakes in Tuesday's election were so high and the candidates and their political parties threw everything into the ring to convince the electorate. With a total $15.9 billion contributions, the election is the most expensive in history, surpassing the $15.1 billion spent in 2020 and $6.5 billion in 2016.
Much of this money went into advertisement and sundry logistics. But it was all about the people, to whom power belongs in a democracy. And Americans have spoken loudly and nothing else matters. And because leaders who emerge through this process know that there is always a day of reckoning, they prioritise the welfare and well-being of the people who have the inalienable right to decide their fate in the next election. That is the beauty of democracy.
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In his September 19, 1796 farewell address, George Washington, who took office as the first U.S. president in 1789, warned that with obstruction of the government's integrity, "cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." He also cautioned against "the spirit of encroachment (that) tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism."
That is the ditch that Nigeria's democracy has run into; a gully where the people quotient of the democratic equation has been completely thrown overboard. The result is the rule of strong men who believe that they don't need the people to either win election or remain in power.
What the U.S. election has demonstrated once again is that democracy is not a rocket science. Even if it were, we are not reinventing the wheels. All that is required is to allow the electoral will of the people determine who gets elected. You may like or hate Donald Trump. But he is the people's choice. That is the only thing needed to become the 47th U.S. president. That is the true colour of democracy.
