What do the 2022 elections in BiH and the US 2024 elections have in common: Dehumanization, suspension of the Constitution, and they scare us with Trump!

By: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

There is much talk in Bosnia and Herzegovina about the American presidential elections, in which Republican Donald Trump defeated the favored candidate of the Democrats and current US Vice President Kamala Harris.

And while Trump is largely portrayed as a bogeyman threatening Bosnia and Herzegovina, with dozens of millions of dollars injected by Democrats into our ‘analysts’ and media industry having a significant influence on such analyses, one comparison can significantly demystify the Biden administration's stance towards BiH and the potential of Trump's stance towards our country.

And the question is simple – what do the 2022 General Elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the American presidential elections have in common. The answer is simple: the masters of selling fog, whose methods fundamentally involve dehumanizing political opponents, played a significant role in the elections in both BiH and the US.

The dehumanization and targeting of political actors and groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina who did not align with the interests of Joe Biden's administration and their diplomatic representation in BiH were at a seriously high level. The election year 2022 resembled a witch hunt more than a political race. And behind the persecutors stood the power of Washington and a serious amount of money pumped in with one goal – to ensure results for favored groups and individuals.

In the pre-election period of 2022, the largest Bosniak party in BiH – SDA – was prey that could be freely and with impunity attached to whatever the favored ones wished. From being a criminal organization, through a series of personal qualifications of all important political figures in SDA, to accusations of Islamism projecting a path to terrorism. And not only SDA was under attack, but also all those suspected of being politically close to that party, primarily the Democratic Front.

So, what did we get in an atmosphere of unprecedented propaganda and dehumanization? Everything resulted in an absolute imbalance of political forces, depending on which part of BiH you looked at. In Croatian and Serbian politics, nationalists remained on the scene, whose political actions are fundamentally repackaged war goals. In pro-Bosnian/pro-Bosniak politics, we saw the victory of SDA, which was dehumanized and wrapped in black cellophane resembling terrorism, followed by propaganda that such an SDA is an undesirable partner for everyone.

The imbalance occurred when a group that was not nearly as politically weighty as Serbian or Croatian politics was brought to the “victorious” podium. And it was not strong enough to displace SDA.

Then the Democrats came onto the scene, whose values are sworn by and mourned over these days throughout Sarajevo and the Federation of BiH entity. The ambassador of the US administration under the Democrats, Michael Murphy, created, and his loyal High Representative Christian Schmidt, carried out the suspension of the Constitution of the Federation of BiH, which was the final act of anti-democratic action by the Democrats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Democrats, therefore, dehumanized political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina and suspended the Constitution of an administrative unit in our country, and today, from the same propaganda kitchen, they serve us the story that democracy is disappearing with Trump!?

The fact that these Democrats have bought significant media-analytical space in Bosnia and Herzegovina gives them the power to sow fear in our country today that America under Trump will be an evil that will destroy the world, including Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And Trump is a sovereignist, meaning he advocates for strong borders, nation-states, traditional values… All of which approximately 75 percent of Bosnians and Herzegovinians, regardless of their ethnic affiliation, advocate for.

Elon Musk, who is with Trump, after buying the former Twitter, now the X platform, freed that network from the shackles of the Democrats and restored freedom to it, unlike Mark Zuckerberg, who, with the Democrats, turned the Meta social media platform into a one-way communication channel, with standards bordering on totalitarianism.

When it comes to the attitude of the US administration under Trump towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, it will be what we achieve. If we continue to behave like a political product of the Democrats – the Troika – we will certainly be at a disadvantage, because Trump does not tolerate such people and has no problem proving it to them. Instead, we should learn from some neighbors like Serbia and Kosovo, and establish contacts with the personnel Trump will position as soon as possible.

Blinken wrote letters that Dragan Čović laughed at, Murphy destroyed SDA and promoted anti-democratic methods, directly helping hegemonic forces, the rest of Biden's administration passed through Bosnia leaving nothing good behind.

Trump and his approach are an opportunity, not a fear as they try to scare us. It is up to us to finally understand that we must raise our heads, go out into the world, connect with world powers and their circles. If we do that, we will have the opportunity, at a time when a man who knows how to build a system leads the greatest world power, unlike the Democrats (American and European) who only talk about it.

What we can count on is that after the departure of the Democrats, under whose pressure Bosnia came to the brink of collapse, the time of a sovereignist who knows the value of borders, the state, and how to create a functional system is coming. It is up to us to offer him people with similar inclinations and move from the phase of bowed heads that obey to the principle of upright individuals who converse. We have much greater chances with Trump, who will stop wars, than with Democrats for whom wars are a form of action!

And finally, it should not be overlooked that sovereignists (Trump) are against dependence on international institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, while globalists (Democrats) have imprisoned the Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH, Fadil Novalić, because he did not want to rush into arrangements with the IMF. Look for the answer to what that meant in budget deficits and the economic crisis in places where the institutions imposed on us by Democratic entities led by Murphy are dominant.