American conservatism: Loss of democratic values in a Donald Trump administration

With the coming to power of President Donald Trump we can all say that the conservatives within the Republican party have abandoned the conservative philosophy in the way to handle the government, and have chased by the cult of the personality of the current President Donald Trump.

How has this personality cult of Donald Trump affected the Republican Party at this time? The defeat suffered during the mid-term elections is a clear indicator of the loss of political power of the Republican party in a moderate and conservative sector that does not approve of Donald Trump's behavior, but also the complicity shown by many right-wing leaders towards the policies of the President Donald Trump.

A large number of women who previously voted in favor of the candidates of the Republican party, in this midterm election preferred to vote for Democratic candidates, especially in the suburban areas of large cities, where many women left the Republican party and marked the ballots of the opposing candidate.

With this vote a part of the moderate and independent sector of the population in general sent a clear message to the Republican party and President Donald Trump that this type of anti-minority and anti-women behavior will not be supported by a moderate faction of the Republican party. Will Donald Trump and the Republican leaders listen to the message sent by the voters in the midterm elections? While there is the personality cult of Donald Trump, I do not think so.


Some sociologists consider that democracy is the ability of the people to choose their leaders, but also the ability to make decisions that reflect the wishes of the majority taking into account the objections of minorities. What some politicians call it " making consensual decisions".

 Given the current president's dictatorial behavior, many conservative Republicans seem to have forgotten what the word democracy means in the history of the American political system. Right now, they want to impose on the minorities in the legislative chambers, a conservative agenda in America that a great majority of the people reject in each survey that has been done recently on these issues.

Political system which the "American Conservatives" call the right to be free without the interference of the federal government in the lives of people is a first principle, but also in which personal values, economic possibilities and religious thoughts are conserved as essential part of American dreams.

In a democracy when only the wishes of the majority are imposed, each of us is looking to the birth of a dictatorial system with "popular support". Right now the behavior of the president Donald Trump with the support of the republican party are creating the political conditions that would suppress participatory democracy and give way to a personal dictatorship.

All dictatorship its power is supported by political actors, institutions, established that control the nation, monopoly power of an economic class that benefits from these dictators and a press politically committed to the system. Many people who are part of the "other America," who have never lived under a dictatorship, are the first to suffer the consequences of this type of oppressive system when freedom of opinion is forbidden by this populist dictator.

"When a dictatorship is born in a nation, those who suppressed  democracy will always rationalize the" benefits of dictatorships "as the reason for their support, even when reality proves otherwise."

A dictatorial system around a political figure is easy to build, but difficult to dismantle when established. When a first precedent is established over time it becomes a routine. Some politicians think that American history begins with them and ends with them, reasons why they never look at the consequences of their negative actions through the lenses of the future.

One of the first strategy of all populist leaders with dictatorial mentality is to destroy the governmental institutions on which democracy is based, which establish a balance between all the powers of the State (executive, legislative and judicial), as a way to delegitimize these institutions before the population, creating the basis for personalism as a figure that will bring order to the nation.

The current presidents' attacks on the Judicial system (Judicial branch,), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the  Department of Justice , an independent power of the state, the democratic norms established in the legislative system and the denigration of the press are indicators that someone with anti-democratic ideas does not matter if this was elected by the popular vote of a majority relative.


Can senators and representatives in Congress be against the President's leadership? 

This is where the fear of many Republican party political figures of losing this leadership position in the congress and all the associated benefits this relative power comes into play when they take anti-democratic positions in support of a populist leader with dictatorial attitudes , although such decisions are against those that the American conservatism has as part of its political philosophy and moral behavior..

Populist leader who with his performance against the institutions that support democracy based on the democratic values ​​of the American nation, imposes his personal vision to lead above what everyone else thinks. When you support dictatorial behavior in a democracy, you will also support dictatorial behavior in a dictatorship.

If we take the history of humanity as a reference, democracy is a relatively new system of government which facilitates a group of people making decisions taking into consideration the common interests of all, not the interests and personal needs of a king, dictator, ideology political or religious.

Democracy in the United States, one of the most innovative political systems in the modern history of humanity, is being threatened by the dictatorial aspirations, behaviors and attitudes of a political figure for whom the search for flattery to elevate their personal ego is more important than the general welfare of an entire nation, with the complicity of leaders within the Republican party with the same anti-democratic attitudes who do not understand the political processes.

We all have to recognize that democracy is a political system imposed against the authoritarian behavior of human beings which always seeks total control. Perhaps, American democracy is a response to the struggle of groups, but also to the imposition of the English crown as for the colonies. Democracy limits the control of people by their leaders, but also limits the total control of the leaders of a nation in the decisions they make.

The human being by nature has dictatorial attitudes reasons why the behavior of president Donald Trump is not something something new, but if the behavior of support to these dictatorial attitudes of this front president by some leaders of the republican party that does not understand the consequence of this support in the democratic future of this nation and the political parties that participate in it.





What is the danger of following a personalist leadership?

A personalist leadership must never replace the influence, confidence, and security offered by the legally established institutions that support the operation of the state and the democratic system that governs the American nation, something that Donald Trump  is doing every time he criticizes these institutions for political reasons.

