By David K. Shipler
While
Donald Trump reflects the worst characteristics of American society, as many
have said and written, he has also emerged as the leading voice of contempt for
the country he wants to lead. He doesn’t really seem to like America very
much—at least the America that exists in reality: the pluralistic, multiracial,
multiethnic, fair-minded America that is engaged with the broader world.
Especially as he sinks in the
polls, he is flailing recklessly at the most crucial elements of pluralistic
democracy. He has become the leading opponent of a free press and of an
electoral process that has guaranteed smooth, peaceful transitions of power for
nearly 250 years. Now that he appears to be losing, he has set out to undermine
public confidence in the country’s prominent news organizations and in the
election itself. And for months he has made pronouncements and promises as if
he could, as president, simply dictate and overrun the separation of powers,
the checks and balances that the Framers ingeniously created in the
Constitution.
A pillar of American democracy is
the capacity of the winners of tough campaigns to then govern. Trump could not
govern, given the distrust and disgust he has sown at large in the population
and among the Republican leadership in Congress. He is now trying to make it
impossible for Hillary Clinton to govern as well.
