IT is often said that when America sneezes, we in Trinidad and Tobago catch a cold. The result of its November presidential election will impact the entire world politically and economically.

Should Republicans win the White House, the chaos would spread beyond the borders of America, signalling the end of modern democracy. January 6, 2021 was a dress rehearsal. The planners of the failed coup have learnt and the next time they will not repeat the same mistakes.

All rights and privileges are predicated on the separation of powers between the various branches of government. In an autocracy, the autocrat holds absolute power. The current candidate and former president will not be a dictator for only a day.

Should Donald Trump win, we can expect mass deportations to the Caribbean and Latin America, the curtailment of fundamental human rights and the replacement of career civil servants with loyalists. Those who currently fan the flames of racial animus, blaming immigration for their problems ignore the fact that when the English arrived in 1620, they met indigenous people there and they were the immigrants.

A failed businessman who filed for bankruptcy on six occasions, twice impeached for high crimes while in office and 91 indictments pending. For many Americans, the lights are on but nobody is at home.

Blinded by bigotry and grievance, they fail to appreciate their blessing in having prosperity and freedom other nations can only envy. They yearn for a strongman to take it all away and throw them through windows when they protest. We are in perilous times and if ever we needed God to intervene it is now.

Keith Gonzales