On Tuesday, November 8, in the midterm elections in the United States, Americans will vote on referendum questions, choose state legislators and governors and decide which party will have the majority in both houses of the United States Congress.
Posted at 5:00 p.m.
These midterm elections will also provide answers to a question of rare gravity: is American democracy recovering from the shocks of recent years or is it continuing its slow agony? Our recent election observation trip to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin was not reassuring.
No, I do not regret anything
Among the Republicans we met (campaign managers and organizers, volunteers, voters and candidates), few seemed to regret the storming of the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021. Many remained convinced that there was had major electoral fraud in 2020 — although it has never been proven.
The House of Representatives Committee of Inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack showed that Trump and his supporters were willing to sacrifice American democracy for the benefit of the billionaire, but polls continue to predict that a majority of Republicans are comfortable supporting candidates denying the 2020 results (election deniers).
They will be spoiled for choice on Tuesday: according to the site FiveThirtyEight, 60% of Americans will be able to vote for this type of candidate seeking seats in the United States Congress or even key positions in American states (governors, secretaries of state and attorneys general).
These candidates see two advantages in contesting the 2020 results: receiving the support of Trump, who remains the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, and relying, if necessary, on the myth of the 2020 election theft. to justify in turn all sorts of disputes.
PHOTO DUSTIN CHAMBERS, REUTERS
Herschel Walker
Taking Trump’s recipe, candidates like Herschel Walker (Georgia), Mehmet Oz (Pennsylvania), Adam Laxalt (Nevada) and Blake Masters (Arizona) could indeed refuse to concede victory if the results are tight in this handful of states that will determine the next United States Senate majority.
Put the nail in
Much like the January 6, 2021, uprising, the recent hammer attack on Paul Pelosi by a last election seeking to hold Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi hostage to torture her is therefore not enough to convince Republican stalwarts of the danger of the lies they repeat about voter fraud.
Neither did a recent report by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, which concluded that perceptions of voter fraud are leading to increased threats of violence not only against elected officials, but also against targets like election workers in time of the polls. During our research trip, it was therefore not surprising to hear Democratic campaign managers and advisers say that they are having more difficulty finding volunteers this year, or more afraid than before for their safety and that of candidates.
But these same Democrats also bear some responsibility for the ills that plague American democracy.
On the one hand, by deciding to invest tens of millions of dollars in the primary elections to promote Republican candidates forelection deniers whom they considered easier to defeat on November 8, the Democrats may have contributed to the coming to power of those they describe as a threat to the country.
On the other hand, while Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign promised more empathy and collaboration between the two parties, most elected Democrats are not making more of an effort than Republicans to foster political compromises in Washington and in US states. Attending a political rally in Wisconsin, we were able to hear Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin say that what is at stake in the race for governor of the state comes down to one thing: re-electing her colleague Tony Evers so that he veto any bill proposed by the Republican legislature.
In a country struggling with serious problems with inflation, public safety, jobs, inequality, pollution and access to health care, this inability of both parties to make the concessions necessary to pass the laws and budgets that Americans need is not only responsible for their anger and cynicism towards their institutions. It has also become a major cause of the decline of the United States relative to its main international competitors.
During our meetings on the ground, the Democrats and the Republicans agreed on this point: the country is currently going through one of the darkest periods in its history. It remains to be seen whether this observation and Tuesday’s elections will promote the awakening that one should have expected when seeing the state of American democracy on January 6, 2021.