Americans, accustomed to being winners, are now looking around and seeing a country that cannot get its own seat of government … that is struggling to distribute a vaccine … that has been looted by Russia cyber … half a year late with a stimulus plan that both sides wanted … that could not even orchestrate a peaceful transition of power.
Why it matters: It is weakness, not strength. The democracy that President Biden will take over is shattered, archaic, uncertain.
By the numbers: The consent of the government is at the heart of American democracy. But the fundamental authority will not be with Biden.
- 40% of Americans and 80% of Trump voters say they believe Biden is not the legal winner of the 2020 election – the bulk of the outstanding positions in the history of American votes.
- 145 members of Congress, including 7 senators, voted to cast the Pennsylvania ballot – a step to give victory to the loser of the election.
The whole picture: Presidential democracies (think France and Brazil) are prone to crisis at the best of times. No one has lasted as long as America’s.
- It was fragile and old even before Trump was elected, charged with an anachronistic election college, a dangerously long transition between election and inauguration, and a deeply grieving blanket of state and federal constituencies.
- “You can no longer merge American democracy with Canada, Germany and Japan,” Euremmer President Bremmer told Axios. “We are now halfway between them and Hungary.”
What’s next: If Trump faces civil criminal prosecution, you should expect the crisis to get worse. On the other hand, if he not facing civil criminal prosecution, half the country would consider it a message that the president is truly above the law and that he is unpunished – even when he incites an attempt at insurrection.
Our thought bubble, of Axios’s Sara Fischer: The erosion of peaceful democracy in America did not take place in a vacuum. U.S. opponents, especially Russia, have long sought to undermine American democracy through sophisticated state-sponsored cyber and disinformation campaigns.
- These campaigns weakened confidence in the press and disrupted the American information ecosystem, which promoted a state of chaotic tribalism in the US.