The sad and ironic truth is that the United States, which has spent decades and billions of dollars ostensibly strengthening democratic systems abroad, has completely neglected to do so at home, blinded by the belief in its exceptionalism and immunity from the problems affecting other nations.
It is jarring to think that a country that styles itself as the leader of the free world, a paragon of democracy, and “the shining city on the hill” could be facing its third disputed election in 25 years. Jarring, but hardly surprising. Al least not to me.
While covering the US election four years ago, Kenyan -born then BBC reporter Larry madowo underscored the hypocrisy he noticed as several U.S. Ambassadors and politicians publicly advise African countries on how to maintain healthy democracies.
” I have ve also seen Africans looking at this election and scratching their heads. Isn’t it a bit ironic because you have a lot of issues at home…and how do you not have the self-awareness to realize that you do not have the moral authority to be lecturing us right now on this very issue that you are facing back home,” said Madowo
Today, as the United States approaches yet another election that many are again warning could break it, that ship is looking more like a rickety boat. Both leading candidates, Trump and Kamala Harris, have said that US democracy is doomed if they lose.
The fears being expressed of a second Trump term point to the low confidence, both within the United States and abroad, in the country’s governance systems.
A substantial amount of the anxiety surrounding this election stems from the fear that those much-touted US guardrails cannot contain a president who does not live up to that constitutional presupposition.
TESTED INTEGRITY
Undoubtedly, the United States remains the world’s most powerful country, with little to fear from external enemies. However, thanks to a toxic mix of hubris, history, and resistance from deeply entrenched interests, the failure to reform its governance institutions and to reinforce them against assault by a rogue Executive has left the country vulnerable to internal rot.
If a country always seems to be just one presidential election away from losing its democracy, would you describe it as having robust democratic institutions? Or perhaps as a fragile, unstable nation that struggles to consistently safeguard the democratic aspirations of its citizens?
While many Africans like myself have always thought that the United States is the one democracy that seems immune from a global movement that has transformed how modern elections are held, it is worth noting that the tide has been changing. For example, it lacks uniform, capable, independent, and non-partisan election management bodies, leaving its elections vulnerable to partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression schemes that elsewhere would be considered mechanisms for “rigging” the election.
The situation has been getting worse. In 2012 the Electoral Integrity Project ranked the integrity of US presidential elections as similar to contests in South Africa, Mexico, and Bhutan. Less than a decade later, they were closer to elections in Rwanda and Myanmar.
SLIGHT POSSIBILITY OF REDEMPTION
The problem goes beyond elections. Today, Americans, who like to think of themselves as the freest and the bravest people in the world, are told they have to ignore a genocide in order to save their country from a fascist. It would be a breathtaking constriction of the imagination to call that the product of a robust democracy.
What I have said regarding my own country, Kenya, is true for the United States: What matters more than having good leaders is having good systems.
Americans do not have to take my word for it. I mean , I am just a rookie writer in a Banana republic. But In a speech given when the United States was not much older than Kenya is today, US activist Wendell Phillips said: “Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: Only by unintermitted agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity”.
Sadly, few believe that there is any real political appetite for reform. The country will likely survive this election too. And in its aftermath, the valorising of the US electoral and governance system will again lull the populace to sleep – setting up another potentially catastrophic encounter with reality in the not-so-distant future. Good luck, Kamala, Good luck Trump.