At Democratic Party headquarters in Mahoning County, south of Cleveland, Bernie, a volunteer for the ongoing U.S. midterm elections, held his head in his hands Thursday morning while listening to CNN on a small TV next to her.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” she said, a tight smile. Let’s get there. That the President of the United States should make a speech to defend democracy and call on voters to defend it too. It’s completely insane”.
The night before, Joe Biden spoke from Washington to implore Americans not to remain silent, in the face of lies, political violence and “dangerous” radicals, the “ultra MAGA”, he said. , Donald Trump’s Make American Great Again, who seek to disrupt the ongoing electoral process “to successfully overturn” the 2022 election, “after failing” in their project in 2020.
The President of the United States had in the numerous cases of intimidation of voters, sometimes committed by armed militiamen, recorded almost everywhere in the country, the aggression with the hammer of the husband of Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democratic majority in Congress , in his residence in San Francisco on Friday October 28, but also the persistence of Donald Trump’s “big lie” on the theft of the elections, now carried by nearly 600 Republican candidates, several of whom are approaching a victory, on October 8 next November.
“In a typical year, we don’t wonder if our vote will preserve democracy or endanger it,” he said. “But this year, it is. »
This week, Milwaukee Elections Commission deputy director Kimberly Zapata, 45, was fired by the city’s Wisconsin mayor. She is suspected of having orchestrated by postal ballots reserved for soldiers on mission outside the country, an attempt at electoral fraud. The ballots were sent to Republican Janel Brandtjen, a local elected official known for her support for the ex-president’s conspiracy theories.
In his speech, Joe Biden added, “There is an alarming increase in the number of people in this country who are condoning political violence or simply remaining silent in the face of it. Deep down we know that democracy is in danger, but we also know this: we have the power to preserve it. »
A few days before the ballot to renew the elected members of the Senate, the House of Representatives in Washington, but also to elect governors, secretaries of state, attorneys general, lieutenant-governor, judges, commissioners of school boards, and deputies local in several states, the call to save American democracy from the temptation of authoritarianism has been launched. But will he be heard?
Republicans insulted
“It’s a desperate gesture, commented Thursday morning, Bob Aurandt, Republican campaign coordinator in the city of Youngstown, in the heart of the American Rust Belt, met in the party offices. With this speech, the president has just insulted half the population by accusing them of being against democracy. It’s awful”. The local Senate candidate for the party is JD Vance, dubbed by Donald Trump, supported by Mr. Aurandt. Since the start of his race, he has continued to promote the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was elected following massive fraud. Contradicting the facts.
“And then let’s be honest: I don’t think I will see a dictator leading this country in my lifetime,” he added. There are too many patriots here to tell us. »
Around the polling stations, the idea of inscribing the safeguard of democracy on one’s ballot paper has been heard a lot for several weeks. But with diametrically opposed interpretations, depending on the color of the voter.
“We are going through a terrible period, summarized a few days ago in the north of Atlanta, Georgia, Cole Smith, worker in the world of logistics and transport. Many rights are threatened by several elected officials and several candidates, starting with the right of women and the right of minorities to express their vote. With each election, there is a risk of losing this democracy. Going to vote and making sure that everyone can do it without problem is to ensure that it still remains alive. »
“The threat to democracy comes from the Democrats. They are the ones who seek to steal our freedom, “said Alberto Lopez, met in the Miami area of Florida where he voted” proudly “in advance for the Republicans who seek to seize the stronghold of the Democrats in this south. from Florida.
Of Venezuelan origin, he says he knew communism, which he now believes recognizes in the policies of Joe Biden. These policies are usually placed more in the “centre” or “centre right” by keen observers of the political scene. “They want to destroy the United States from within. I know that. I know where it’s going. »
dialogue of the deaf
“We entered into a dialogue of the deaf”, drops in his office the senator of State of the 33e District of Ohio, Bob Hagan, met in Youngstown this week. The man is currently campaigning for re-election. “The climate is difficult, tense, noisy. Everything calls for saving democracy. But democracy remains a very difficult subject to sell to voters who are more easily challenged by the culture wars invented to divide or by the extra money in their pocket that is dangled to them. That’s the tragedy. »
“The threats posed by a fringe of Republicans to democracy are very real,” summarizes politician Aubrey Jewett, professor at the University of Central Florida. But who are they concerned about? Some politicians, journalists, political scientists, but certainly not the average electorate who does not see this as a major issue”, as long as the river has not caught fire, can we from Ohio, recalling the sad memory of the Cuyahoga River.
In the 1960s, the watercourse that flows into Lake Erie in Cleveland was indeed at the heart of the concerns of a handful of environmentalists calling for its protection against pollution from American factories. Ship Building, Sherwin-Williams Paint Company or Republic Steel and Standard Oil.
It was necessary for the river to literally catch fire in the summer of 1969, for local citizens to begin to be heard, even skeptical or distant from the problem, undoubtedly marking one of the starting points of the environmental movements in the States. -United. The Cuyahoga River will burn 12 more thereafter.
This report was funded with support from the Transat-Le Devoir International Journalism Fund.