EOP 24: Trump’s trial, U.S. future, and lessons for Nigeria

By Uche Chris

President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial recently came to a predictably ignoble end with an undeserved acquittal by the Senate sitting as a trial court, after they had voted not to allow further witnesses or documentary evidence. It was evident from the outset that the senate would toe the line already set by the executive and the House Republican members in the impeachment proceedings, which was a blanket rejection of the process and refusal to examine the issues or allegations.

Everything was reduced to political considerations rather the search for the truth; it was not even about the law, which is usually an ass, that obeys and follows whoever is riding it. Truth is universal and indestructible. A post mortem of the entire episode reveals very critical and significant insights for America, Nigeria and the entire world.

In sum, it was a missed opportunity that has changed the country in a most fundamental manner which few people can comprehend now, but its historical ramifications are so profound and irreversible.

Today, it may sound so preposterously outlandish to make his call about the American society but it is the truth that stares us in the face. It is a truth that has been long in coming and was not created by the Trump’s trial; however the outcome of the trial provided not only the proof of its presence but inevitability: The American society and civilization is in trouble and there is only one path for it – down. The sloganeering of Make America Great Again, is a mere wishful thinking; America will not be great again; not in the present nor future.

The signals are everywhere except we are not looking; it may not happen in this decade because obviously attempts will be made to stem the slide, but it is historically inevitable and nothing will stop it. America now faces an uncertain and regrettable future as a second rate society. This statement may even been seen as irresponsible because of its weight but that is the lessons of history and political development of societies and civilizations.

In history, nations and civilizations rise and fall; so it is unrealistic and patronising to believe and hope that America would lead the world forever. Every society and civilization, as Karl Marx posited, contains the seed of its destruction. Once that seed is planted, it is only a matter of time; unfortunately it is America’s time and the Trump’s dispensation is a fulfillment of its date with history. Whether it is the Greek, Babylonian, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman empire etc these facts are the same.

Before America, modern history had produced Britain, Spain, Germany, and Russia as great or super powers. So from historical view point, it is easy to understand and acknowledge this fact. But there is more cogent reason and factor that make America a dying society, which the trial of Trump has unabashedly exposed and confirmed. The trial was an opportunity for the society to pull back from the brink and reinvent, restate and reinforce the authenticity of its world view and civilization, which they balked.

Every society exists and subsists on, what Bottomore in his book, Elite and Society, categorized as “elite consensus”; some aggregating and governing ideas and values that determine the minimum requirements and standards for corporate existence. No society or civilization can survive sustainably without such unifying consensus or ideology. It is the dominance of such values and morality in the American society that had not only unified it but made it an example and endowed it with moral strength and global leadership.

America is the first society to be built on the dreams and ideals of the best values of man and deliberately involved God in its affairs, and the pursuit of truth, justice and equality before the law and God as foundations of its existence. Although this had been violently tested on some occasions such as the slave trade, the Second World War, and civil right movements, and President Richard Nixon impeachment trial, the governing elite had always held together the founding ideals and salvaged their society from the usual enemy within.

These are ideals that in less than 300 years have made it the greatest society in history both in terms of social values and human development. But since the 1980s especially under President Ronald Reagan, these values have increasingly come under attack from those who had sworn to the constitution and God to defend it. Even though the music is still playing and dancers are on the floor, the handwriting is already on the wall that the players are either distracted or getting tired and the music would sooner or later stop.

Abraham Lincoln, one of their greatest leaders once said: “If America will ever be destroyed, such threat will not come from the outside; it will come from within”. What he meant is only a restatement of historical imperatives. No society or civilization has ever been destroyed as long as the elite remained united and upholding the best ideals and values. The trial was not about law and legality but truth, integrity and morality, deals that are at the foundation of the society.

When a society is divided over its soul and modus Vivendi, things can only fall apart. President Trump escaped conviction not because he is innocent but because of political division and when leaders or elites place political considerations above the higher values of social preservation and public good, it has become salt without its savour, and only good to be trodden upon. Republican senators exhibited cowardice because they are afraid of the president and unsure of their own positions, and when men are afraid of man rather the law and God, they have become prisoners of their own conscience and enemy of truth.

The trial has exposed the hypocrisy of America and compromised all the glorious and ennobling ideals it had stood for and made it the leader of the free world. What made America leader was not just its military prowess but its ideals and morality of freedom, truth, justice and equality. Trump has proved that truth is relative and reality has alternatives. He is most likely to win a second term and by the time he is done, America will not be great again; rather, America will be far more divided than today.

The lessons for Nigeria are profound: First, an elite group that is divided cannot hope to succeed as a group and keep the nation united and together. Second, when higher values and ideals of justice, equality and public good are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency and narrow group interest, the society faces existence challenge. Thirdly, a society that makes the fear of man rather than law and God the basis of its governance ethos it has signed for its destruction, because man is transient and fickle.

Uche Chris, [email protected]