President Donald Trump And Upholding The American Dream

[caption id="attachment_15796" align="alignnone" width="620"]President Donald Trump[/caption]

The twentieth day of January will for countless generations mean so much to the people of the United States of America and indeed the entire world as it heralds, every four years, the inauguration of a new occupant of the number one address of the world – The White House, Washington DC. Going back to history, America’s first President, George Washington was actually inaugurated on April 30, 1789. On his second tenure, the ceremonies were held on March 4, 1793 and that became the commemorative inaugural day for about 140 years until the American Congress passed the “Twentieth Amendment” on January 23, 1933 by which the period of waiting of the President-elect (also known as the Lameduck period) has been greatly reduced to few weeks after confirmation of results of election by the electoral college. This brought the date for inauguration of a new Congress (Parliament) to 3rd January and the President to 20th January. The enigmatic personality, Franklin Roosevelt was the first to be inaugurated on 20th January 1937 as the 32nd President of the United States.

Americans have a penchant for homebred peculiarities is not the least on such significant event as Presidential inauguration. In many other countries with the Presidential system of government, the oath taking of a Head of State is an event largely by the protocol and state practices determined by the executive branch of the government in which the Chief Judicial Officer (Chief Judge) merely performs a function and the legislature are august guests. Even in some other climes where the swearing in holds in the chambers of parliament, it remains seen as an Executive function. Not so in the United States where it is a program under purview of Congress and holds glamorously in its premises. It is against this backdrop that 70 years old Mr. Donald Trump, the son of German immigrants, took the oath of office, few minutes after 12 noon on 20th January, 2017, as the 45th President of the United States of America.

In reminiscence, the emergence on the global scene in 1776 by the United States of America represented a fundamental departure from the old dictate of statecraft which was defined by the reign of absolute monarchies, expensive wars and alliances such as the Anglo-Franco wars, the Franco-German wars, Thirty Years wars and other internecine feuds. Indeed, it was a time when France was also shaken and rocked by the smoke of revolution as King Louis XVI was guillotined shortly afterwards in 1793. In those same years, Britain and France were also daggers drawn in war over questions of faith (defense of Catholicism and Ireland) by the later and deep seated animosities over faraway colonial estates in North America (Canada). It was only in 1815 that the great French armada, led by the seeming invincible and marauding Napoleon Bonaparte, who emerged after the collapse of the monarchy in Paris was defeated at the famous Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

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The new American nation itself was considered by most Englishmen of the time as the product of a sacrilegious rebellion and mutiny against the British Crown and the person of King George III. With all the events of the time, American statehood based on a republican credo was influenced copiously by the French Revolution with maxim of “equalite, fraternite, liberte” thereby giving global politics a new reason for the existence of the state. Indeed, the brand of American republican philosophy and ideology though not expressly underscored, but easily gleaned from the writing of its founding fathers, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton also borrowed much from the “Social Contract School”. As espoused by English Philosopher, John Locke and his French counterparts, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles de Montesquieu, social contractist insist that it was the people that gladly acquiesced their common will into a “volonte generale” which is supposed to be some kind of collective interest of all to form the state.

So, in the new world represented by American idealism, the social, ethical and jurisprudential foundation of the state was geared towards pleasing the common will of the people and not just the King, nobility or the aristocracy. This was well encapsulated in the chapeau to the declaration of independence, reading inter alia.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights… that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the govern.”

The new political order which came with the founding of America therefore provided for a new strongman – the President. Like the Emperors, Kings and Princes of order, this new personae was still endowed with strong powers, but he owed his position to the people collectively expressed through the ballot and to the document called “Constitution”. The Constitution has further tried within human possibilities to temper the powers of the President, including the setting up of a two-chambered Congress (Senate and House of Representatives). This was something similar to the House of Lords and House of Commons which the founding fathers of the new republic came with from the United Kingdom but adumbrated now with greater force.

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In pursuing these ideals, freedom came with great price. Like many other countries whose political history has been written on the blood of its people, the end of a fratricidal civil war which ensued after independence from Briton brought the American State and people much closer. More than that, it also taught the new nation at the time, a lesson that the interest of states is intrinsically determined by selfish factors. These include fundamentally, need to preserve their territorial integrity and the imbedding of the virtue of being strong internally through the building of a stronger federation and republic. Having occurred at the time of the beginning of the industrial revolution, post-war interaction, contacts and reconstruction became enhanced.

