NORTHAMPTON — Running on the premise that he’d run the country like a CEO runs a business, President Donald Trump may be a new kind of leader but with familiar aspects.
For Venezuelan Gisela Guerra, 58, Trump has similarities with populist president Hugo Chavez, who was president of Venezuela for a 14-year period that ended in 2013.
“He (Trump) is eccentric and arrogant,” she said during an interview Friday at the International Language Institute in Northampton. “He speaks similar to Chavez. I remember this guy.”
Even with the similarities, Guerra said it’s different in the U.S.
“The law, the people, it’s different,” she said. “Donald Trump is rich. Chavez is poor. It’s different.”
That comparison isn’t new. Amherst professor Javier Corrales wrote an article for Foreign Policy magazine months before the election and made a similar comparison.
“For me, as a long-time observer of Latin American politics, what’s most unnerving about Trump’s rise is just how familiar it feels,” Corrales wrote in March 2016. “Latin America has a mostly unhappy history of dealing with outsiders-turned-presidents.”
Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Corrales spoke about the current political situation.
“Every president is unique of course but the process of having what political scientists would call a democratic backslide of sorts is very common,” Corrales said. “We see it in many countries. What we don’t see as often as in the past is a full turn toward authoritarian rule.”
What is more common, according to Corrales, is a president who comes in and proceeds to “dismantle the institutions of liberal democracy” like the checks and balances as well as concentrating an enormous amount of power in the office.
“In some cases it happens slightly, in other cases very extensive,” Corrales said. “Donald Trump is certainly a populist — not the first in the U.S.”
“He could be the first president uninterested in preserving liberal democratic institutions,” he continued.
This dismantling of institutions of liberal democracy has been seen all over the world, according to Corrales.
“Depending on where your starting point is people may welcome it or not,” he said.
Coming from a fairly OK government background like the U.S., Corrales said the process can be very destabilizing, very polarizing and it ultimately could end up ruining the economy.
“We do have stronger protections but most political scientists will say that even strong institutions with time can be significantly eroded,” he said. “I don’t think most political scientists who study compared politics would have such a blind faith on existing institutions.”
For Tamay Dogan, 23, a dual citizen of Russia and Turkey, seeing the recent protests against Trump is good news. At protests here, she said, people can express themselves.
“Some countries don’t permit protests,” she said.
With the new administration comes new policies and executive orders. A recently leaked draft executive order, “Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals,” outlines changes and suspensions to immigration as well as visas for visitors and students. It has yet not yet been signed nor released officially.
Dogan, Guerra and Chilean Andres Gonzalez, all of whom are here on temporary student visas, said they weren’t concerned about the draft executive order.
Gonzalez, 23, said he was more concerned about global warming and the global economy.
“If the U.S. doesn’t care about global warming, we are all f–ed,” he said.
Noting Trump’s action on his first day in office, Gonzalez also spoke about his concern over the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership.
“Donald Trump wants to only do things for the U.S. so the global economy will suffer,” he said.
As for the concern and fear that many American citizens are feeling following the election, Dogan has felt the same way about her own countries. She said that for too many years her country has been dealing its own leadership issues.
“Maybe because it’s the first time people from the U.S. [have had] a different kind of president,” Gonzalez said of the feeling of concern.
Even with the changing political climate, the three were positive about their stay in the Valley.
A civil engineering student, Gonzalez said his impression of the country was that it is a culturally diverse place.
“[Northampton] It’s a good town. It’s a small town but it’s very connected to the global things,” he said.
In her four months her, Dogan said the people of Northampton have been supportive and helpful. She said she finds the area “so liberal.”
“That’s why I love Northampton,” she said.
In the U.S., Dogan said nobody is told what to do and everybody is free.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.