World shouldn’t laugh at US too soon | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Monday
June 09, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
MONDAY, JUNE 09, 2025
World shouldn’t laugh at US too soon

Politics

Mihir Sharma, Bloomberg
10 January, 2021, 02:15 pm
Last modified: 10 January, 2021, 03:38 pm

Related News

  • India, US push to finalise interim tariff deal as Trump's deadline nears
  • US and Europe trade negotiators discuss tariffs in Paris
  • Clamping down: Once Japan, now China
  • Elon Musk leaving Trump administration, capping turbulent tenure
  • Touhid expresses concern over widespread rumour campaigns during meeting with USCIRF chair

World shouldn’t laugh at US too soon

Before gloating at America’s democratic stumbles, other countries should recognize how much stronger its institutions are than their own

Mihir Sharma, Bloomberg
10 January, 2021, 02:15 pm
Last modified: 10 January, 2021, 03:38 pm
Jacob Anthony Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, of Arizona, stands with other supporters of US President Donald Trump as they demonstrate on the second floor of the US Capitol near the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses, in Washington, US, January 6, 2021/Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.
Jacob Anthony Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, of Arizona, stands with other supporters of US President Donald Trump as they demonstrate on the second floor of the US Capitol near the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses, in Washington, US, January 6, 2021/Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

In much of the world, the sight of a mob storming the United States Capitol to keep their leader in office was met not just with horror but with, let's face it, schadenfreude. Finally! The US, which has for decades lectured other democracies about their imperfections and failures, had an anti-democratic moment of its own. Some here in India responded in keeping with the honored traditions of this country — i.e., WhatsApp jokes ("Owing to Covid-19 travel restrictions, this year's US-backed coup will take place at home"). The Times of India's banner headline was "Coup Klux Klan."

Others' humor was a little drier. The Russian foreign ministry, which has perfected the art of straddling provocation, irony and fact, noted mournfully that "the electoral system in the United States is archaic; it does not meet modern democratic standards," which is particularly infuriating because of its exact truth. The Turkish press release sounded like officials had gleefully cut-and-pasted past advisories from the US State Department, down to the advice that "Turkish citizens in the US avoid crowded areas."

Now, a lot of this is entertaining and some of it is understandable. Certainly, nobody who lives in an emerging nation likes to hear shocked liberal Americans declaring their country's turmoil similar to events "in the Third World." In India, for example, we manage to conduct much larger elections than the US endures with far fewer complications.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

But I think all of us busy mocking the US and declaring the end of American exceptionalism also need to take a deep breath. The fact is that America has survived its populist moment in far better shape than most of the rest of us.

Remember: Donald Trump was impeached once and might be again. He has been repudiated by several influential leaders of his own party. He has lost re-election and all his attempts to overturn the result have failed. His party has been rewarded for its embrace of populism with the loss of not just the White House but also of both chambers of the legislature. And Trump himself has been cornered into conceding defeat. That is what you might objectively call a drubbing.

Such a drubbing is not, I hasten to assure you, the usual result of electing a populist. Generally, such leaders ensconce themselves comfortably in power and their victory margins seem mysteriously to grow with each election. There are far too many places where voting is always free but rarely fair, and where democratic despots seem never to be deposed. I wonder how we can even drum up the enthusiasm to mock America, which is emphatically and demonstrably not one of those countries.

I don't want to minimize the damage that Trump could and did do to America. And it is an open question whether another four years in power would have left the US completely incapable of resisting his corrupting influence. Yet, in comparison to other nations — from Russia to Turkey, Hungary to India — American institutions have demonstrated their value and resilience. Liberal democracies are only as robust as their institutions are independent and their officers are honest. And, because institutions and officials in the US preserved their integrity, Trump was forced to fight a free and fair election — and will have to leave after he convincingly lost it.

In America, judges — even those appointed by Trump — threw out dozens of frivolous court cases. That's what an independent judiciary does and it is also why populists in places such as Poland and India are reducing judges' freedom to maneuver.

