AMERICAN PERISCOPE. Refilling the swamp

You would have thought that the US, a 225-year-old democracy, would have had the basics all figured out. Among those would be the proper conduct of elections, faith in the process and outcome, and a smooth transition to a new team. All these are coming into question now.

President-elect Donald Trump announced while campaigning that if he lost, it would mean the balloting was rigged, he would not accept the result, and his supporters would riot. This sounds more like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Lauren Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire. Now that Trump has won, he says the elections were fine even though intelligence agencies claim they have evidence of Russia hacking and circulating fake news to influence the elections. Wasn’t the US accused of doing this to other countries? Trump responded that he does not trust the intelligence agencies’ analysis.

President-elects usually bide their time while they await their inauguration. But Trump has already begun operating as the president, even calling Egypt’s president to withdraw a resolution on Israel in the UN. Can two presidents operate at the same time?

Trump has not yet explained what he would do with his business interests after he takes office. They are closely managed by himself, his two sons, daughter and son-in-law. Now his family looms large behind the scenes in the Trump administration. He recently held a meeting with 12 CEOs of the country’s marquee companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and IBM. Four of the seats at the table were taken by his daughter, two sons and son-in-law who must have exchanged their business cards with all the invitees. Talk about access and connections. I would love to see how Transparency International rates the US on its Corruption Perception Index the next time round.

Trump’s choice of cabinet nominees have raised concerns about conflict of interest. The nominee for secretary of state has handled close business relations with the Russian leadership. Having claimed that Goldman Sachs had the kind of people who created a swamp in Washington that he was going to drain, he has nominated one of them as his top economic advisor. A major donor to Trump’s charity and campaign has been nominated to head the small business administration. The family of his nominee as transportation secretary owns an international maritime company. The person to take charge of health and human services trades actively in health stocks. Need I go on about how he is refilling the swamp?

We will have a president who did not win the popular vote but got into office through the peculiarity of an ‘electoral college.’ Even as Trump overturns US policies and the best democratic traditions, there are signs of more to come. With the Republicans in control in many state legislatures, electoral district lines will be redrawn to favour the success of Republican party candidates.

But there is hope. Some activists are trying to get states to give weight to the popular vote in their electoral college nominees. We should remember that nation-building is a never-ending process. As Churchill quipped, alternatives to democracy are worse.

The writer is a professor at Suffolk University, Boston

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