What we need is a New Deal for Democracy
With all the tension in the air, whichever way the elections go, a new US administration or opposition would need to forge a bold global New Deal for Democracy. We need new vision to overcome the threats and challenges to democracy that we face together.
After hours of lines and endless polls, the vote count is nerve racking and the tension is in the air. Pundits, news anchors, and podcasters frothing at the mouth, and the froth is bound to keep flowing for some time. No matter how the US elections turn out in the coming days, it is highly likely that the aftermath will open up a period of dangerous instability.
And then what? In all of the media frenzy it is easy to forget to mention that these elections impact people around the world almost as much as they do Americans themselves. Outcomes will determine what our world looks like, and across the Atlantic, Europe must take heed and take action.
If Trump manages to hold onto power, either through winning outright, or by stealing the election outright, the US will fall further down the rabbit hole of this apocalyptic brand of authoritarianism. Trump and his family will continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the American tax payer as the pandemic rages, the GOP will continue looting government coffers while consolidating power. Climate change will go unaddressed as autocrats worldwide are emboldened. There is no doubt America’s democracy and its place in the world will be in tatters by 2024. That is a grim outlook.
On the other hand, if Biden and Harris sweep through, there will be an overwhelming desire to indulge a semblance of pre-2016 normality — a time before the slide down the rabbit hole, before the pandemic. That in itself is a dangerous temptation, that all those who cherish democracy must avoid, for a whole range of reasons. The US ship of state, which has been navigating unchartered waters for some time, will be drifting rudderless and precarious from November to January at least. In a time of unprecedented risks from a deranged and embattled unPresident, there are any number of ways the boat might be rocked.
But whatever the outcome of the elections or worse, the United States, its system of government and its place in the world will have taken a significant knock, and sustained considerable damage, internally and externally. Even in the best case scenario of a Biden-Harris landslide that Trump cannot challenge, the question marks that have been raised will remain open, the cracks in the facade will still be there for all to see.
Within the US, the foundational institutions of the republic have been shaken, cracked, and dragged into disrepute by none other than the Republican party. The damage done to a Supreme Court packed with cronies and hacks, and legislative chambers cynically deployed for narrow personal gains, with voter suppression and corrupt campaign financing used to maintain the chokehold on power — all these will leave deep mark for generations.
Governments and leaders across the globe have gotten a taste of a world order in which the US is not longer a hegemon, no longer a leader, nor even a reliable partner. American citizens as well as citizens worldwide have seen that outright treason, in the shape of Russian interference, or rank corruption, in the shape of the Trump kids and business inside the White House. For a time at least, the US was exposed as just as much a failed state as any country it had ridden to the rescue of. European leaders in the EU have taken note, but have not yet provided an answer.
Around the world, the same ugly, cruel and distasteful authoritarian powers that brought about the rise of Trump, raised other strongmen who have drawn strength. Democracies and democrats around the world have been at risk pretty much anywhere you look. The question is, where do supporters of liberal democracy around the world turn next? How do we recover?
If they win on Tuesday, and if they then succeed in taking power of an intact United States, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden cannot afford to return to any kind of normalcy, any kind of pre-Trump business as usual.
We know that a Green New Deal of some kind is needed to tackle climate change — whatever that means is still being defined and its details debated. Biden and Harris have acknowledge the need to transition away from fossil fuels, even if the terminology is up in the air. A similarly bold approach is needed on a global new deal on democracy.
It must be crystal clear that there can be no progress on any challenges without effective functioning democracy that guarantees human rights. Without those foundations, any technological advances or global change will only serve to abuse the people of this planet for the benefit of these warring regressive strongmen. As these authoritarians do not believe in science where it doesn’t not serve their immediate thirst for power, any long term far-sighted action from them is nigh on impossible. To survive on this planet, we need a new innovative and robust approaches to democracy. This new democracy must match up to the challenges of a technologically driven globally interconnected humanity.
If elected, the new administration would have its hands full of reforms in US democracy, from upholding voting rights and removing barriers to getting corruption out of politics. What is needed, however, is much larger.
The new US government needs to take ambitious steps, working with the European Union to set democracy on track worldwide. Programmes like the EU’s Democracy and Human Rights Instrument need to be reinstated and multiplied. There need to be worldwide efforts toward civic education, media and digital literacy, to counter disinformation. There must be investment in an open and vibrant civil society space. New innovative tools tool citizen participation and representation must make governments in the US, Europe and around the world more transparent, inclusive and accountable using new civic technology. Internet giants must be made accountable through a world-wide re-think of how to keep cyber-space truly free, fair and safe.
From a geo-political standpoint the US must re-engage with its historic commitment to a peaceful and democratic Europe and work with the EU on building that vibrant democracy in tandem, also on this side of the Atlantic. There must be a new concept of what democratic citizenship means in our time, to see off threats of authoritarian populism, abusive technologies and climate change. A New Deal for Democracy will make humanity in the 21st century that much freer, safer, and happier.
If the Democrats once again, for whatever reason, end up in opposition and another Trump term or a period of instability unfold, like-minded peoples around the world will have no choice but to build up that New Deal together ourselves, to stand up tirelessly for our values and use the resources we have to build the future we urgently need. European leaders in government and in all walks of life need to come together with colleagues across the Atlantic to make that happen.
