A reminder Americans should never take democracy for granted

I needed to get back to my city. The mood amongst all of my friends and family in Washington, with no exception, was one of fear, depression, and even panic. There was still this reoccurring shock at what appeared to be an impending free-fall of democracy, common sense and simple decency. I returned to Athens feeling worried, utterly helpless, and still unbelieving. Because, where was my country?

I was born and raised in Washington, DC, and it is true that this city is not at all representative of the nation. It is not filled with farmers and cornfields and little Evangelical churches, nor is it a manufacturing town. It’s not a place where people have lived for generations. It’s transient. People, like my father, were there because they were either civil servants, diplomats, military, lawyers, or part of the infrastructure that upheld or reported to the world on those professions. But still…

The eight-year tenure of the presidency of Barack Obama, an African American who had spent his formative childhood years in public schools in Indonesia, and later Hawaii, was believed by the majority of Americans and most of the world to be symbolic of a lifting of American consciousness, a reaffirmation of the nation’s belief that “all men are created equal…” On the surface, racism seemed to be on the decline. Equality, nepotism and family dynasties seemed irrelevant in the new world. Democrats and champions of human rights celebrated. The world celebrated. But sadly, not for long.

There are some moments which are engraved in our collective memory, such as when President John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Texas, and then Martin Luther King, Jr, and then Robert Kennedy. And we remember with horror, but later with pride, when Joseph McCarthy’s cruel and despotic acts destroyed hundreds of lives by his later proven false accusations of many citizens being “card-carrying communists” and who was finally stopped by Joseph Welch by his question posed to McCarthy, “Have you no decency, Sir?” These events are remembered mainly by the resulting chaos that too often brought Americans to their knees.

One surreal moment took place when on June 16, 2015 a man named Donald J. Trump, grandly descended the escalator in the golden Trump Tower and entered American political life. Trump, owner of hotels in the US and across the world (Turkey, the Philippines, India etc) was also the creator of the short-lived Trump University, as well as Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka, Trump golf courses, clubs and much more. Of course, a great number of these companies had declared bankruptcy, but that did not stop many Americans who embraced Trump’s “Superman” image, and who believed his promises and his lies. His advancement was arguably one of the strangest phenomena in the history of the American “experiment.” And it will take decades of political and sociological analyses to understand how this happened, if a clear understanding will ever be achieved at all.

Some underlying realities in American life may be pointed to which led to this anomaly. First, for a myriad of reasons, most Americans do not trust or feel comfortable with the workings of Washington. Outsiders are sometimes chosen to lead the nation, like Abraham Lincoln, born in a log cabin and the child of poor farmers in Kentucky and Indiana, or Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer from Georgia, and Barack Obama. To non-Americans and especially Europeans, those men were seemingly unlikely choices. More often than not, their selection was for the good of the country. Not so with Donald Trump.

In brief, what unfolded was that the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) turned out to be a dream come true for racists and bigots. Materialism took hold. When the quickly changing Republican Party realized that the base preferred economic growth for themselves but not for immigrants, bigotry was normalized. When Trump and his political team began their ugly speeches, vulgarity and cruelty was normalized. When Trump mocked a handicapped journalist, his base did the same. When the president needed to shore up his huge economic projects in several countries, such as Turkey and the Philippines, Trump declared the leaders of these nations as his best friends. (Although his huge hotel across from the Kremlin in Moscow never came to fruition, Trump had borrowed millions from Russian sources following his bankruptcies in the 1990s. This has all been well documented.)

Trump threatened European and NATO unity, he pulled out the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, declaring that the agreement would “undermine” the American economy. His base wanted guns, even in the hands of children. Trump and his sycophants embraced assault weapons, even as children were regularly dying in schools across the country. And as a stab in the back of women everywhere, Trump’s ultra-conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, and there would no longer be an assurance of women’s reproductive freedom. When, in 2020, the Democrats came into power and Joe Biden became president, Trump and his MAGA base, and even Republican politicians, simply declared that the elections were illegal and rigged. And the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol was the tragic and hideous result.

After six years of Trump influence, four in office and two in opposition utilizing threats and intimidation, a very quiet change began to emerge

After six years of Trump influence, four in office and two in opposition utilizing threats and intimidation, a very quiet change began to emerge. In my opinion, it was not, emphatically not, brought about by less-than-perfect efforts by the Democrats, as hard as President Biden tried, nor by social media, which talks only to its own audiences, and anyway is owned by the huge corporate CEOs. It was not brought about by universities or newspapers or celebrities. Nor was it even a result of the January 6 Committee hearings in Congress, nor by the Department of Justice, which is still struggling after an impossibly long stretch of time to either indict the former president, or not to indict. It was not caused by the endless statements of Democratic politicians. This quiet emergence, it should be added, is happening DESPITE the distortions and fictions created by Fox, one of the most widely watched cable news networks in the world.

So what is this? The Republicans boasted for weeks of the giant “red wave,” the tsunami of tsunamis, about to explode through the midterm elections and make America permanently Trumpland again. No matter that even the choice of the analogy is frightening (tsunamis bring death and destruction). Everyone, no matter which side, predicted a huge Republican surge of votes, and consequently, the enduring power and permanence of the far right.

Against all odds (literally and figuratively) what appears to be the case is that grassroots efforts comprising the large number of young people voting perhaps for the first time, as well as women who have learned to say no to men dictating what they can and cannot do to their own bodies, and the everyday Americans who believe in decency, correct behavior, democracy, the rule of law, are re-emerging.

Democrats have maintained control of the Senate. Of course, the MAGA cult money and influence will not diminish overnight. But the margins are so much slimmer than we could have hoped for. And a stunning phenomenon, also not expected, is how very quickly Donald Trump is being rejected by his own party. The difference in Fox news network commentary is almost eerie and proves, once again, how transparently mendacious and deceitful certain media can be.

These are small changes in the political mood but they are highly significant. America was clearly on the edge. Obviously tremendous work awaits us… in the protection of women’s basic rights, in the tricky business of gun control, in the free-for-all gerrymandering, in the protection of our planet. But, never should these mood shifts be taken for granted.

Political autopsies are not always accurate or even desired, but reflection is. Perhaps we got the message. Democracy is so fragile. Dictatorships are not a monopoly of foreign countries. Decency still exists. And sometimes sheer relief is the strongest joy. Despite it all.

Tenia Christopoulos is a freelance writer from Washington, DC, who lives in Athens. She is a contributor to Kathimerini, The Washington Post, Athens Insider Magazine and Tatler, and is the author of “Lords of the Dance.”