The American Example

Joe Biden has put an end, at least temporarily, to the political growth of a demagogical and populist movement by providing concrete answers to Americans.

I remember attempting to get rid of a rose bush that was disturbing my garden by chopping it to bits. The following year, instead of being gone, it came back out, more flamboyant than ever. This is in some way what has happened to American democracy. While it was being trod on by Donald Trump and his supporters, we have wondered whether it would withstand this onslaught of hatred, of idiocy, of conspiracy-mindedness that resulted in Trump refusing to accept the results of the 2020 election. His admiration for Vladimir Putin served him amazingly well during the vote and throughout his term, led him to dream of a similar fate for himself: becoming president for life, whatever the results of the vote. But American democracy is sturdy despite its flaws.

It is born again with a man who feels that being elected at his age allows him to have a different horizon for his country than the next election, to bypass his fading eyesight in order to look far ahead and try to lead his country toward a necessary equilibrium between those who make it and those who do not have the opportunity to make it. There is no shortage of praise for Joe Biden; after Trump, who is coveting the title of most pathetic president since George W. Bush, we can see him taking his place in history alongside Franklin D. Roosevelt, the great Democratic figure of the crisis of 1929 and of World War II, but also John F. Kennedy, whom we must remember avoided nuclear confrontation between the two great blocs of the time.

Biden has put an end, at least temporarily, to the political growth of a demagogical and populist movement by bringing concrete answers to those Americans living somewhat closer to a nightmare than a dream. He can defuse the deep rancor instrumentalized by the former charlatan of the White House. Once again, America has set the example, showing the ability of democracies to set themselves free from the populist trap at a time in our history when the temptation is great.

In France, there are those in the military and the police who would gladly see themselves take part in the effort to bring back order—except that their idea of order looks like civil war. Disappointment, we must accept, is consubstantial to democracy. Emmanuel Macron did not really keep the promises that had roused real enthusiasm for him. Like many of his predecessors, he found it was more appropriate to give up than to persist, involuntarily feeding into an extreme trend that refuses to accept that what is failing in democracies is essentially us, our selfishness and our contradictions.

The last time we lived under an authoritarian regime, we did not go for a bitter police officer or a frustrated general; we did things properly and put a marshal in charge of the country. And we know how that worked out. So if we must be governed by an old man with nothing left to lose but his honor, we are better off choosing the likes of Biden over Marshal Philippe Pétain.