DailyPost 814
A STATE AT WAR
Beating all definitions of war which one can imagine of, is a state at war. It has been the most sound, vibrant and robust democracy of the world. It values it’s democratic institutions and rule of law as it’s founding pillars. Today, the country is at war with itself and it’s incumbent President is the main protagonist. A green horn in politics is a red rag to the world. From his by now famous tweets to sarcastic and outrageous comments, he has the potential to engage and enrage anybody but for Putin.
The county is at war for sure. It’s not conventional, asymmetric, cyber, chemical or civil but talk to any American,he seems to be unsettled. So is the case with institutions, and the scenario outside the country is no less grim. From the potential immigrants to middle east allies to North Korea, America and American President leading the world, is more of an euphemism today. The world leaders are at a complete loss, when interacting with him. And at the other extreme was the Helsinki Summit with Putin, where his subservience was at full display, a day after FBI had implicated 11 official of the GRU, Russian Intelligence Agency.
Trump’s love for intelligence agencies was well known, well before he became President in a surprise electoral verdict. He had been creating fissures in society – women, migrants and lots of non-white communities. Might be he is the first President in the history of US, who faced organised protest, the day after the inauguration. Millions protested on January 21, 2017, during the Women’s March, making it the largest single-day protest in the history of the United States. This mood and mode in the country has not changed since then, on the contrary, has become more vitiated by the day.
Cambridge Analytica – Facebook – Russia story seems to have ripped off credibility out of the 2016 US Presidential Elections. Muller probe is throwing up murkier details by the day. A country investigating it’s own President full time, is the running story. Every corner of Trump’s life is under investigation: his White House, his campaign, his presidential transition, his inaugural committee and his business. But even this is not the complete story; Stormy Daniel’s, saga, Supreme Court judges appointment, the White House musical chair, Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn in the Mueller investigation, the list is endless. Fake news and Media Wars is his favorite territory. It’s time the world’s only superpower looks like one.
CAN GOVERNANCE HAPPEN WITH DEMOCRACY BEING AT WAR WITH ITSELF?
Sanjay Sahay