Communism could only exist under stringent state control with the use of secret police to monitor and control people which led to abuse, corruption and the loss of freedom that created a pushback that was met with repression.
The spread of information meant that those living in communist regimes were able to see the contrasts in living standards and freedom enjoyed by the capitalist west and this fueled discontent and a clamoring for change.
So, capitalism and democracy won conclusively the economic and ideological war and it is hard today to imagine that at one time Russia and China were the bulwark of communism in the world and that they were once on ideological opposite ends with The United States.
One would imagine that with The United States emerging victorious in this joust for ideological supremacy that the world would be enjoying a‘ Pax Americana’, a long peace emanating from The United States being the sole superpower existing.
The world seems to have accepted that the capitalist economic model works and it has been adopted by unlikely countries like China who have made it work so successfully that talking about Chinese dollar billionaires is no longer anachronistic.
Yet it remains inherently puzzling that many countries that have adopted a capitalistic economic model that is usually paired with democracy, have chosen not to adopt democracy as the ideological model for their countries. China has engineered an astounding economic recovery using capitalistic measures and granted a measure of freedom and autonomy to its citizens, which are democratic ideals, while retaining an authoritarian and centralized political structure.
So, citing an aggressive China and a resurgent Russia it appears that a country can adopt a liberal economic model to boost economic development while still retaining a basically oppressive political ideology that does not permit popular participation.
For a balanced narrative one would have to admit that among the fastest growing economies in the world is India, which is also recognized as the biggest democracy in the world and the country that best mirrors the ideals of democracy.
Yet the world is currently in economic
It appears that the problem with democracy is that it never envisaged that human nature is obtuse at best and that the noble human being whose highest purpose is a life of service to another human being is a fictional character.
disarray and the tension is palpable and there is a disquieting sense of an underlying conflict and the unlikely aggressor is The United States, formerly the world policeman now the world bully under the Trump administration.
The war seems to be an economic one although it is unclear who the prime foe is as he seems to be taking on the whole world simultaneously. Since Trump is also rattling the military saber against the American erstwhile allies, no one is clear who the enemy is.
Trump got his first stab at the presidency with a shrewd slogan that promised to make America great again and using his charismatic and jingoistic appeal to the covert bigotry which is at the core of American society, he created a fanatic following.
However, Trump soon realized that the checks and balances in the democratic system made it virtually impossible for him to deliver on his promises to the fan base and the system even twice impeached him in the process.
In his subsequent period in the cold after his one term loss to President Biden, Trump and his cronies started to study the flaws in democracy and decided to lead his onslaught on democracy by using the law to circumvent the constitutional checks on his power.
Ironically, the country that is at the forefront of dismantling democracy, is the same country that arm-twisted the world to adopt democracy as the only viable system of governance that guarantees freedom and a fair representation. Before we delve into the ways that Trump is systematically cancelling Democracy, we need to understand another insidious method that he is using to rewrite history, a process called historical revisionism, a deliberate attempt to change how a society remembers its past.
This is usually done by suppressing incriminating facts, promoting false
narratives and destroying shared memories in the hope of presenting an agenda that has a political and nationalistic bias. The idea is to erase history and rewrite it to conform to their reality.
To be fair, Trump is not unique in that many Americans are quite comfortable to rewrite their murky past and gloss over the historical injustices that they have not addressed but wish to portray them in a positive light to conform with their dubious Christian beliefs.
One particular historical fact the Americans, especially from the Confederate States, have attempted to rewrite is the one concerning the institution of slavery where the Southerners would like to portray slavery as having been a positive good for Black people.
They claim that enslaved people were provided with care, food and Christian salvation which they argue would not have happened had they remained in Africa, a deliberate falsehood masking the extreme violence and dehumanization the slaves went through.
Tied to this is the Southerners attempt to downplay and recast the role of slavery in The Civil War by romanticizing the war to claim that it was not about slavery but about individual state rights and an honorable defense of the Southern traditions.
Trumps brilliance was his ability to talk about the issue of immigration while communicating that immigrants were actually any non-white residents in America. The MAGA message was aimed at Americans in rural small towns and it resonated with their racial bias.
We also need to relook at democracy and interrogate the flaws that have made it possible for Trump to launch an assault on democracy and it appears that he is starting to succeed in dismantling that singular political ideology that actually made America great.