The “fate of the world” is at risk if Donald Trump is elected US President, Barack Obama warned last Wednesday night.

While every election has consequences, the suggestion that the American Republic, with its checks and balances, is so fragile that the democratic choice of a majority of Americans in one election cycle for a four year-termed president would destroy America and the world is at best an exaggeration. It’s a joke at worst.

Either way – Trump or Clinton – the sky will not fall. There will not be greater mass deportation of immigrants and refugees than Obama’s unpublicized skyrocketing deportation.  America’s poor will not become significantly richer. America’s wealthy will not suddenly get broke.

If you are voting for that drastic positive or negative change, don’t hold your breath. With Congress evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, drastic changes will not happen. If Obama, who was popularly elected, finds it so hard to pass an effective health insurance program, what can Trump accomplish on his own?

What outsiders don’t know is that real change is happening across America, not because of the presidential elections but because of American democracy. Through citizens’ initiatives or ballot questions, ordinary citizens are shaping America democratically.

For example, in 2016, ordinary American citizens will vote to pass laws on issues like legalizing marijuana, gun control, universal healthcare, and the minimum wage.

Previous elections even saw ordinary citizens limiting the salaries of Arizona lawmakers to US$24,000 yearly. Compare that to the over US$100,000 Liberian lawmakers set for themselves and the US$1.5 million the speaker of the house arbitrarily sets for his office in poverty stricken Liberia.

The marijuana legalization votes will affect 82 million residents in states including Massachusetts. Voters will set minimum wage for workers in states with 22 million residents. New gun control laws will affect 50 million residents.  Laws pertaining to taxes will be made by ordinary citizens and affect 123 million residents. Americans have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Many Americans won’t even bother to vote in 2016 because with Trump or Clinton, their electricity still runs. Pipe borne water still flows. The roads are paved. There are paved sidewalks and street lights. Their school-aged children get free education, free books, free breakfast, and lunch at school.

Prior to the Liberian Civil War, I, like many Liberians, grew up believing that the United States of America existed to protect global human rights, justice, world peace, and oppressed peoples worldwide. The unfolding events of the Liberian Civil War forced me to see the harsh reality: America had its own interests and protecting citizens of developing countries is not necessarily one of those interests.

The governments of third world countries, not the United States of America, have the obligation to protect their own citizens. When governments of developing countries oppress their citizens, they still qualify to get foreign aid from the European Union and the United States. It’s the oppressed citizens who must free themselves from tyranny, not the Americans or Europeans.

Back then, I didn’t fully understand what Fredrick Douglass meant when he said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”

Recently, I have been reading about Americans who claim they will leave the United States if Trump is elected. I also read of a Nigerian who said he will leave America if Trump gets elected. The Vanguard newspaper published an article, captioned, “I’ll Cut My Green Card, Leave U.S. If Trump Wins, Says [Wole] Soyinka.” In the article, the world renowned Nigerian Nobel Laureate promised to voluntarily leave America if Trump wins. “The moment they announce his victory, I will cut my green card myself and start packing up,” he is quoted as saying.

I know America is not perfect. It’s a country built and inhabited by human beings. But I wonder which America these fleeing people have been living in and which country on Earth they will move to with comparable privileges to the United States. Will they be able to fight for their rights for decades? Will they be able to take the president and the government of their host country to court and return to their homes to sleep like I have done in America?

From my experience, I know the struggle for justice will outlast a Trump or Clinton presidency. The struggle is an inescapable lifelong process that extends from generation to generation; it never ends until Judgement Day.

No worries folks, American democracy was designed with safeguards to prevent one individual from taking unilateral decisions that bring the country down the path of destruction. However, when I consider the fact that over 50,000 Chinese have become US citizens for the past two decades while Liberians granted Temporary Protected Status during the war are still in legal limbo in 2016, I know justice has not been served.

When I see the hundreds of Liberians denied visa daily at the US Embassy in Monrovia and the thousands of US dollars forfeited because they were denied visa by American citizens, I know America is not perfect. When I see the US government and the European Union still praising the Government of Liberia with the current level of corruption and the excessive salaries of Liberian career politicians who earn up to 1,000 times higher salaries than some American lawmakers, I know America is not going to change Liberia.

When I see photos of the impassable road in Lofa, Nimba, Sinoe and Grand Gedeh, I think Liberians should pay more attention to their own political situation and stop worrying about America.  Perhaps Liberians should institute citizens’ initiatives to take charge of creating their own legislation, including setting the salaries and benefits of public servants as it is done in some American states.

With ordinary American citizens voting to set the salaries and benefits of lawmakers, setting the minimum wage by ballot, enjoying free education and free meals for all their school-aged children, I know a government of the people, by the people, and for the people works in America.

Clinton or Trump, it’s the people’s choice. American democracy will still be strong and robust to withstand the stupidity or smartness of one person. It’s not by chance, but by the design of America’s democracy.

Featured photo by Matt A.J.