It may be that it is not just a little bit but quite substantial amount that stands behind legality. Not least the recent debates in the United States of America give evidence.
Much can be said – and must be said – about Mr Trump as potential president. There are many aspects when looking at his past governing, not least a very peculiar understanding of human rights; but looking at the current constellation there is another point that is relevant, much beyond this one person; it is about the understanding of human rights in a society that claims to be enlightened and feels also committed to religious values.
The 1843 magazine (July 18th, 2024 – https://www.economist.com/1843/2024/07/18/donald-trump-messiah-or-naughty-boy?utm_campaign=a.1843-newsletter&utm_medium=email.internal-newsletter.np&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=7%2F21%2F2024&utm_id=1906440), quotes a citizen:
He’s the sword and shield of God, no doubt about it
A lengthy passage from the article, titled Donald Trump: messiah or naughty boy? and written by Dan Halpern, is well suitable to show the violent fundamentalism that prevails in the state that still claims to be global gendarme … and that gains so much attention by other states that we can say that there is an acknowledgement of this priority claim.
He’s the sword and shield of God, no doubt about it,” a delegate told me, straining to be heard over loud music, before the first session of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “I’ve been told I’m not supposed to offend our brothers and sisters who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their lord and saviour, so not to make a big deal of it. But we know God has chosen Donald J. Trump to protect us from those who would do us harm, smite those who despise us, and wash our sin away. And now we know we cannot lose, because God has told us we cannot.”
“God has chosen Donald J. Trump to protect us from those who would do us harm, smite those who despise us, and wash our sin away”
Some Republicans have long seen Trump as the messiah – sent by God to save America. Following the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, this idea has gone mainstream. As far as maga world was concerned, the election was in the bag. God had anointed Trump. I heard many people at the convention talk about how God’s grace had saved the presumptive Republican nominee from death, turning his head at the exact instant Thomas Matthew Crooks began firing at him.
Is it completely absurd to be reminded of the crusades of the time before the Enlightenment? And the absolutist kings that ruled their world, even more worrying, made their own world, demanding that everybody must obey and even allow the body snatcher to work.
It is not about Trump, it is about the spirit of fundamentalism, absolutism and crusading … – Cum grano salis, the following must be seen here too
You can’t take this so seriously, he begins again, embracing the room with a wide arm movement. These are procedures. Procedures. Bureaucratic procedures that are set in motion by certain behaviours, as if at the push of a button. It doesn’t have much to do with them personally.
(Zeh, Julia: Corpus Delicti. Ein Prozess; Munich; btb: 71; translation by the present author)