Damage truculent trump wreaks abroad

Damage truculent trump wreaks abroad

US President Donald J Trump’s refusal to concede that he lost to his rival Joseph R Biden Jr has disrupted the practice of peaceful transition after elections from one administration to the next. That matters. With his refusal to accept that he has lost the election, President Trump is undermining democracy not just in his country, but far beyond, especially in places where democracy is of more recent vintage and often fragile.

This propensity of politicians in mature democracies to question the election process and institutions when outcomes are or appear to be unfavourable is unfortunate. While their target is their political opponent, their questioning of the integrity of the electoral process and the refusal to accept an adverse verdict serve to undermine not the opponent but democracy. The system, be it in the US or any other democracy, is far from perfect. Every now and then, it throws up a result that shakes up the system, not always in a good or desirable way.

Questioning the system simply because it delivers a verdict that is not to one’s liking is not acceptable. The harm done is incalculable when the person doing the questioning is the president of a democracy that is more than 200 years old. It bolsters authoritarian regimes and those subverting democratic norms. It undermines fledging democratic efforts.

A big difference between polities that have gone farther down the road towards democratic maturity compared to nascent democracies and the rest is how developed their institutions are and how resilient these stay under overbearing but popular leaders. There is little doubt that, in the US, these institutions will work and that, come January 20, President-Elect Biden will become President Biden. That must not be lost sight of.