Trump used the powers of the presidency to try to overturn a democratic election that removed him from office. He attempted his coup d’état with the complicit support of the vast majority of elected Republican officials.
To avoid his political wreck, he tried to manipulate judges and state legislatures into being declared the winner of an election he was unable to win democratically. Result: a judicial fiasco orchestrated by his ridiculous lawyer Giuliani.
The four years of “trumperies” are likely to have lasting negative effects on American democracy. Some 70% of Republicans believe Biden “stole the election.” The stupid and stubborn refusal of tens of millions of Americans to recognize the legitimacy of his victory will greatly complicate his handling of the pandemic and its economic and social repercussions. How many American covidiots will oppose the draconian directives that are announced to fight against the explosion of the coronavirus? Or who will refuse to be vaccinated, seeing it as an evil “deep state” plot?
The Electoral College impossible to abolish
The 2016 and 2020 elections revealed that the American political system is dysfunctional, with serious shortcomings that awaited only a shameless narcissistic demagogue like Trump to exploit them for his purposes.
The most glaring of these anomalies is the outdated and absurd Electoral College. If less than 50,000 votes had shifted in his favor in three key states in the election, Trump would have been re-elected, even though Biden got 6 million more votes than him. In all the other democracies on the planet, the candidate with the most votes wins. Not in the United States.
It is impossible to think of abolishing the electoral college. The Republicans would never consent to it. And nothing suggests a movement of national reconciliation in the foreseeable future. Trump plans to run for president in 2024 with the chaos and ongoing political confusion that entails.
Does democracy have a future in the United States?
More than half of Americans are dissatisfied with their democracy and nearly one in five is “very dissatisfied”, compared to only one in ten who are “very satisfied”. According to Cometrends, a research project by two political scientists from the University of Texas, the younger Americans are, the more pessimistic they feel about the future of their country. Democrats tend to be more optimistic than Republicans. Blacks and Asians are also more optimistic than whites.
To ensure the future of democracy in the United States, it would be necessary to proceed with a refoundation of the republic, a new constitution with a new electoral system. It won’t happen anytime soon. Such a reform is currently unimaginable and will remain so for a long time. The 74 million “trumpidiots” would not let this happen. They will also continue to support Trump in his next attempts to undermine the foundations of the country’s democratic institutions.