When Norms Break Down
A return of Trump to the presidency will create the conditions for the further erosion of rules, norms and social trust. And establish an era of impunity.
Like many people at the moment, I am currently in a heightened state of anxiety. With just over a week until the United States presidential election the prospect of Donald Trump returning to the White House fills me with dread. It may seem odd for an non-American to care so much about a foreign election, but due to the scale of America’s influence what happens there is of critical importance to the rest of us.
There is a perspective that second Trump presidency may just mean it will be four more years of unhinged ranting and relentless weirdness. Good fodder for comedians and memelords, but with an expectation that day-to-day life will go on in a regular way. I am no so confident. Because Trump represents and encourages a new era we have entered into. One of impunity – an era where norms are attacked, rules are for suckers and accountability is weak. Where no-one believes in or adheres to mutually beneficial practices. Where impudence reigns.
So much of our daily lives are governed by conventions that rely on fealty and character. The things that we rely on for our day-to-day activities don’t just work automatically. They are guided by a series of norms and rules that people instinctively understand and submit themselves to. We depend on institutions and structures that have specific roles that they perform well, with an implicit recognition that to politicise everything would mean that these structures will start to degrade.
This is what we are seeing now.
The U.S is unique in that it politicises almost every public role. From local dog catcher all the way up to the Supreme Court, everything comes with a party or political identity. It means that the concept of neutral, or mutually beneficial, rules are under constantly stress. It makes everything seem political, and in a two party system, everything feels “us vs them”. Trump’s political project has been to recognise this institutional stress and actively seek to press it to breaking point.
Due to these structural failings the country has been reliant on the personal restraint of politicians. Trump has understood that without such restraint the norms, rules, conventions, laws, constitutions, and democracy itself can all be easily subverted. That if you have enough gall and shamelessness you can refuse to submit to all of these in the name of party politics. Or, in Trump’s case, to serve his rapacious and insatiable ego. The public have been primed for such “total politics” by the system itself.
What concerns me is the influence this is having not only in the U.S, but globally. Trump has opened a Pandora’s Box of new behaviours that other conmen and brutes will see as an opportunity. We are already in an era of greater global impunity –whether it be Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, in the Middle East, in Sudan, in Myanmar, and with China’s assault on the international law in the South China Sea. A Trump victory sends a powerful signal that the world is now much more of a dog-eat-dog free-for-all.
Extraordinarily, it will also mean having a U.S president who is sympathetic to dictators. The narrative that Trump is an “isolationist” is a misleading one. Trump has ideological sympathy for the world’s strongmen. He fancies them, he wants to be like them, and this is only one step away from wanting to align and collaborate with them. Or at the very least allow them to have their way. What kind of world will we have when the two most powerful countries are both actively hostile to conventions, rules and norms?1 It won’t be a more stable one.
This global instability will exacerbate the tensions with everyday relations between individuals – as we are seeing with the conflict in Palestine/Israel. A world of impunity will further erode our bonds of trust. Erode a sense of good will. And create social conditions where norm breaking and a rejection of social responsibility feels necessary. Making cynicism, selfishness, and an obsession with power the traits that guide human relations.
A culture of impunity thrives within these dark emotions. Current U.S politics is demonstrating that there are no consequences for lies and bullshit in the pursuit of power. Whether it is from Trump himself or the conga line of dipshit sycophants that surround him. A culture of total politics means that these people are daring institutions to hold them accountable. Yet the mechanisms of accountability have been undermined and corrupted. There’s little trust in their functions, and sowing this mistrust has been by design. It paves the way for impunity.
When poor personal conduct is rewarded it disincentivises positive conduct – within domestic politics, international relations, the functions of key institutions, and our daily personal interactions. Being elected president of the U.S is an extraordinary reward for a man of such vile malevolence, and so the signal it sends is massive.
My fear is that we probably won’t truly understand the effects of this degradation until it creates widespread and daily difficulties in people’s lives. Even those who are attracted to Trump, who want to set the world on fire, won’t understand the implications of this until its their own house is caught in the blaze.
What I am also concerned about is that elite classes, like my own, may comment on these problems in the abstract, but won’t feel them in our daily lives. Those with social capital and the financial and educational capabilities to negotiate a less rule-bound world should be permanently cognisant of how those without these resources will fare in such a world.
But I don’t think they will. There is an insulation from this degradation. Which is in itself a danger. This insulation is part of the social conditions that has led to a figure like Trump gaining such traction. Comfort breeds obliviousness.
Despite my worry, I still remain hopefully that Kamala Harris can win. Trump, of course, will try to set fire to the country if he loses. It’ll be a chance for institutions to stand up again and defend the country. If they do so the incentives to overthrow rules and norms becomes weaker. If character cannot convince people of their importance, a dead end may be the best we can hope for.
The U.S, of course, has never been a perfect respecter of rules. But on the whole has remain orientated towards liberal principles.