Europe’s Growing Concern: Is Democracy Leaving the Building... Even in the U.S.?

“It’s not about Trump… It’s much deeper than that. And that’s much more worrying.”

“[Republican denial over the nature of the January 6, 2021 attack is] terribly worrying…

Because it means that democracy is sick among voters, not just the system,

the institutions, the politicians.”

High level European diplomats speaking anonymously to the Los Angeles Times.

Bottom line: our traditional European allies no longer trust the United States. They see the rise of the autocratic right in what was once regarded as the bastion of Western freedom and democracy… but they are witnessing parallel trends in their own backyard. Former State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, David Gordon noted that European democracies “are worried about what the future will hold. Will Trump come back or another person inclined to the ‘America first’ agenda?” Cited by Noah Bierman and Tracy Wilkinson in the August 1st Los Angeles Times. Indeed, it took a single election to undo treaties, diplomatic policies and substitute a decidedly undemocratic alterative approach to governing. Could Europe ever trust American commitments again? Yet European democracies do see a ray of hope.

“Despite the red flags, several diplomats said they saw the transition of power to Biden, however rocky, and the accountability brought by the Jan. 6 hearings as signs of resilience. One ambassador said America has similarly reemerged from the damage wrought by disruptions such as Watergate and the Vietnam War… ‘This country, things have never been hugely stable,’ he said. ‘There’s always something happening.’

“Although the diplomats disagree over the severity and scope of America’s problems, most are concerned that the country’s deepening polarization is undercutting its standing and reliability. They cite several contributing structural problems, such as paralysis in Congress, partisanship on the Supreme Court, restrictive voting laws at the state level and a fractured news media. Some also accuse Democrats of playing power politics and, over the longer term, abandoning low-income white voters, leaving many disillusioned with the political system and vulnerable to Trump’s breed of populism… America, according to one diplomat, is a place where ‘two different worlds are coexisting but they’re not talking to each other.’” LA Times.

There is a bigger concern among the diplomats, as voiced by Earl Anthony Wayne, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Argentina and deputy ambassador to Afghanistan, noting that the United States was no longer winning the war of ideas against China. “‘There is a souring of public views on how effective democracy is… They look and see the United States has been having some of the same problems [Europe faces]. It’s not a shining example of success in the north.’…’Democracies are challenged, both inside and outside,’ said a European diplomat. ‘It’s a real issue, and we see it in the United States; we see it also in our countries.’

“For example, French President Emmanuel Macron struggled to assemble a government after a far-right nationalist party surged in June elections. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who came to power over opposition to a unified Europe, has agreed to step aside after a series of scandals. And Hungary’s Viktor Orban, a hard-right nationalist, recently said that Hungarians should resist becoming ‘peoples of mixed race,’ echoing the racial-purity rhetoric that many Europeans hoped to bury after the Holocaust.

“In Latin America, several countries have turned to more autocratic or anti-U.S. governments while building stronger ties with China. In June, Biden failed to persuade some of the Western Hemisphere’s invited governments to attend a major regional gathering, the Summit of the Americas, which the U.S. was hosting for the first time in three decades, after his administration excluded some countries.” LA Times. The President of the United States still openly deals with some seriously repressive regimes, notably Saudi Arabia, as “allies.” “Some also say Biden has failed to call out allies such as India and Israel when they have been accused of committing abuses, and he was widely pilloried for a chaotic and deadly pullout from Afghanistan.” LA Times.

Yet Hungary’s elected autocrat, Viktor Orbán, has become a cherished speaker (even hosting a Conservative Political Action Conference in Budapest this May) among the American right, particularly among Christian Nationalists with strong White supremacist leanings. Orbán has embraced a version of the racist “replacement theory” during a late July speech in Romania (noted above). “We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” he said prior to speaking at another Conservative Action Political Conference, this time in Texas.

The notion of adopting illiberal statutes that force citizens to adhere to fundamentalist right wing Christian nationalist mandates – under penalty of imprisonment – is becoming increasingly common in failing Western democracies. For example, that “life begins at conception” is a decidedly evangelical value, rejecting Muslim and Jewish values that insist that life begins at birth. Yet that religious precept is at the core of our own growing right-wing efforts, following the reversal of Roe v Wade, to control women’s bodies by banning abortion, directly and including those who might assist woman, even in finding lawful venues where abortions may still be performed.

America’s voluntary isolationism during the Trump years sends shudders down the spines of many of the leaders of our traditional allies. The thought of a return of Donald Trump (or a comparable GOP populist) creates fears that American mutual defense treaties would be ignored. “Many of the same allies fear, for example, Trump would fulfill his stated desire to withdraw American troops from South Korea, forgoing what they see as a stabilizing force for the region…

“Other governments, including those that have turned toward their own populist authoritarian leaders such as Hungary’s Orban, see a potential Trump return as a boon… ‘They are — unwisely — gaming out our polarization and hope it will work for their side,’ [said Heather Conley, former State Department official and current head of the US-based German Marshall Fund that fosters transatlantic and other multilateral relations, adding,] ‘It’s very, very risky.’” LA Times.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I continue to be appalled at the significant number of American citizens willing to eschew our most fundamental constitutional and democratic principles in favor of a White Christian Nationalist autocracy.