Trump’s notoriety with women is not surprising. Just look at his quotes on social media platforms. There are so many distasteful, misogynistic examples: "Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody has more respect", and, “If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” Is Trump the true reflection of American values nowadays? Of course, not at all, but he has millions of die-hard supporters.

But it does not mean that Americans are facing an apocalypse now. They are just about to lose their absolute global power. The country has to readjust its new situation and accept the fact that other countries are growing and developing much faster than it is.

During the 32-year dictatorship of Soeharto, many Indonesians dreamed about adopting the majesty of US democracy, which Soeharto condemned repeatedly. According to the Army general, liberal democracy was satanic and his iron-fist leadership should be a role model for developing countries.

All US presidents during Soeharto’s rule between 1966-1998, including Ronald Reagan, George W Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton, advised him to follow the US model of democracy. Many people suspected US powers played an important role in the fall of Soeharto. But now?

The US’ practically two-party system, the Republicans and Democrats, is often magnified as an ideal political party system by many Indonesians who are fed up with the current multi-party system. Currently, nine political parties are seated in the House of Representatives, with a possibility for more parties to enter the game as at least 17 parties have qualified for the legislative elections in February next year.

But do those who look up to the US democracy still insist that Indonesia emulate the US party system after witnessing the deepening division between the Republicans and Democrats?

Last week, Tennessee’s Republican-led House expelled two black Democratic members from the House for advocating gun reform measures just a week after a mass shooting at a local school. Can you imagine how we could adopt such a system?

When foolish practices are still rampant in such an advanced and mature democracy, would you expect Indonesia to replicate the American way? We need to think twice, or even more.

Millions of Americans adore Trump and strongly believe until now that Trump’s victory in the 2020 election was robbed by the Democrats. At the same time, Trump has become a copybook model for dictator aspirants in the developing world. But it does not mean that the whole nation is losing its faith in democracy.

The same thing happened in Indonesia in the 2019 elections, billed as the most divisive contestation. Fortunately, the disunity lasted only a short time after the losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto agreed to join President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s Cabinet as defense minister.

Former Malaysian prime minister Mohamad Mahathir has a sharp description of Trump, and the US as a nation that cannot accept the reality that it is no longer the lone superpower. Trump, according to Mahathir, “can change his mind three times in 24 hours” and, “He thinks he is powerful so he can ask people to pay for what he wants to do.”

It was unbelievable that Trump showed such a deep adoration for Kim Jong-un, whom he met twice in Vietnam and Singapore. Trump said, "I was being tough. And so was he. And we'd go back and forth. And then we fell in love. OK? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. And they're great letters. We fell in love.”

The Washington Post reported that the National Archives seized “multiple boxes” of White House records Trump stole and stored in his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, instead of turning them over to the Archives, an apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. The records, which the Archives reportedly retrieved from Mar-a-Lago last month, included letters from Kim’s correspondence to Trump, referred to as “love letters”.

Trump is still much adored by millions of Republicans, many of them are even ready to die for the glorious return of their cult to the White House. For outsiders, one of the easiest ways to understand the situation is to regularly follow the pro-Democratic news channel CNN and the extremely pro-Conservative Fox News, which without hesitation reported, intensively, that Trump should be the real winner of the 2020 elections.

The US is internationally recognized as the world’s second-largest democracy after India, which is then followed by Indonesia. The American people take pride in their nation as the perfect model of democracy in the universe and they feel obliged to launch missionaries to democratize the whole world precisely in the US ways.

The system is pivotal in making it possible for migrants to achieve the American dream. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the American dream as “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” Should the term be readjusted with the new reality of the US?

The US is no longer the only hegemon. China is moving closer to replacing the US, forcing the latter to readjust to its new position. The global perception of China, however, is more dominated by fear factors, while US democracy has been rooted so deeply in world society.

US democracy is becoming a laughing stock now. Hopefully, it will not last long, because, in the promotion of civil liberties, the world still depends on the US. At the very least, we can learn from mistakes committed in US democracy.

***

The writer is a senior editor at The Jakarta Post