Protesters on behalf of Donald Trump have pushed for a defeated president. Alexei Navalnyi, who has received supporters for the protests, is an opposition leader who will not even stand for election.
Last weeks we have seen wild news images from the United States, Russia, and the Netherlands.
In the United States, supporters of President Donald Trump invaded Congress. In Russia, police used harsh statements against protesters protesting the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In the Netherlands, police arrested hundreds of protesters against coronavirus restrictions, some of whom broke windows.
While the images of angry crowds resemble each other, the events are not comparable. Bundling them serves Russia’s interests.
Therefore, after his own demonstrations, pictures of the conquest of the US Congress were shown on Russian television. The message to be offered to Russian viewers is that Western countries are succumbing to double standards when criticizing Russia, even though they are using force against their own citizens. The parable has also been used by some Trumpians, in whose eyes the conquerors of Congress are American navalny, brave opposition figures.
Let’s repeat why the comparisons are lame.
United States and the Netherlands are democracies with freedom of speech. People have the right to protest for Trump or against interest rate restrictions, as long as they don’t break the law, such as infiltrating Congress.
Trump is being sued because he seemed to incite his supporters to break the law. In a democracy, the president is not above the law either.
Trump’s supporters don’t represent an opposition leader who can’t even run for office. They are supporters of the defeated president who did not accept the result of the democratic election. They have the right to their opinion, but not to annul the result.
Russia again, there is no democracy. The protesters have no freedom of speech. Challengers of power can end up in jail or a morgue.
If the United States had acted like Russia, Trump would not have had to give up. He would have just imprisoned his opponents and silenced the media. If, on the other hand, Russia acted like the United States, Putin could not stretch his reign and Navalnyi could measure his support at the ballot box.
Democracy is not perfect, but the system is stronger than one leader. In the United States, an authoritarian president ultimately did not get his will through. An authoritarian system, on the other hand, lasts as long as the leader is strong. After that, it may collapse.
The author is the editor-in-chief of HS.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/columns-trumps-supporters-are-not-american-navalny-comparison-of-us-and-russian-protests-rains-on-russian-laurels/
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