Opposition to Trump encouraged

In a recent article about the convulsive changes caused by Donald Trump’s presidency, Yale’s Prof David Bromwich draws a distinction between the meaning of resistance and opposition to Trump and stresses the importance of the latter.

According to the professor, resistance only comes into play when a previously legitimate government breaks its compact with the people. That point has not yet been reached under the new president.

Yet Trump is doing his best to ensure that it is. To prevent that, the key now is opposition. Opposition takes multiple forms: protests, political actions, legal moves and more. But it is an indispensable responsibility when one party dominates so unscrupulously as in the US.

Effective opposition is what is most lacking in US politics at this moment. If opposition remains ineffective, Trump’s lack of restraint towards formal and informal constitutional checks will only be encouraged and he will break the compact that holds the US together. These are desperately serious times. Opposition to Trump outside the US has a part to play alongside the opposition inside it. Foreign opposition sets a mood and seeks to uphold the international order in ways that people on both sides of the argument need to hear.

The question of whether Trump should be invited to address both houses of parliament when he comes to Britain on a state visit later in 2017 is obviously in most respects a minor one. When compared with the fate of refugees seeking safety in the US, the president’s schedule in the UK hardly counts.

But that is no reason why the British parliament should roll over and accord Trump an honour he has not earned and which offends many MPs and their constituents. London, February 10.