By Madi Jobarteh
Welcome America! At long last, citizens in the United States are now joining that global community of peoples who stand up against autocratic and corrupt governments. For decades, the world looked to America as the land of the free and home of the brave. It was the sanctuary to which dissidents fled from tyranny, and from where exiled activists launched powerful struggles for democracy and justice back home.
Strong diaspora movements flourished in the United States: Nigerian pro-democracy movements, Chilean anti-Pinochet activists, South African anti-apartheid networks, and Gambian campaigners against Yaya Jammeh. In fact, the downfall of that tinpot Gambian dictator was heavily supported by a vibrant diaspora movement rooted in the United States. America provided space, freedom, and solidarity to those who believed in people power.
Yet history reminds us that America has always been a paradox. While it projected democracy, it too often undermined democracy in other nations. The same United States that opened its doors to political refugees is also guilty of overthrowing democratically elected governments in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It has armed warlords, bankrolled dictators, and supported drug traffickers and terrorists when it suited geopolitical interests. The hypocrisy has always been glaring: exporting dictatorship abroad while preaching democracy at home.
But today, irony has knocked on America’s own door. What Americans once watched with pity and disbelief: dictatorship, arbitrary arrests, political intimidation, state violence, and institutional collapse is now unfolding inside their borders. The scenes Americans once associated with the so-called “Third World” are now their own lived reality.
To have a president who is not only fantastically corrupt but also dangerously ignorant, vindictive, and shamelessly deceptive was once unimaginable in America. But today Donald Trump has dragged the United States into the gutters of political degeneration. He has corrupted public institutions, undermined the rule of law, weaponized state power, and personalized government in a manner comparable only to authoritarian regimes like those of North Korea, Russia, or Uganda.
Trumpism is not politics—it is a disease. It is fascism disguised as patriotism. It is corruption covered in religious hypocrisy. It is racism baptized as nationalism. And now Americans are finally realising that democracy is never guaranteed, it must be defended.
So it is truly inspiring to see ordinary Americans waking up, rising up, and resisting the tyranny that threatens to strangle their Republic. Citizens are marching, organizing, speaking out, and refusing to be silenced. This is the spirit that has defeated dictators across history. Power only submits to greater power, and people power is the greatest power of all.
Therefore, today I stand in solidarity with the people of the United States who are courageously resisting creeping dictatorship. Americans are now learning what oppressed people around the world have always known: freedom is not given, it is taken. Democracy is not inherited, it is defended.
Welcome, America, to the global struggle for freedom. Keep resisting. Keep organising. Keep fighting. The world is watching and history will remember where you stood.
America Shall Be Free! To become a Better, More Just and More Equal Society for All!