The collapse of these institutions and loss of confidence of people in them in some cases result in political figures that take advantage of people's fear and distrust to acquire a role of savior as the only figure with the power and vision to rescue society from the problems that you are suffering. When this happens we are approaching a personalized dictatorship.

This type of populist individuals with a demagogue discourse end up implementing anti-democratic measures as a way to consolidate themselves in power. A type of political figure that would be new in the American political sphere. If the Republican leaders do not assume control of the current president's speech against the government institutions, they are creating the basis for the emergence of this type of leader.

"The lack of action of these Republican leaders are being complicit in this type of anti-democratic behavior against the nation in which democratic institutions are being destroyed by Donald Trump , while each of them remain silent or justify it. "

The current president of the nation is under investigation, no matter what name we politically put to this to disguise this legal reality. Whether or not the president Donald Trump is responsible for what is attributed is something that only the American justice system can decide on basis to the information it has regarding this issue at the end of the investigation.

Destroying the institutions that are involved in this investigation on Russian interference in last year's elections, can legally help the president Donald Trump by creating distrust in the results of this investigation, but politically it will disqualify the president for the future as a reliable political figure for the voters.

The unconditional support of the Republicans in favor of the president Donald Trump  will also damage the image of these judicial institutions in the future, which will result in a lack of credibility and trust in the people. With this behavior, Republicans are creating a precedent that other leaders will use in the future.

Believe me! If any leader of the Democratic Party is in the same situation, use the same legislative tactics used by the Republicans to justify the behavior of the current president will be used by the Democrats. This is the danger that this kind of judicial precedent will bring to American democracy in the future.

No institution under the control of the executive branch may in future investigate any president of the American nation. Conclusion which creates the legal basis that the president is above the law, because he has the right to replace anyone who is investigating in a case in which the president or a family member is involved. If we start from what many Republicans say right now when they try to defend the president.

When speaking about the current president of the nation Donald Trump, the representative groups of the American conservatives in the congress forgot the third pillar that supports their philosophical belief known as the rule of law. As we can see these politicians are only conservative when this ideology fills their political needs.


Is there a danger of a dictatorship in the United States right now? 

Knowing a bit of American history the dictatorial attitudes and behavior of the current president will only be a separate paragraph when telling the democratic history of this nation. The democratic culture of the American nation does not depend on the political vision of a single person, it does not matter if it is from the extreme right or left.

As long as Americans have the opportunity to freely choose their leaders, the administration's anti-democratic attitudes and little respect for institutions by the current president is a chapter of American history that they will remember very little in the future when a change in national leadership occurs. No matter the type of leader many times the people choose, leaders who are against the interests of the nation.

 If it does not fulfill the expectations of the voters in the next elections, they will have the opportunity to change the course of the nation. It does not matter how conservative or liberal this government is. Democratic values will only be lost in a republican administration if the American people allow the dictatorial ideas of a conservative government to remain in power more than what the constitution allows, something that I am sure will not happen. American conservatism has its limitations and Republican leaders know it.

Democracy is not a perfect system, that we all know, reasons why it still has many challenges in the nations that are trying to implement this political system and the American nation is not the exception. Democracy is part of American culture, but also contrary to other nations, American democracy is the reason behind the success of the market economy in this nation. Market economy which determines who will be the political leaders who govern us.

Can the anti-democratic attitudes of this president Donald Trump change the reality of the other America? only if you believe in fairy tale. Some students of human behavior consider that when hope comes to a person's mind, the changes produced by this feeling also change the vision of the environment that surrounds people. Environmental improvements which only exist in the eyes of those in whom hope is part of their life pulling aside what reality really shows. I call it political self-deception.

Given the cultural, ethnic-racial change in the American nation in the coming decades, how much your talk of American conservatism will eventually become a politically used utopia to attract those tied to this romantic idea of ​​America that only exists in the mind of some and small cities isolated from the rest of the nation.


Will there always be this struggle between rural America and urban American?

Only if the population trend is reversible in which the size of cities decreases and the rural population increases, but also if the population growth of non-white decreases and the white population increases.  Right now the influence of urban America on political decisions is increasingly important, contrary to the rural America whose influence is declining, no matter how important rural voters have been to is the triumph of this president.

The American nation is increasingly politically moderate, more racially diversified and economically more unequal, which in the long term implies death in the political scene of the American conservative ideology, but also the liberal ideas as we know it today. This presidents is the last hope that conservatives see to implement a political and economic agenda that fills their interests.

The actions of the extreme conservative American right wing in terms of its support for the current president Donald Trump does not matter that the dictatorial behavior and denigration of the institutions such as the FBI and the justice departments, we must see it within this act of the survival of American conservatism in the face of reality of a future that we can all see.

This president Donald Trump  is showing how far the American conservatives will come to try to change the direction the American nation is heading, the loss of moral values ​​in the conservative movement, the anti-immigration policies are directed towards this goal and the support for the behavior of this presidents against the important institutions for the democratic system tells us that we will conserve lost essence as a credible political ideology.