Americans, used to winning, now look around and see a country that cannot secure its own seat of government … that is struggling to distribute a vaccine … that was cyber-looted by Russia … for the purpose of half a year with a stimulus plan that both sides wanted … that can’t even orchestrate a peaceful transition of power.
Why it’s important: This is weakness, not strength. The democracy that President-elect Biden will assume is torn, archaic, precarious.
By numbers: The consent of the governed is at the heart of American democracy. But Biden lacks that fundamental authority.
- 40% of Americans and 80% of Trump voters say they believe Biden is not the legitimate winner of the 2020 election, the largest proportion of turnout in the history of U.S. voting.
- 145 members of Congress, including 7 senators, voted to withdraw votes from the Pennsylvania Electoral College, an action aimed at handing victory to the loser of the election.
The big picture: Presidential democracies (think France and Brazil) are prone to crisis at the best of times. None has lasted nearly as long as the American.
- He was fragile and old even before Trump was elected, laden with an anachronistic Electoral College, a dangerously long transition between election and investiture, and a profoundly wrong valve of state and federal constituencies.
- “The democracy of the United States can no longer be grouped with Canada, Germany and Japan,” Eurasian Group President Bremmer told Axios. “We are now halfway between them and Hungary.”
What follows: If Trump faces criminal prosecution as a civilian, expect the crisis to worsen. Instead, if he it doesn’t facing criminal prosecution as a civilian, half the country will consider the message that the president is really above the law and has widespread impunity, even when inciting an insurrection attempt.
Our thought bubble, of Sara Fischer, of Axios: The erosion of peaceful democracy in the United States has not occurred in a vacuum. U.S. opponents, particularly Russia, have long sought to undermine American democracy through sophisticated state-backed cybernetics and disinformation campaigns.
- These campaigns have eroded confidence in the press and confused the American information ecosystem, fostering a state of chaotic tribalism in the United States.