Rise of Donald Trump - Trump Paves the Way for Tyranny

Jesse Denenberg

COMM450

Professor Damien Smith Pfister

December 12, 2016

Trump Paves the Way for Tyranny

It is unfathomable to imagine the unfortunate change of power from a soft-spoken, an intellectual and a diplomat to an ineloquent, ill-mannered and unstoppable aggressor who exhibits an insatiable appetite for inflicting fear and global discomfort. The aforementioned state of affairs succinctly defines the current succession in the United States of America, which has sparked excitement and discomfort in equal measure. Many Americans are excited and eagerly motivated by Trump’s declaration of ‘Making America Great Again’. On the other hand, immigrants, minorities, and the LBGT community are worried about the imminent aggression and impunity that the election of Donald Trump portends. This paper presents an analytical relationship between Plato’s disposition of democracy and the election of Donald Trump while citing the possibility of an imminent autocratic regime in the United States of America due to the current state of affairs of our political system. Therefore, the rise of Donald Trump to become the president of the United States of America is an accurate reflection of the possibility of the democratic degeneracy into an autocracy through a democratic process because of his tyrannical attitude, his use of demagoguery, and his speeches for freedom and liberty. Trump is the democratic leader that paves the way for tyranny that Plato predicts in The Republic.

        Analyzing Donald Trump’s rise to presidency based on what Plato said about democracy will show that Trumps actions and statements leading up to his election is a comparable ideology to what Plato predicted. Plato writes about a type of governance, democracy, characterized by the total submission and adherence to the supreme authority of the wish and will of the governed.  It is admissible that democracy is the preferred type of governance due to its permissiveness, which augurs well with the public opinion. However, over the years, democracy has met criticism and praise in equal measures. Plato is construed to have foretold the existence of the modern democracy through his book, which is popularly known as Plato’s Republic (Ferrari p.130). Plato gives an elaborate sequence of the transition of power, which seems to question the credibility and the unperceived disorderliness that may sprout out of democratic tendencies. Plato expresses sequential hierarchy of power by acknowledging the superiority of oligarchy, which according to Plato is a rule of the people by the affluent and well-off individuals in the society. However, due to lethargy and sluggishness, the wealthy are made ineffective to command power and hence paves the way to democracy. It is irrefutable that Plato’s analysis appears to be ideal rather than the practical and transformational alternation of power seems to occur rather unconsciously in the republic as opposed to the reality (Lamb p.320). In practice, it is experienced that change of governance structure and power is rather impulsive and implosive in equal measure. This might be an oversimplification, while this is a philosophical argument, but there are very real day-to-day reasons that change occurs.