Robert Boxwell

Opinion | Four years on, US democracy is plumbing new depths and divisions are more entrenched. How will it end?

Media bias has gone from bad to worse, as both sides fight to attract a bigger audience. Meanwhile, the US president can’t stop his trash talk and unite the country against a virus that has killed 200,000 Americans

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Why you can trust SCMP

Robert Boxwell

Published: 1:45am, 24 Sep 2020Updated: 2:52am, 24 Sep 2020

Four years ago, I wrote about new lows that American democracy was plumbing as we approached the 2016 presidential election. We had two candidates on offer, “in a battle to finish second-to-last in two centuries of presidential candidates”. Even worse, the US news media was self-destructing, giving up something money can’t buy – its integrity – to help their chosen one win. I concluded that “we look ridiculous, and America’s rivals in Beijing hope we keep it up”.

We did a lot more than keep it up. What politicians and the media on both sides have done to American institutions for the past four years has been much worse for the country – and for democracy everywhere – than the candidates they foisted on voters in 2016.

After Donald Trump was elected president, cries were heard from apoplectic Democrats to “resist”, conjuring up images of gallant French freedom fighters trying to rid themselves of the Nazis. This was an early indication that nothing would be off-limits in running Trump out of office.

Most of the US media fight the Democrats’ corner, and have done so with the zeal of suicide bombers. That’s not an inapt analogy, given the damage they’ve done to the fourth estate by frequently abandoning facts and fairness on all things Trump. For four years, Americans have been fed a steady diet of “news” and “analysis” about how Trump is an illegitimate president and other unpleasant things. It’s ongoing.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are threatening (or promising, depending on your point of view) to wage all-out war on institutions that keep the US government in check if they take power. They talk of abolishing the Electoral College, stacking the Supreme Court, eliminating the filibuster, giving automatic citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants and giving statehood to Washington DC and Puerto Rico. The effect of the latter two changes would probably add millions more Democrats and four more Senate seats to cement the overhaul. Because of Trump.

02:39

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The Republicans and the media in their corner aren’t much better, though as more of what transpired in 2016 and 2017 comes to light, a significant claim they’ve been making seems to be gaining merit.