Good leaves. The practice of power has not changed Donald Trump. The reverse has happened. During four years of a one-of-a-kind tenure, the former businessman has set up another exercise in politics, which is being emulated around the world. He achieved his ends without a spectacular blow of force. He did not break the pillars of American democracy. His opposition was able to use the levers at his disposal, without neglecting any. Justice was regularly seized and ruled. The press investigated, unveiled and arrested, even if it paid for it in presidential insults that shook this counter-power.
He contented himself with not respecting the rules observed before him. Whenever he has caused trouble, including instilling doubt over the sincerity of the 2020 presidential election by again evoking without evidence, as in 2016, a potentially massive fraud, he persisted. The Americans discovered that it was possible, without incurring any major sanction during their mandate, to free themselves from standards, often unwritten, to which their predecessors had generally agreed because they considered them the basis of a contract. social.
Destructive political practice
He was able to count on the renunciation, apathy and finally the complicity of the Republican Party, including on the part of those who, like Lindsey Graham, had precociously considered that he represented a “Absolute disaster” for the Grand Old Party, and that he could “Destroy conservatism”. “It will take us a generation to recover”, had assured the senator. Those who had sounded the alarm were content to ride the tiger without trying to influence its course.
Decades of overbidding have paved the way. A Ronald Reagan’s pulling power has been replaced by a quest for ideological purity and a hunt for moderates. It began with the “Contract for America” offensive in 1994, directed against a centrist Democrat, Bill Clinton, and continued with the near-insurrectionary movement of the Tea Party, fifteen years later. The Grand Old Party has infused a destructive political practice that equates to permanent civil war. Then he found himself captivated by a tribune who took control to impose his own priorities.
Donald Trump has succeeded in his endeavor without seeking to gain support beyond his camp. The chief divider of the United States has done everything on the contrary to maintain a loyalty often bordering on adulation by ensuring to respond to the specific requests of his coalition: tax reform favorable to the wealthy, environmental or social deregulation, exaltation of the values of the religious right, maintenance of ultranationalist springs. (…)
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