Fergus Finlay: USA's demise as a functioning democracy is a terrible warning to the world

Joe Biden must stand up to Donald Trump's attempt to wrest power back or else the unthinkable will happen

An artist sketch of former US President Donald Trump, right, conferring with his defense lawyer Todd Blanche, centre, during his appearance at the Federal Courthouse in Washington last week on charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Picture: Dana Verkouteren/AP

America has stopped being a functioning democracy. And there is a terrible warning in that for the entire world. If America goes, the very concept of democracy around the world is under threat. 

Already the future of democracy has been gravely undermined in a number of European countries and is under threat in many more, including France, Germany and Italy. In a generation, it may cease to exist and be replaced by entirely populist politics run by “strong men”.

So it matters to the rest of the world, hugely, that America can pass the various tests that apply to a functioning democracy. And in some key respects it is failing right now and could well fail completely. Two people carry primary responsibility for that. One is Donald Trump, the other Rupert Murdoch.

A functioning democracy has a number of vital characteristics. A peaceful transfer of power when it’s necessary. We saw what happened to that in America in 2021 and the continuing fall-out. The right to free speech. We see every day how that’s abused to spew hate and sow division. 

An independent judiciary. Anyone with eyes to see can watch how that is being distorted every day, with serious questions being asked about the degree to which members of the Supreme Court, no less, are beholden to rich people.

And a free and independent press. America has a media, especially on television, that is more political than politics itself. Utterly polarised, utterly partisan, it is also utterly incapable of holding anyone to account on a basis that is persuasive to a decent majority.

It is absolutely essential that President Joe Biden is seen as a strong and outspoken advocate for his own cause. Photo: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

So is America doomed? And is democracy doomed as a result? No, is the answer. But only if someone is prepared to fight for it. 

And so the rest of the world now depends on a tired, decent old man. We need to know if he has the fight in him. We know Joe Biden believes passionately in all the fundamentals of American democracy. We don’t know if he has the resources — physical and intellectual — to carry the fight to Donald Trump.

Here’s why that matters. Just imagine what would happen here if a senior political figure — a person in line to be Taoiseach — was found liable in a civil court of multiple counts of sex abuse, and ordered to pay millions in compensation to the person he had abused. And imagine if that same person had several dozen criminal charges hanging over him.

Do you think he’d survive for a minute? Do you think his own political party would be supporting him, day in and day out? Do you think the media in Ireland would be saying “on the one hand and on the other hand”?

And yet in the largest democracy in the free world a man who has proved himself to be genuinely disgusting, and who has shown nothing but contempt for the Constitution he has sworn to protect, goes from strength to strength. The only thing that makes that possible is that the only one who can meaningfully stand up to him has refused to do so. It is as if Joe Biden has taken an oath of silence where Trump is concerned.

Trump’s own party won’t ever stop him. The party of Abraham Lincoln (and Ronald Reagan) has become so cowed by Trump, and so obsessed with hatred of the other side, that they are now incapable of even the mildest rebuke of their “leader”. 

At the weekend Trump said this, in writing, about Nancy Pelosi: “She is a sick and demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!”. Not one single Republican dissented, or even shrugged.

And then there is the American media. Yes, the weekend’s newspapers — especially the big ones, the Washington Post and the New York Times — have acres of coverage of last week’s indictments. But the Times leads with Trump’s attacks on the judge in the case, and the Post with a long article outlining Trump’s legal defence.

There was a time in America when you would look to great media figures, when the entire country could rely on their fairness and objectivity. Even the once great newspapers seem diminished now in their ability to influence, and television has lost that power entirely, because of the influence of Murdoch. The Fox influence he has created is utterly malign. He hasn’t just contributed to what is called a “post-truth” approach to political discourse, he invented it.

Joe Biden

So what’s left is Joe Biden. He has chosen a strategy of refusing to confront a man who isn’t fit to tie his shoelaces. He has allowed this man to build an empire of lies while he stays silent.

I know the reasons, and no doubt there are people around Biden urging caution. Keep managing the economy Joe. Keep growing the job numbers. Sooner or later the American people will see that you’re doing a good job. Sooner or later they’ll recognise that the country needs you.

And no doubt he does need to preserve his strength for the battle to come. He will have to debate Trump eventually.

Or will he? Will he try to rely on a so-called Rose Garden strategy until the end, carrying on being President and refusing to engage? While the Republican Party continue to revile him and Trump continues to whip up a religious fervour of hate and division?

Biden probably never had any chance of converting hardline republican voters. But it is absolutely essential that he is seen as a strong and outspoken advocate for his own cause. Most Republican propaganda, implicitly and explicitly, is based on a view of women, people of colour, and people who live in disadvantage, that is at best a throwback to a different time, and at worst threatens a really dark future.

The people most threatened by that have to fight hardest against it, and they have to believe they have a champion worth fighting for in Joe Biden. He has to be not just visible in the fight, but leading it. Right now, and not in a year’s time, the Democrats should be organising rallies as part of the fight for America. If Biden can’t win over his opponents, he absolutely must energise his own side. And that needs to start now.

We’re halfway through 2023. I really believe that 2024 could be a hugely significant year in world history. While Biden is fighting a proxy war in the Ukraine — a war that has to be won — an utterly disreputable charlatan will be trying to destroy him at home. 

There doesn’t seem to be any way that Trump can be deprived of the Republican nomination, and he will deploy millions of dollars in every way possible to take the presidency back — including misuse and manipulation of social media on a scale we’ve never seen before.

A Trump victory is unthinkable. But it would be even more unthinkable if the Democrats let it happen. Whatever the strategic or tactical reasons for Biden’s silence in the face of this opponent now, it would be a catastrophe of historic proportions if he stays silent a moment too long.