In America, even Republican officials such as Georgia's governor and secretary of state stood up to their party's leader, bluntly refusing to follow his bidding. I'm struggling to imagine an equivalent phone call between, say, Vladimir Putin and a provincial leader from United Russia.

And in America, an adversarial media actually reported on Trump's corruption in power, as well as his attempts to retain it illegally. We were told in great detail about the colossal ineptitude of his legal team and the poverty of their arguments. In India, the media — even those so adept with puns — would never present the case for ruling-party venality and ineptitude as clearly.

Face it, the death of American exceptionalism has been greatly exaggerated. The rest of us democracies still have some things to learn. For example, it is now clear which institution we need to protect at all costs: the judiciary. Judicial independence is the canary in the populist coal mine; every would-be supremo, from Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico to Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, must first ensure the courts will do his bidding. The European Union is right to draw a red line about Hungary and Poland's abandonment of the "rule of law."

It's OK to have a fun few days laughing at America's discomfiture and at the breast-beating exaggerations of its pundits and politicians. (The US is a country so comfortable it has forgotten what "sedition" actually is.) But, afterwards, let's take a harder look at ourselves and at how to restore our own democracies to health.


Mihir Sharma is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was a columnist for the Indian Express and the Business Standard, and he is the author of "Restart: The Last Chance for the Indian Economy."


Disclaimer: This opinion first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.


 

Top News

US / US 2020 election / US Capitol Attack / Pro-Trump Supporters / US Capitol Hill Storming / US Capitol Hill / Trump supporters / Capitol Hill Storming / Capitol Riots

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photos: Collected
    Abdul Hamid wasn't arrested because he's not wanted right now: Home adviser
  • A surveillance footage shows crew of the Gaza-bound British-flagged yacht "Madleen", put their hands up as strong light came into the vessel, in this screengrab from a video released on June 9, 2025. Freedom Flotilla Coalition/Handout via REUTERS
    Israeli forces seize Gaza aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg
  • Photo: Screengrab
    EC will announce national polls roadmap in due time following CA’s declaration: Asif Mahmud

MOST VIEWED

  • File Photo: British MP Tulip Siddiq attends a news conference with Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of jailed British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, in London, Britain October 11, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo
    Tulip requests CA Yunus for a meeting over corruption allegations: Guardian
  • Representational image of Dhaka metro rail. Photo: Mumit M/TBS
    Metro rail takes Eid break today
  • Photo: Reuters
    Trump says Musk relationship over, warns of 'serious consequences' if he funds Democrats
  • Representational image. Photo: Reuters
    Bangladesh reports 3 more Covid-19 cases
  • Muhammad Yunus (L) and Narendra Modi. Photo: Collected
    Modi sends Eid-ul-Adha greetings, Yunus calls for continued bilateral cooperation
  • Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal
    From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

Related News

  • India, US push to finalise interim tariff deal as Trump's deadline nears
  • US and Europe trade negotiators discuss tariffs in Paris
  • Clamping down: Once Japan, now China
  • Elon Musk leaving Trump administration, capping turbulent tenure
  • Touhid expresses concern over widespread rumour campaigns during meeting with USCIRF chair

Features

File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

5h | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

2d | Bangladesh
Illustration: TBS

Unbearable weight of the white coat: The mental health crisis in our medical colleges

4d | Panorama
(From left) Sadia Haque, Sylvana Quader Sinha and Tasfia Tasbin. Sketch: TBS

Meet the women driving Bangladesh’s startup revolution

5d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

CA leaves for London this evening on four-day official tour

CA leaves for London this evening on four-day official tour

19m | TBS Today
Former BGMEA Senior Vice President Abdullah Hill Rakib passes away

Former BGMEA Senior Vice President Abdullah Hill Rakib passes away

1h | Others
What explanation did the Home Affairs Advisor give for not arresting former President Abdul Hamid?

What explanation did the Home Affairs Advisor give for not arresting former President Abdul Hamid?

2h | TBS Today
Former president Abdul Hamid returns to Bangladesh from Thailand

Former president Abdul Hamid returns to Bangladesh from Thailand

2h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net