The state by which the outgoing President of the US discovered himself on Thursday, June 27, is an sudden present for his notorious predecessor and adversary. The choice of withdrawal could be a service to its individuals and to humanity. In politics, typically it’s important to know methods to lose slightly to realize immortality.
Joe Biden, who will get confused in his solutions, however stubbornly refuses to simply accept that his forces are abandoning him, to the purpose of providing the keys to the White Home to a Donald Trump incapable of accepting an electoral defeat, and who, by fanciful assertions, takes shocking liberties with the reality. This was the setting for the primary presidential debate subsequent November in the US. What indicators does Africa obtain from American democracy?
Since Donald Trump unleashed his supporters to storm the Capitol in January 2021, American democracy has ceased to impress in Africa. Trump even got here near decreasing the US to the rank of these banana republics that he himself despises a lot. It prevents. Lots of the defects that we commonly deplore in political life in Africa not appear unbelievable in America or in sure massive democracies. So, when Joe Biden, clearly diminished, with out sufficient lucidity to confess that it is perhaps time for him at hand over the reins, some in Africa surprise what differentiates him from Robert Mugabe, even when they don’t have anything in widespread within the observe of energy. As for Donald Trump, what would have the aplomb with which he asserts the approximations to envy sure despots in Africa or elsewhere?
The worst factor right here is that Biden is unconsciously facilitating Trump’s return to the White Home. This might be the last word proof that only a few democracies right this moment are protected from a brutal setback. Particularly in a world the place many citizens, from dissatisfaction to disappointment on account of politicians, not hesitate to make capricious use of their poll each time they please.
In the US, no less than, some leaders pleasant to Biden are saying out loud that it could be good for him to vanish…
However, as in Africa, there are additionally supporters or courtiers who don’t dare to inform the reality to this chief who’s sinking into an apparent wreck. Out of tenderness or calculation, some are attempting to make individuals imagine that tomorrow he might regain the vigor wanted to reassure the People. And but, visibly, it’s abandoning him, daily. That is how in Africa, drained, if not completed, leaders grasp on, in opposition to all odds. Actually, in the US, the establishments work. However the questions that come up from this Thursday’s debate don’t solely concern the current. It is usually, above all, the long run that’s at stake. And we think about how Joe Biden might, over the subsequent 4 years, regain the vigor that appears to desert him day after day. In spite of everything, in the US, the President of the Republic is in the beginning the commander in chief of the armies. Agreeing that it’s completely diminished will not be malice, however simply not betting on uncertainty, in relation to the duties of chief of the free world.
And that is the place what is perhaps thought of a usually American downside turns into a supply of nightmares for the planet. In his denial of every thing, Donald Trump prompt that Biden was precipitating humanity in direction of a 3rd world conflict. What if it was himself, in case he returned to the White Home? Joe Biden, by giving technique to a extra strong candidate, could be doing a service to his individuals, and to your entire earth, in a world threatened by so many risks.
Barack Obama has argued, nevertheless, that disappointing debates are a part of political life.
A debate desired and ready at size by Biden. His personal docs can not guarantee that the shipwreck of time will spare him much less because the marketing campaign progresses. Nor even when one or the opposite will attain the election. To persuade oneself that there will probably be higher days is to mislead oneself. And it’s on behalf of all that every one those that ask the Democrats to discover a extra convincing candidate communicate. And if he had the braveness to simply accept it, Joe Biden might enter Historical past, as Lyndon Baines Johnson entered it, ceaselessly, by giving up a second time period that will have torn the celebration to shreds. People, even right this moment, contemplate “LBJ” as one of many best presidents within the historical past of the US of America. In politics, you typically need to know methods to lose slightly, to realize immortality.
To Joe Biden, as to Donald Trumps, we need to dedicate these few injunctions, taken from the anthem of the Empire of Wassoulou, in present Mali: “ If you happen to can not set up, lead and defend the nation of your fathers, name on extra valiant males ».
By Jean-Baptiste Placca, Rfi
2024-06-30 20:05:16