Although some of the legacy issues such as race remain critical factors, America has continued to maintain one of the founding principles promoting free society where the best of mankind have found a home. In the post-World War II era, America became the sanctuary for some of the best intellectuals, especially people from the Jewish community in Europe, all of whom joined to build the country. The best in scholarship, science and technology as well as commerce and enterprise were easily attracted by the allure of free society, its capitalism and free market. Of cardinal significance, the virtue of freedom enshrined in the country’s Constitution and Bill of Rights (the first amendments to the constitution) adopted by the Congress in 1789 was a magnetic pulling to this country of the best around the world.

It is a fact that the United States was not an active combating state both in World War I (1914-1918) and World War II (1939-1945) but was dragged into both wars. However, the massive increase in its government expenditure on military production for the wars bolstered its total economic recovery from depression. Specially, this made the country which hitherto, was a mere colonial outpost of Britain, faraway backyard of Europe and had to fight for independence for nearly seven years (1776-1783), to become the military powerhouse of the world including leading in nuclear power. America’s military industry became so monumental and overwhelming in a manner never seen before.

With all these and through the efforts of strong Presidents like Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, many of who were themselves decorated military persons, the country on the other side of the Atlantic, emerged on the scene to determine the post-World War II order. The USA therefore midwifed both the creation of the United Nations to deal with issues of political, strategic, social and inter-state relations and crafted the Bretton-Woods super-structure encompassing the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to provide direction and activity in the global economy.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Theodore Roosevelt, America’s 26th President, spent great moments to ponder on the future of the country and called his countrymen not to rest on the oars of the seeming industrial revolution, but adopt a more rigorous lifestyle. He championed the move for excellence and American supremacy and advantaged competitiveness in all areas of human endeavor. This paid off as the United States soon became the industrial work yard and warehouse of the world. Today, the country is only 4.4 percent of the world’s population but contributes about 24.5 percent to its GDP. In terms of food production, which is man’s first need, American farmers who make up only 2 percent of the country’s population cultivate an area of nearly 915 million acres of farmland and lead in the production of virtually every known crop and livestock. As a matter of fact, United States’ farm production places her in a position to be able to feed the whole world uninterrupted over a long period.

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Questions have commonly been asked about what has kept America strong and united and whether it will last longer. Why has the office of the American President become so powerful, gargantuan and straddling like a colossus over the entire global political landscape?

In answering these questions, it should be noted that the American dream and ideal have been founded on certain virtues which still remain strong today. Despite some right wing tendencies and seem accentuated since Donald Trump’s electoral victory, which are borne out of ignorance of the historical antecedents of its greatness, the process of aggregating some of the world’s best into one political space has been this country’s forte. Much more than any other human civilization, it also became the world’s dominant welfare state in the midst of livid capitalism. Besides the great premium placed on agriculture, infrastructure, military might based on technology, scientific advancement and huge expenditure on education, research and innovation will, for a long time in human history, keep the country dominant and internally strong.

Now that the country has emerged as the most powerful political entity and its Presidents, greater than any potentate ever known including Pharaoh, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Disqus Khan, Chaka the Zulu, Mansa Musa all put together, he becomes duty-bound to act despite the peculiar interests of his country as a kind of father of the whole world. Of course, fatherhood comes with its peculiar pride and expectations. For example is the expectation of moderation, maturity, role model status, tact, and to some extent, being a provider and protector.

American Presidential trajectory has turned out some of the greatest statemen the world has known. Apart from the great names of antiquity, like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, in modern times, world changers such as Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Ronald Regan and not the least, Bill Clinton, and our own Barack Obama, have all emerged on the scene. Each creating monumental impact in the sand of times and have left indelible marks for humanity to follow.

This is the background on which Donald Trump has assumed office. Interesting enough, President Trump is a different kind of person in terms of background, professional experience, and personality. He is debonair, outspoken, self-actuated, impulsive and independent minded. From the days of his pre-candidacy to being the flag-bearer of the Republican party, electoral victory, and transition, he has shown a temperament which is largely a variant from the known norm and expectations. Both his closest associates, fellow party members and countrymen and the entire world alike have remained gaped in awe and trepidation as how to what the US and world would be under Mr. Trump’s presidency.

But then, all are quick to acknowledge that the new helmsman in Washington is of usual intelligence and cerebral depth. He is also a great tactician and of outstanding courage and commitment to core conservative values of the federation. He has proved his mettle in commerce and industry, the censure of American grandstanding and assembled a “dream team” of some of the country’s most celebrated names. Beyond all these, the American dream has been casted around some intrinsic values and pillars, a great derogation from which would be futile. Even much more, the American state does not exist in autarky. Its leaders, as strong and mighty as they may be, have always realised that they need the rest of the world to be a super-power.

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Igali, PhD is an administrator, award-winning author, and diplomat. [email protected]

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