“Let me be clear: the scenes of chaos on Capitol Hill don’t represent who we are. ” On January 6, Joe Biden tried to embody a respectable form of dignity and authority, in reaction to the riots in Washington. With these words, the elected president continued the story of his victorious campaign: that of a promise of reconciliation, restoration in terms of values and the correct functioning of institutions. But the historical dizziness that has gripped the Capitol and the entire country reveals exactly what America is today: a torn, damaged country, with strained institutions, where the uninhibited hatred of Trumpian extremists burns, and whose he image abroad is permanently affected.
Joe Biden will be invested on January 20. Chairman, he will be surrounded by a competent and experienced team, particularly in foreign policy. Thanks to the double victory snatched during the ballot in Georgia, he will even have a narrow majority in the Senate. Its room for maneuver will therefore be greater than expected. All those, especially in Europe, who expect a constructive American re-engagement in world affairs should therefore find grounds for hope in this. Didn’t the Biden team want to form a coalition for democracy, rehabilitating expressions like “Moral leadership” or “Free world”? Vapors of a bygone era.
Unfortunately, the departure of Donald Trump will not be a miraculous cure. The head gardener has done his work: the seeds of a hatred tricked into patriotism have sprouted, thanks to the support of an irresponsible media ecosystem, on the right. Intolerance and conditioned conspiratorial reflexes are not simple temporary disturbances, compared to the immense electoral victory, in number of votes, of Joe Biden. They relativize and reduce its scope, widening the polarization.
Chipped conviction
The American short circuit, of which these riots represent the acme by imposing words like “Sedition” or “Insurrection” in the public debate, ends up emptying of its substance the exceptionalism which the country has long prevailed. This process is not new. Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech at the UN in 2003 on Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction shattered the credibility of speeches on export freedom. The systemic practice of torture and illegal detentions, which followed the intervention in Iraq in the name of the endless and limitless fight against terrorism, ended up destabilizing a Middle East already riddled with tensions.
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