Four years of Donald Trump have left US democracy deeply wounded. However, never forget that the wounding has started long before with Donald Trump and his birther conspiracy one of the peak points of the whole lying, misleading and misinformation circus. As a result, when we wait for the outcome of the 2020 presidential elections, the big question is if these wounds are going to eventually heal or deepen. Oddly, in both cases Donald Trump plays a major role.

Healing is not going to be an easy process. Systematic racism – to start from the obvious – has deep roots in USA; it was always there and is not going to go away overnight. What Donald Trump changed, was bringing it to the surface from the dark places it was long hiding from the public light and legitimizing it. Social injustices, economic indifferences, work, health and pension insecurities were also always there but again they are not hiding anymore under the mat of the greatest economic power on earth, but they have surfaced due to tax cuts only for the rich, constantly rising unemployment, increasing work inequality, gigantic deficit and of course, a lot of help from a pandemic.

Setting aside the pandemic, nothing of all the above is new for USA; they were always there, slowly building up. What really kept them in balance and somehow under the surface, was the periodical switch of power between the Republicans and the Democrats with most of the American presidents (Republicans or Democrats) fully aware of their role, being the president and leader of all Americans and not just of a loyal entourage and fanatic voters.

This is what will historically identify Donald Trump’s presidency; he was never the president of all Americans. He was the emperor of a close ranks group of loyalists, certain interests (mainly economic) lobbies, fanatics and hooligans. To be clear by ‘hooligans’, it’s a reference to football hooligans. His narcissistic egocentric and probably sociopath ego rarely left him see any further from that group and its interest however twisted they might have been. This is where racism and polarized revisionism found the soil to grow and in the end conquer him.

Donald Trump essentially failed the American people, that’s his legacy in US history but he’s not over yet despite wining or losing. While failing the American people, he has championed all kinds of backyard minorities and the stronghold of American rural life, the rednecks, actually uniting them under his flag.

From Evangelists to KKK and from football hooligans to far-right extremists with homophobes and xenophobes in the middle, everybody has found settler under Trump’s wings. And Trump knows that this is his power. Not only for his narcissist ego but also for his wealth and continuation. And he is using them regardless of the consequences. After all, this is a life or death fight for him.

Donald Trump will not go to prison if he loses; after all he never killed a man in the centre of New York. But members of his family will. Members of his surroundings will. And he will definitely lose most of his money, spending the rest of his life in courtrooms all around USA. Still, this is not the worst for the Donald. The worst is that he knows that he will be a loser with his name dragged in history’s mud. And this is the worst that can happen to the Donald. Donald Trump cannot let this happen and he is ready to sacrifice the whole nation if he loses since his dogma has long been “win or lose, I will take you all down with me”. Actually this is how he ruled his companies for decades and this is how he managed to escape humiliation with all his failed and bankrupted cons. And if violence and national arrest is part of his “I will take you all down with me” then to quote the Donald: it is what it is!

From the other side, Joe Biden is not the perfect alternative, but he is the only alternative and that shows how deeply wounded the US democracy is. It also shows how the two-party democracy has failed, limiting alternatives between a moderate, 1980s style conservative Democrat and an authoritarian self-centred sociopath Republican. It is literally the essence of the saying: in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man becomes the king. No other qualifications are required.

USA has the laws and the necessary structures to control and defuse any kind of arrest and disobedience even if it comes from the highest office in the country alas the problem was never with the laws and the structure but with the people who apply the law and enforce the structures and lately they have also fail the American people. And this is where the role of Donald Trump – not the president – becomes critical. Win or lose.

In the meantime, good luck America!