A good part of the American population no longer believes in elections. This is terribly serious.
Joe Biden said yesterday that American democracy can no longer be taken for granted. Already, Republicans are claiming loud and clear, but without any proof, that the midterm elections are marred by fraud.
In the midterm elections, the issue is not so much the results in Congress as the multitude of local elections taking place at the same time across the country.
Republican strategists want to make Democratic voters believe that their vote will not count. Either because the stakes are already cast, or because the election arbiters are Republicans who will refuse to validate results that would benefit the Democrats.
The first electoral maneuver is fair game. It is often used to discourage voters on one side from voting.
On the other hand, the second maneuver is undemocratic. Candidates participating in an election must all accept the results of the ballot boxes in advance. Especially when there is no sign of massive fraud.
It should be remembered that despite the Republicans’ accusations, no large-scale fraud has been proven in the United States during the last elections. At most a few anecdotal cases have been reported. The same goes for the first early or remote votes in the midterm elections.
Since a long time
The drift of the American electoral system began a long time ago, with the ultra-partisan drawing up of electoral districts, and it continued more recently, with the refusal of limits on electoral expenses, the gift of a reprehensible judgment of the US Supreme Court.
The current threats against democracy are more dangerous than the previous ones because they are of a cultural nature, because they are based on the transformation of individual mentalities.
It is striking that the new antidemocratic political culture crystallizes around Donald Trump, a man who suffers from advanced narcissism and who, therefore, does not conceive that he could lose.
Rational arguments have almost no hold on the partisans of this new political culture. For them, only victory counts, that is to say the maintenance of their hold on power. Moreover, the Trumpist Republicans have practically no electoral program.
Democratic responsibilities
Democrats are partly to blame for democratic drift, as they have little to offer so-called independent voters. Democratic leaders form a gerontocracy that repels many younger, quality candidates. The Democratic woke wing displeases a vast majority of Americans. The nonchalant Democratic discourse on the economy is poorly received.
Democrats are guilty of their inability to field strong candidates against Trump and his gang.
But beware, as American cultural imperialism overwhelms us, this anti-democratic current has already crossed our borders. It will amplify.