Illiberality grips ‘American Dream’

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Illiberality grips ‘American Dream’

Saturday, 13 October 2018 | Bhopinder Singh

Illiberality grips ‘American Dream’

The optics, sound-bites and sense emanating from Capitol Hill has confused, dumbfounded and horrified the world at large. It is true that the only hope resides in a befitting message via the results of the US mid-term polls

America’s walk towards liberalism has been uniquely evolutionary, gradualist and consistent, as opposed to the revolutionary upheavals that accompanied societal changes in the rest of the world. The US anthem, Star Spangled Banner, which talks of “the land of the free and brave” has inspired multiple trysts with racial, gender, religious and economic inequalities. Irrespective of the political dispensations at power, both Democrats and Republicans have supported the idea of liberal consensus in varying degrees and spheres, with the underlying belief that overt illiberalism would wither their appeal.

However, the advent of Donald Trump as the President of the United States on January 10, 2017, threatened the historical edifice and faith of the proverbial ‘American Dream’ that is rooted in the Declaration of Independence which states “all men are created equal” with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

Trump’s open admiration of illiberal leaders, like Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Riussian President Vladimir Putin and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, was an ominous portent of his own instinct and preferences.

Now over 20 months in the chair, domestic politics of the US are bitterly polarised like never before, with supposed allies like Canada, European Union and Mexico bristling under Trump’s inexplicable wrath, strategically ‘pivot’ countries like India are ridiculed and threatened with dire consequences, while Trump confesses to ‘fall in love’ over the course of exchange with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un!

Since 1789, the Supreme Court of the United States or the ‘third branch’ of the Government protected and sustained the march towards the ‘American Dream’. The nine-member jury (one Chief Justice and eight associate justices, who are nominated by the President and approved by the senate) are loosely categorised as liberals, moderates or conservatives owing to their legal, philosophical or even political outlook.

This sensitive assemblage is extremely crucial as it supports a certain tenor, agenda and tilt of the jurisprudence direction of the state. This forum has the last word on disputes pertaining to the highly contentious societal issues, federal issues and live-saving appeals — thus the ‘court packing’ exercise, given the essential criteria of ‘President’s choice’ has the power to institutionalise, strengthen and implement the thinking of the sitting President.

This phenomenon has increasingly and unfortunately sullied the popular perception of the Supreme Court into that of a partisan Court, given the ideological forbearance that a majority can sway. In recent times, all Democratic appointees had been liberals, whereas all Republican appointees, conservative. Though judges are known to have taken decisions that have been at variance from their publically-held positions as liberals or conservatives.

Therefore, the recent appointment of Brett Kavanaugh as Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, was bitterly contested and the ugly faultlines of the politico-societal retrogression were in full display. Brett Kavanaugh’s decidedly conservative credentials has restored the conservative majority to a 5-4 advantage in the all-important court, and with age on his side at 53 years, Kavanaugh’s nomination is all set to perpetuate a conservative line in sync with Donald Trump.

With serious allegations of sexual assault and even perjury behind him, Brett Kavanaugh’s muscling in as a judge in the Supreme Court after substantial evidence that he had at least misled the judiciary committee — personified the Trump’s incorrigible style and braggadocio as he tweeted about his ‘great nominee’!

Today willy-nilly the hallowed and collegial precincts of the Supreme Courts are part-and-parcel of the partisan infighting and societal divides that define the US. This ultra-narrow scrape through has sparked debates about the American future and the implications of the Trump tenure; not witnessed since his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton.

Issues of impropriety, morality, gender and privilege that accompanied the tumult will surely play out in the forthcoming midterm elections slotted for November 6. The minority Democrat leader Chuck Schumer has already forewarned all those who opposed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination by saying ‘there is one answer — vote’ in the November mid-term elections!

Another collateral damage of institutional reputation and perceptions of misuse of governmental agencies was on account of the supposed investigation on Kavanaugh by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

While the FBI did not reach to a definite conclusion on the entirety of the accusations, they apparently documented enough information and afforded procedural leeway to allow some Senators, who made this FBI enquiry conditional to back Kavanaugh’s nomination. Expectedly, the Democrats criticised the scope, time-limitation and inadequacy of the 46-page report by calling it ‘the product of an incomplete enquiry’.

They pointed out that Kavanaugh’s drinking habits were not ascertained, claims by the third accuser were not investigated, former classmates and roommates who were willing to testify in the affirmative of Kavanaugh’s misdemenours were not contacted, as also the primary accused and the primary accuser were kept out of the hurriedly conducted FBI inquiry.  

The fount of white nativism and misplaced machismo that is defining the Trump era is slowly entrenching itself dangerously and institutionally, beyond the whimsical theatrics that involves potshots at all countries, allies or otherwise. Clearly, the checks-and-balances, constitutional ‘guarantees’ and congressional constraints are not robust or inviolable enough to withstand the illiberality that can be unleashed by Majoritarism, in a democracy like the US.

The ostensibly independent and self-perpetuating institutions like the security agencies, judiciary and even the US military are susceptible to the winds of political taint, that come with the time and dispensation. The former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (who apparently heard of his own firing from the post by reading a Donald Trump tweet) spoke eloquently in defence of the truth at the Virginia Military Institute, “If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom”.

The optics, sound-bites and sense emanating from the Capitol Hill has confused, dumbfounded and horrified the world at large, and it is true that the only hope resides in a befitting message via the election results in the midterm elections.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)

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