They say despair is a bad counselor. That seems to be happening to Donald Trump. Two recent polls show the Trump administration at a record-breaking economy but a very low approval rate—41%. Similarly, both polls predict that Trump would lose the election with any of the seven major Democratic candidates who dispute the presidential nomination in the primaries.
Faced with this unfavorable scenario, Trump has doubled down on his bet on xenophobia and racism. During his 2020 reelection campaign announcement, he raged against Hispanic immigration, announced raids that are, by the way, in full swing, and reiterated his zero-tolerance policy for asylum-seeking families. Last month he finalized measured that make the asylum application and procedure a real calamity, affecting not only migrants from Central America but also those from other places, such as Venezuela.
To move forward with this strategy and further agitate his most radical base, the Trump administration reiterated it has no intention to grant temporary protected status (TPS) to Venezuelans. The response was directed at the Democratic senators, Menendez and Durbin, who are fighting for Venezuelans fleeing their country because of the humanitarian crisis. Effectively, an increasing number of Venezuelans are now subject to deportation due to the raids happening in Florida. Similar to the cruel events at the southern border, families are imprisoned and separated without regard to their refugee status and human rights.
This picture got worse during the following weeks. Trump waged war against four Democratic freshman members of Congress known as “the squad,” including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. He accused them of being anti-American. Then, pointing to representative Omar, a nationalized Somali immigrant and one of the first two Muslim-American members of Congress, called on them to be returned to their countries of origin if they do not like the government and criticize the US political system.
The 2016 campaign “Lock her up!” chants his radicalized base yelled when Trump mentioned Hillary Clinton have been replaced by “Send her back!” each time Trump refers to Omar or her squad colleagues. Ocasio-Cortez, a Puerto Rican born in the Bronx, reminded Trump that both she and those born on the island are US citizens. And, in defense of her naturalized companion, the representative said that a naturalized US citizen has equal rights to one by birth. Finally, she said that criticizing the government could never be used as grounds for the threat of alienation from the territory of the United States.
As I recount these events, I confess I pause shocked by the fact that this is happening in the leader of the Free World, the country I chose to call my own and the one that adopted me as its citizen after my long exile from Venezuela. I had to forcefully leave to protect my integrity and that of my family because I opposed its political regime. Now, after my effort allowed me to be the first Venezuelan-American to form part of the leadership of one of the two main US political parties—the Democrat—, I cannot help but join the dynamic response that rejects Trump’s irresponsible behavior. As a Latino immigrant and as a political actor that promotes civil rights, socio-economic empowerment, and access to education and health, as well as the evolution of our economy towards a green or renewable energy platform, and a cyclical or orange economy, within its possibilities, I think restlessly about the consequences of this fueled Trump rhetoric.
The fact that we admire the US institutionality and democratic history, recognize the opportunities its economy offers—particularly its social mobility meritocracy—, and passionately follow the fight for both civil and human rights that have characterized its historical journey from the sixties, does not mean that we renounce to criticize or contribute ideas that can make this republic, as the preamble of its Constitution says, “a more perfect union.”
It has been especially devastating to see how Trump repeats the neo-authoritarian and populist script—on the extreme right, in his case—used once by Chavez and now by Nicolas Maduro. In all three cases, they abuse power entrusted to them by the democratic system to undermine it with social division and permanent political conflict. They share the same detachment from democratic institutions and desire to accumulate power in the short term, without measuring the future consequences of their actions.
Furthermore, it has been excruciating to see more than 150,000 compatriots (family and friends among them), with vulnerable immigration status, being manipulated like all Venezuelans with a hardness policy that, naturally, has no consequences for the Maduro regime. Meanwhile, these sanctions are not met with any sensitivity towards the migrant (or even the asylum seeker), who has come to this country seeking refuge. They only wish to continue with their lives and work to assist their relatives back in Venezuela, who remain trapped in that humanitarian and political crisis with a human rights oppressive regime.
What does Trump want out of all this? Aware that the polls do not favor him, he wants to put representatives Omar and Ocasio-Cortez at the center of attention of two fallacies aimed at his most radical base and to misinform or manipulate independent sectors. First, a recent opinion poll reveals that, despite the representatives’ popularity in their corresponding districts and the enthusiasm they generate in key Democratic coalition audiences, their average disapproval rating is higher than that of the leading Democratic candidates. Second, there is more resistance to some of Trump’s proposals in independent voters, located in key states for Trump on the map of the polling stations.
One of the tactics Trump resorts to is xenophobia, racism. As painful as it is to state that this still mobilizes people, it is the truth. Another false rhetoric he uses is that immigration threatens both the labor stability and American culture (when, in fact, is entirely the opposite). Finally, Senator Lindsey Graham disappointingly, like most Republican leaders in the face of this Trump strategy, endorsed this by saying: “These representatives are a gang of communists.” This strategy seeks to implicitly punish the entire Democratic Party that closed ranks with its leaders. It is clear, then, that the Republicans will repeat until they are tired that the Democrats alone are “socialists.” They will campaign with this story, resorting to the politics of fear. The McCarthyism terror returned with Senator Graham’s statement. A historical regression!
I do not believe this deplorable strategy will work out, and I work hard to prevent it. Democrats will have to resist these and other provocations, focus on proposing the alternative (not just questioning Trump), and explain the imperative of expanding access to healthcare and education, raising the minimum wage and improving working conditions, defending the consumer from business, banking or commercial abuse, and promoting a sustainable environmental economy. None of this coincides in the least with what they intend to label “communists.” They are not. Nor does it have anything to do with the socialism that has produced the painful deformations of Cuba, Nicaragua, or Venezuela. Those who manipulate reality by making such comparisons disregard the realities of countries in Germany and northern Europe, which have combined the effectiveness of markets with social justice, as well as in the United States during the four presidencies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They omit and intend to divert attention from growth with social inclusion and fiscal discipline of Democratic governments such as Clinton and Obama.
Today, more than ever, the words of Joe Biden during his campaign for the Democratic nominations are apparent: Trump threatened the essence and values of the US, a great nation and admirable democracy. Therefore, defeating Trump is a democratic imperative. I would even say that it is a modernity imperative. Trump is a frank anachronism, a setback to the worst of the past. Both his divisive rhetoric and economic policies of social exclusion, to favor the great business interests that support him, can forget about votes from the working majorities and the great American middle class. But the fight demands action. No one can stay at home. No one can be indifferent to both the immorality of Trump’s presidency and the severe consequences of his policies and speech. No one can think that, because his or her finances are still stable, what makes the United States a great country is not at risk.
Though unbelievable, the democracy that has served as a reference to the world is going through a huge crisis, in the midst of relative economic stability. That is the danger of what is happening.
Para español lea El Nacional “La democracia estadounidense está en peligro. ¿Quién iba a decirlo?”