Trump’s Declining Support Exposes the Limits of America’s Fixed-Term Presidency
So, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is out after less than two years at 10 Downing Street, mostly victim of continuing bad economic news.
Moreover, Starmer resigned when it became clear that his own Labor Party’s confidence in his leadership had eroded so substantially that he could not lead. In effect, Starmer did the right thing, getting out the way to allow a different team to take over a drifting ship.
Compare that to the American cousin country where Donald Trump daily is showing plummeting polling over war, tariffs, excessive deportation and abuse of the prosecutorial tools of the Justice Department and other government agencies for political gain. Beyond his growing political problems internationally and domestically, Trump now finds himself unable to get his legislative proposals and now even some of his appointees through even the Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
Trump is being ridiculed for his focus on self-glorifying projects to etch his name on buildings, add Trumpian gold flourishes everywhere and obsess about “vandalism” causing the algae bloom in the National Mall’s reflecting pools during summer heat – all while problems of hunger, health, pollution and global instability grow.
Trump cannot or will not explain why he talks peace and war practically in the same sentence any more than he can provide any sustainable evidence for his anti-immigrant zealotry or his insistence that “rigged” elections result when voters decide against him.
Needless to say, Trump is not talking about walking away even for the good of a country that finds him increasingly out of touch. If we’re depending on the coming election is going to have to speak loudly about changing directions, the recent primaries show us that there is an anger building that Trump is seeking desperately to redirect.
Parliamentary Systems
Of course, the differences stem from our systems of government. The parliamentary system in Great Britain, as in many other countries, requires greater adherence to popular responsibility and accountability than do the fixed presidential terms of our democrat republic. At least as significantly, other presidents have chosen to live within the written law and the spirit of law that has meant even powerful American presidents have shown some deference to Congress, the courts and to the national public.
Trump’s recently repeated statements of unlimited and unrestrained power show it is not constitutional frameworks or chosen systems of governance that is at stake, but his chosen means to prefer authoritarian dictators throughout world history as his guides to leadership.
It would be bad even if Trump were successfully handling the multiple problems facing this country through his self-selected bullyism. But on so many fronts, Trump is coming up so short that his stylized approach to power is to blame others for his own bad choices, to insist that ill effects should be seen as wins, and that anyone who dares to air or offer public criticism is inviting investigation or criminal prosecution.
Worse, Trump, his family and businesses are making money from our collective inability or lack of will to hold him accountable for his actions.
Parliamentary systems are no panacea. Great Britain is paying the price for its populist Brexit departure from the European Union a decade ago, and it has not balanced either its decline as a world power or its economic problems against the rising social services needs it must deliver. And so, we are seeing the emergence of a seventh prime minister in a decade, hardly a sign of stability.
Some parliamentary systems, like Canada’s or Australia’s, seem to function relatively smoothly, despite occasional ideological transitions. On the other hand, countries like Israel find that parliamentary systems do not protect a public from a dominating politics that depends on increasingly thin coalitions built as much on ego as national will.
For a host of legal, practical and philosophical reasons, Americans are not going to switch systems anytime. But we could do a much better job of requiring that our leaders at least hear what the criticism they earn and the rightness of owning up to their errors.
Our Elections
The localized primaries increasingly seem to be seen on the national scale. As the spotlight has moved during the primaries from state to state or district to redrawn district, each is being seen as much a mini referendum on Trump as on any local issues. The races have been marked by a huge influx of campaign money and a slew of he-said, she said political ads from anonymized political action groups.
The only issue of lasting note among Democrats seems to be who has been positioned as the loudest anti-Trump vote, regardless of the fact that as a whole, the Congress has proved ineffective at stopping Trumpism.
What this Tuesday’s election reaped was a bushel of headlines about the influence of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to knock off two Democratic congressional incumbents, progressives both, and elect a third in a district with a retirement, with younger, brasher, more solidly anti-Israel candidates. From all accounts, it was Mamdani’s backing with young voters of color that made the difference for his slate more than any one policy factor.
Our politics are as much about perception about where our politics stand as it is about the various labels or party banners being waived.
The takeaway, however, is that it is Trump who should be worried, even as his popularity fell anew in the most recent polls. The U.S. system is slower to respond that those parliamentary set-ups, but the inexorable rise of anger and frustration over the combination of military and diplomatic decisions contrary to the Trump promises, the effects of prices and personal corruption are building.
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