Chronicle Editor
Gibson Nyikadzino, Zimpapers Politics Hub
Political events in the United States are swiftly unfolding since July 13. From the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump to Joe Biden’s defiance that he will contest as a Democratic Party candidate, his decision to step down; endorsements of Kamala Harris, who is campaigning for nomination to win the democratic ticket; and the Republican’s motion that they seek a legal declaration against President Biden as unfit to finish off his term are telling of a nation whose boat has been rocked.
What can also be attributed with certainty from July 13 is that the US society has nurtured a culture of violence to levels that it can no longer control. This violence has been generational. From the way it dealt with the slaves, the brute force it used in exploiting them to build its fortunes and how some of its political leaders were against the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation tells a story of how violence is of material use in that country.
In the twentieth century, the same violence continued against people of colour who struggled for equality and recognition through the civil rights movement. Because of growing intolerance to the idea of equality, civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X were assassinated.
Abroad, the US also expanded its violence in Vietnam in the 1960s, where those who opposed such, like then President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was also assassinated.
Other examples like the Black Lives Matter and how blacks are systematically killed and shot by police and how the Hollywood movie industry has lifted the banner of violence as a form of entertainment shows how American society has embraced violence.
More so, the January 6 2021 protests at Capitol Hill exhibits the dangers of how the culture of violence has been embedded in the US, meaning it has slowly been entrenched in the people’s daily lives. The police’ violent reactions to university protests by students against the Israeli genocide on Palestinians is a recent example of how violence is a state option.
In its 2023 findings, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University found out that there was a 17 percent increase in hate crimes and violence in America’s top ten cities. Professor Brian Levin noted that “the top 10 cities generally match what is going to happen nationally”.
The results of such violence were reflective on July 13 on the attempted assassination of US Republican candidate, Donald Trump, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it is investigating as “domestic terrorism”.
In this regard, the US has failed to take responsibility on what is evidently its failures and societal weaknesses. Western mainstream media like the CNN have already made orientations that the Trump’s attempted assassination was “kind of third world stuff” and also, without providing evidence, the same media has linked Iran to the condemnable act.
Failing to take responsibility and labeling other groups as potential perpetrators of crimes in the US has become a natural script.
When George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020, public anger and outrage by US citizens was later said to have been triggered from countries like Iran and Zimbabwe.
Even so, the electoral loss by Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump in 2016 was regarded as a “Russian collusion”. Deflection is one strategy that western mainstream media have used to shift blame and fail to take responsibility about the societal challenges their establishment are facing.
So, while Trump’s attempted assassination is condemnable, it did not come as a surprise. Sympathies outpour for the American society, but the Trump incident gives reflections on how violence, intolerance and polarisation of society can damage the democratic fibre of a country.
It remains to be seen how the attempted assassination will affect Trumps chances of re-election. According to Republican political strategists, until November 5 when the US presidential results will be announced, it will be difficult to envision as free and fair any outcome that will not declare Trump as the victor. They claim he has been a victim of political rhetoric that Democrats have used to attack repeatedly.
Trump is the man who, in February at a fundraising event, President Joe Biden said: “There is one existential threat: It’s Donald Trump.”
As countries fashion or re-fashion their democracies, it is important to highlight that countries are now learning from the US how not to be like the West. Political violence, intolerance and polarisation have no place in any democracy. It is undemocratic for any society to nurture, harbor and breed hatred of each other to boiling points that hinder a country’s democratic integrity.
Overtime, democracy the world over will grow in its own way, according to a country’s own history, culture and circumstances. Democracy will come in many different forms, shapes and sizes. Countries may learn from the West, but they can also forego some practices.
For Africa, the values of Ubuntu and Pan-Africanism should define the narrative of how democracy should also be envisioned in its collectivism without violence, but ethos of oneness, unity and togetherness.
Intolerance can only damage the reputation of states and entrench deep-rooted structural violence that diminishes efforts by people to grow their democracy.
Online Reporter