Will our democratic system collapse into chaos?

This week’s Mediahuis/INM Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Is democracy reaching its sell by date? I can imagine that introduction might incline you to question my sanity, something I do on a regular basis.

A friend of mine was home on holiday from Australia last month. We worked together at The Kerryman newspaper and have stayed in touch over the years.

He’s a lawyer by trade. I’ve always considered him a highly intelligent person. He has that great ability of thinking outside the box and has an aversion to kowtowing to the status quo. He is also extremely funny and is never slow to jeer at sacred cows. Maybe that’s why I like him.

When he was in Ireland we had many discussions about the Trump phenomenon. While he is no fan of Trump he simply asks the question what’s the difference between Trump’s Republicans and Biden’s Democrats. For every argument I threw at him criticising Trump he counter argued citing the behaviour of the Bidens.

It’s difficult to understand how the most powerful democracy in the world can offer its voters someone like Trump. 

I watched his opening 2024 presidential campaign speech, which he delivered in Waco in Texas. It was a long boring rant, filled with vulgar and vile words. The more crass were his words, the louder were the cheers from his fans. It was filled with hate and sneering.

On the other hand Joe Biden, at least to me, seems to be a much more gracious person, more considered too. But he can stumble over his words, at times looks unsteady on his feet. Is this the best America can do: 80-year-old Biden in the blue corner and 76-year-old Trump in the red corner?

Yes, Pope Francis is 86. But who would for a moment say that the Catholic Church is in healthy state. 

There are those who say Francis has brought the church to near schism. Not so. The signs of schism were present long before Jorge Bergoglio arrived in Rome.

Many blame social media for the cause of it all. That is too big a generalisation. Social media may well be playing its part, but long before the arrival of social media there were signs of democracy/western society fraying at the edges. Populist parties have been gaining traction across all democracies. They simply say no to whatever those who are in power do. There is the ever increasing voter appeal of the far right. 

The far right and the far left are becoming indistinguishable. They share a common mercilessness and nastiness. The more extreme they are, the more screams of approval they get from the madding crowd. And that applies in the churches too.

Putin talks about creating a new world order, so did Hitler. China has made it clear that Taiwan will soon be governed from Beijing.

Whatever about the expansionist plans of Moscow and Beijing, I keep wondering what must Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping be thinking of democratic systems/western world.

My Australian visitor believes the democratic system will collapse in chaos and be replaced with a strict authoritarian rule. Who knows?