Bob Woodward is wrong. American democracy is crumbling

Much has been written about the US presidential election – how Donald Trump won, which voters he drew in, and where.

But what about the big picture and the long game? What does Trump’s victory say about how safe the democracy of this global superpower is?

And are we witnessing a profound shift in America?

International and political editor Peter Hartcher has been covering politics for more than 40 years and reported from Washington for four of those years, covering the George W. Bush administration.

Hartcher joins The Morning Edition podcast with Samantha Selinger-Morris to discuss what leading political thinkers, such as Bob Woodward – the journalist who broke the Watergate scandal – say about this moment in history.

To listen, click the player below or scroll down for an extract of their conversation.

Sam Selinger-Morris: So, Peter, what do you think Donald Trump’s win tells us about the United States and its people that maybe we just didn’t know prior to November 6?

Peter Hartcher: I think it’s a really profound moment in the evolution of what the new America looks like. I think it’s much more than just an election between two candidates, two political parties and two sets of policies. I think that completely undersells and misunderstands what we are witnessing in the change of the very nature of the world’s largest power and, of course, Australia’s alliance partner.

The two big – really big – things it tells us are: One, that America no longer represents the liberal democracy that it was for a long time, and certainly since World War II.

And second, it shows us that the US is abandoning the international order that it established after World War II, the enlightened self-interest is now becoming a narrow, a very narrow, self-interest under the rubric of America first.

So this is a profound change in all of the fundamental values that govern the world and the world order, not perfectly and not always, but that’s the broad picture.

Those values, broadly speaking, were the foundation of the US, how it conducted itself, operated in the world, and the election of Trump for a second time tells us that this is a changed country.

Selinger-Morris: We have, for so long, thought of America as a superpower. So, is it no longer going to be so? Joe Biden, with his inability to curtail Benjamin Netanyahu’s use of force in Gaza. I think that really dented the perception from outside the United States of his power and the power that American presidents used to have.

Hartcher: Well, if the US doesn’t believe in the values that it’s traditionally enforced, and if the US doesn’t believe that it has any responsibilities globally any more, then, yes.

So you’ve mentioned the Israel-Gaza War as an example. That’s an example where the US has tremendous power. If they simply cut off US supplies of munitions and armaments to Israel, Israel would be churning through and running out of weapons and would be severely limited in what it can do based on its own production abilities.

But the US doesn’t want to exercise that power. Now, that’s not particular to Trump. That’s a Biden decision as well. That’s an American decision.

But the Ukraine-Russia war illustrates the divide much better, because the principle there is where one country has invaded another without justification. It’s a very clear breach of the UN Charter, a very clear breach of all the mores and rules, and yet Trump is happy to endorse it, and his very first reaction, as you know, when Putin brought on his full-on invasion of Ukraine, was “genius”.