Lessons from the American elections

From a European perspective, we can therefore be relatively calm because for now, Biden will be in a position to continue his internationalist, Atlanticist, open-minded policy of financial and military support for Ukraine in his fight against Moscow. for political and commercial globalization, controlling China, supporting initiatives against climate change, etc.

Highlighting the simple data, it can be said that these elections provide another vision of the dilemma the United States has been in since 2016: For some, Trump has been/is a crazy self-directed sniper. With his money and his crushing personality, he sneaked into American democratic orthodoxy to reinforce the isolationist leanings of the Republicans, suspicious of NATO, turning his back on Europe, questioning some basic civil liberties, and temporarily sowing a disgusting populism. The primary law of the forest, with a State reduced to minimal expression and a Darwinian understanding of society. Thus, analysts of this first group think that with Trump’s departure, the tide will return to normal: democracy will be restored, the legitimacy of institutions will be respected, and although Republicans will continue their inward vision. has logical positive relations with the democratic world.

For others, who are more pessimistic, Trump has not been an accident along the way, but the result of a persistent corruption of the American model that has accepted the failure of minority integration, rejected democratic leadership, and failed in its attempt to fail. establishing a reduced welfare state, and this imposes authoritarian norms that give individualism the upper hand over any idea of ​​cooperation.

The midterm elections seem to agree with the first, who believes Trump is a bad passenger and has already been overcome, so the new Republicans, prominent Florida governor De Santis, will give the party back the patina of prestige it has already lost. In conclusion, it is striking that De Santis, whom Trump despised because he saw himself as a rival rather than a comrade, was not a dove in the face of the hawks in his formation: on the contrary, this character is extreme. He did not cheat financially, did not call for a coup, did not doubt the institutionality of his country’s ancient but solid political structure.

We hope this second vision of reality is confirmed, but we Europeans would be so stupid if we didn’t learn the lesson Trump taught. This character represents a caricature of republicanism and nothing reassures us that other trump cards may not arise in the future, leaving Europe vulnerable and spineless. Biden became the cornerstone of the West’s response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Without the initiative, weapons, and resources provided by Washington, the European Union would have been utterly incapable of countering the audacious aggression of a raging Russia launched by an enlightened autocrat who embarked on an imperialist adventure no one expected. And for the same reason, the EU cannot now pretend that a populist upheaval that we have just experienced and overcame with obvious difficulties will never happen again in the US.

The European Union must consolidate its federalization even by giving up its most reluctant members like Hungary and equip itself with a defensive military force that guarantees its superiority in the face of any hypothetical aggression. Because even though Trump is in decline, Trumpism is a contagious virus that can reproduce at any time.