Whether in Hong Kong or the US, we are all under threat from the despots spreading hate and fear

What if Alexis de Tocqueville were to return to America today? Upon arriving in the Land of the Free, he would not be struck so forcibly by the “general equality of conditions” or by the peculiar good nature of American political life. He would most certainly be struck very forcibly by a particular politician, with a most peculiar head of hair.

Armchair psychologists wonder about Trump’s mind, but should psychologists or psychiatrists say anything if they think a candidate is “nuts”?

Listening to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, de Tocqueville would surely be reminded of his own words in his masterpiece, Democracy in America, which documented his observations from his transatlantic trip 185 years ago.

“No vice of the human heart is so acceptable to [despotism] as egotism,” he wrote. And, “perverting the natural meaning of words”, a despot “applauds as good citizens those who have no sympathy for any but themselves”.

The Land of the Free, the nation and the people de Tocqueville was once so impressed with has turned into a monstrosity, with its old defences against “relapsing into barbarism” now replaced by a despotism that “raises barriers to keep [men] asunder”. No barrier is as great as what is to be the Great Trump Wall.

How warped “liberty” had become in the US – it now includes the liberty to disregard the interests of fellow men and women, to overlook the sacrifices fellow countrymen have made for the nation, and to forget what made America great in the first place. It now includes the liberty to wound, punch and shoot.

Perhaps de Tocqueville’s worst nightmare for America has come true. He warned the world about the ills of individualism almost two centuries ago. Today, we see people who are unable – even discouraged – to work together to achieve common goals. Instead of coming together, upon the understanding that they need one another despite their differences, they are now called to turn against those who are different and to shoot those they find disagreeable.

The America de Tocqueville visited in the 19th century wasn’t without problems, but it was impressive because it was a place where democracy worked. It had enough of the right conditions for democracy to thrive. And, most important of all, it had people who arrived on its shores from different backgrounds,who were willing to work extraordinarily hard to find common ground, towards a common cause, and lived the lives of their choosing as neighbours. That made America great.