political trends within the United States

 The binary between democracy and autocracy is getting blurred by political trends within the United States

A different situation prevails

granting presidential immunity would impact American democracy

July 1, 2024 ruling of the Supreme Court which granted former U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to guarantee that that his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election would not go to trial before the presidential election in November.

The Supreme Court allowed American Presidents an absolute immunity from prosecution /  complete immunity from criminal prosecution 

We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office.

 At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is also entitled to immunity.”

The Supreme Court decision does not place Presidents above the law, but removes restrictions on possible presidential abuse of power placed by both Democrats and Republicans since the 1970s, when growing executive authority and abuse of power were checkmated after Watergate.

Three liberal judges dissented

from this decision, warning that granting presidential immunity would impact American democracy.

 Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “the category of presidential action that can be deemed unofficial is destined to be vanishingly small.”

Phases of transformation

The American presidency has undergone periods of transformation 

The first was the rise of the administrative state 

1 The administrative state 

is a term used to describe the power of some government agencies to create, enforce, and judge their own laws.

2 This was is rise under Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, which grew in size and cost under Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.

3  when bi-partisan values /   common ways    broadened the scope of government intervention and generated a complex bureaucracy to address social problems and social welfare.

4  This administrative state, with its resources and agencies, enabled Presidents from both parties to direct public policy and construct their legacies. 

They needed to bring the administration under their direct control, which led to the centralised apparatus / tools that reposes in the Executive Office of the President.

Opposing this system 

Far-right opinion began to regard the ever-expanding administrative state as unconstitutional, socialist and opposed to individual liberties. 

President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act 

that have

•  autocratic powers, 
• expanded the surveillance capabilities of the administration, 
• and allowed torture of prisoners contrary to statutory law.

Republican conservatism

is concentrated among less educated, blue-collar, white, rural, religious populations disadvantaged by globalisation, threatened culturally and economically, and driven by grievance and anger. 

They seek a leader to attack the prevailing system, flout its procedures and take remedial action on their behalf.

 Democrats are seen as their enemies rather than political opponents, the contest pitting the people against big government and the corrupt and illegitimate Washington establishment.

The new normal

In Donald Trump

From the moment he announced his intention to seek the presidency, he made it clear that he had little use for the legal limitations of democracy. 

During his tenure, Mr. Trump waged a campaign against the norms and institutions of two-party politics, the climax being shortly after his 2020 election loss, when, despite his deploying the authoritarian actions of a strongman presidency, he was prevented from overriding Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Populist extremism is the new normal of the political Right 

that has taken over the Republican Party. It energises the party with hatred for the administrative state and embraces a strongman presidency as the panacea for its grievances, thereby threatening the basic fundamentals of democracy.

 This is given substance by Mr. Trump himself through ambiguous but ominous pronouncements to supporters such as in Florida on July 26 — “you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” Unless such sentiments are blunted in the years to come, democracy in the United States faces an uncertain future

Source the hindu