Democracy Under Fire !

 For a great part of the twentieth century the world was balanced between western values of democracy, as practiced in both Britain and the United States of America and the Bolshevic ethic of Communism as the reverses of the first world war inflicted it on Russia.

For most of that era, Josef Stalin ruled as the leader of Soviet Russia and he instituted a reign of terror that cemented his power by ruthlessly eliminating rivals and crushed any form of dissent.  Thousands were arrested on mere suspicion and the country became a modern nation on the shoulders of its citizens labouring in the gulags for crimes they never committed.

The tragedy of the second world war saw Stalin increase his hold on the countries of Europe as the invading Germans were defeated. The advancing " Red army " enfolded captured countries as part of its realm and the world became divided by what was called " the iron curtain ".

That was the time the United States of America led the free world.  The aim of people at risk of death or imprisonment in seeking to escape the Soviet block was to emigrate to America where they could choose their form of government by voting it into power.  America gave freely of its blood and treasure in making that happen and eventually the Soviets imploded and it looked like world peace would become a reality.

Unfortunately, the roots of Communism had taken hold in the most populous nation on earth and as China rose to become both an economic and military super power it clashed with America's freedoms and its lower living standards saw manufacturing of consumer goods gravitate to that country.

That created a jobs exodus in America and divided the world into two giant trading blocks.  The Russian era sought to force a form of Communist government on the rest of the world.  Communist China seeks to dominate the would in manufactured goods by manipulating markets and stealing trade secrets.  It is using commerce to bring surrounding nations under its economic control.

This hollowing out of the jobs market in America brought many Americans to question their country's place in the world and in 2016 Donald Trump arrived on the political scene with a list of promises that sounded too good to be true.  He promised a wall to divide America from Mexico and stop the inward flow of  immigrant traffic, and he promised to restore jobs in industries that had gone offshore in this " globalization " age.

To the surprise of the world, Trump was elected president and ran his government by incredible " tweets " on the Internet. He has had some commercial successes, but mainly he has created chaos and now the time has come for the voters to decide if he warrants another four years in the oval office.

This week the nation went to the polls, and before the votes were counted Trump has declared victory and threatened to go to the Supreme court to validate his win.  That is the same Supreme court that he has just balanced in his political favour by a controversial appointment of a new justice.

This maverick president seems intent in destroying the American democratic institution by bringing his supporters onto the streets in insurrection.  The whole world watches with bated breath to see if American democracy destroys itself or if the wisdom of the founding fathers survives and counters this challenge !