Does a Ukrainian-Style Revolution Await Washington?
Ukrainians have seen the likes of Donald Trump before, in ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Both men ran against strong women — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Yulia Tymoshenko, respectively — and won by small margins. And both were wealthy outsiders with a flair for the flamboyant. But in 2014, after weeks of protests over his rejection of an EU association agreement, Yanukovych fled his post for exile in Russia.
So is Trump vulnerable to being ousted by popular rebellion? While a Ukrainian-style Maidan Revolution in Washington, D.C. seems unlikely, a return to the late 1960s, when students, women, protesters and minorities took to the streets across America, could easily be in the cards. Especially if Trump, like Yanukovych, refuses to become president of all the people, encourages corruption and remains committed to his extremist policies.
Three possible outcomes await. By gleefully abandoning all semblance of civility in his campaign and consciously insulting his political adversaries among the elites and in the population, Trump crossed a line that will be next to impossible to uncross. At least half the country will likely remain sullen, angry and unwilling to accept Trump as their legitimate president. When leaders lose legitimacy, as Yanukovych did within a year of his 2010 election, their ability to serve successfully declines, and they have no choice but to increasingly resort to demagoguery, coercion and cronyism.
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