Blinded voters, failing institutions ... a year after the assault on Capitol Hill by supporters of Donald Trump, American democracy is still sending worrying signals. National awareness is needed.
Editorial of the "World". The assault on the United States Congress on January 6, 2021, cast a dark veil over democracy in this great country. That an outgoing president who was regularly beaten at the polls did everything to prevent the peaceful transfer of power had definitely cast a disgrace on Donald Trump's tenure. Equally alarming is what has happened since then, while less spectacular. To the point of raising questions about the solidity of United States institutions.
Because the shock that this attack on the general will expressed by the vote should have triggered did not happen. It is true that a large majority of the Republican elected representatives of the House of Representatives had voted against the officialization of the victory of Joe Biden without the slightest legal justification, at night, while the corridors of the Capitol in Washington were still resounding with uproar. .
A low noise form of civil war has ensued in the United States. Adherence to the thesis of a supposedly "stolen" election has become the new right-thinking of American conservatives. It is now a proof of loyalty, not to a country, not even to a party, but to the man with whom the Grand Old Party persists in identifying.
Rare alternative voices
A year after January 6, 2021, nearly two in three Republicans continue to question the legitimacy of the Democratic president, according to a Washington Post poll. This doxa is relayed and maintained by the conservative media ecosystem, which is emptying of its rare alternative voices, as the departure of Fox News of the respected Chris Wallace has shown, at the same rate as the Republican Party is purging its dissidents .
Under pressure from the former president, elected officials from his party initially opposed his symbolic impeachment. Then they prevented the creation of an independent commission of inquiry, and finally, in the decisive states, they repeatedly beat down on the vote and its certification by non-partisan bodies. This undermining work was methodical. So much so that one wonders what would happen today in the event of a particularly close presidential election.
Much to the dismay of American democracy, no improvement can be seen for institutions that cannot be reformed without a minimum consensus. The electoral hogwashing which minimizes the number of contested constituencies means that the House elections are settled during primaries which favor the most extreme votes. The method of electing the Senate, like the presidency, grants an unequal premium to rural states where Republicans are dominant.
The judiciary has also been overtaken by this deleterious polarization. When the Democrats suppressed the qualified majority in the Senate for the confirmation of federal judges, in response to the systematic obstruction of the Republicans, the latter replied, once again in the majority, by removing the same qualified majority for appointments to the Supreme Court . This decision allowed Donald Trump to appoint three very conservative judges, accentuating the gap between the highest judicial body in the country and the society on which his judgments weigh.
The sum of these sags is considerable. Repairing this damaged democracy requires a national awareness and a sense of the common good, but both are lacking for the time being. Alas for a country that has long considered itself a model.