When the class leader is the worst example

ne of the most consequential national elections in the history of the United States (US) is scheduled to occur in less than six months.

Come November 5, millions of Americans will head to the polls to elect the 47th president of the world’s leading superpower and the globe’s largest economy.

While in some quarters, people are asking what has the US elections got to do with us in Barbados, or the Caribbean for that matter, one is forced to reflect on the current global political machinations and what role, if any, we in this region are expected to play.

The strategic political, economic and military goals of the US have long involved Barbados and the Caribbean, even when we have been unduly influenced to fall in line.

There remains no direct war between the US and Russia or between the US and China; however, all three major economies and their proxies are involved in latent hostilities and each is seeking the cooperation of countries like ours as pawns in their global power pursuits.

Importantly, the presidential election in November has wider implications for us in the region, as a Trump victory is likely to result in a significant shift in US foreign policy and possibly upend long-held positions of the US.

While Joe Biden is being portrayed as a bungling old politician who has passed his shelf-life, those who value democracy, are aware that Biden is far from perfect, but he is the opposite of what a Trump presidency could portend.

Trump has given recent interviews to major American media houses and has given the clearest indication yet that the world’s leading democracy is in for a major overhaul. Frankly, under his presidency, the US will look more like an autocratic state that leans more toward dictatorship.

In his Rolling Stone interview, the businessman, who is facing a litany of charges related to his efforts to try to stay in power even after the majority of the American electorate gave him the boot, is emphatic about his first acts.

“Trump has made abundantly clear that he will use a potential second term in office to take revenge on his enemies. He’s planning to do so by helming the Justice Department with a loyal attorney general willing to appoint a slew of special prosecutors to go after everyone he feels has wronged him,” the magazine reported.

Among his targets are the FBI director he appointed Christopher Wray, US Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the special counsel Jack Smith. Of course, all those who are seeking to hold the former president accountable and those he appointed whom he believed did not follow him blindly are also in Trump’s cross hairs. These include his former Attorney General William Barr and his former Chief of Staff Major John Kelly.

He is also prepared to go after members of the judiciary and remove those not prepared to give him blind loyalty. For those in the Caribbean who romanticise about the Trump era and regard him as “strong” rather than inhumane and cruel, one hopes such persons are prepared to accept the consequences of such leadership.

Trump has promised wide scale crackdowns on immigration into the US, accepting citizens only from certain countries, as well as the rounding up of undocumented immigrants and deporting them. According to Trump, he expects to create detention centres from which “millions’’ will be deported.

In the former president’s estimation, illegal immigrants were the main reason for his electoral loss, and they were “poisoning the blood” of America.

There are very large communities of Barbadian and Caribbean people living in the US. While many of them are there legally, when mass roundups are occurring, the legal and the illegal are likely to be swept up in the hauls.

There will be little consideration given to human rights, the impact on families left behind, the impact on the home countries receiving these immigrants, or the economic consequences for all the jurisdictions involved.

Worse yet, the strongman tactics that Trump is channelling to the electorate in the US, is providing a terrible example for weaker democracies around the world, even if Trump’s presidential bid fails.

The fact that a former American president could so openly pursue such a dictatorial and fascist agenda, is tacitly giving cover and licence to leaders with such tendencies to also mimic such a dangerous leadership stance.