How they see us: America opts for democracy—barely
Midterm elections in the United States were a mess “from the beginning,” said the Global Times (China) in an editorial. Both parties ignored the concerns of their voters, like mounting inflation and the coming recession, and instead tried to “incite” them “with ideological language.” Republicans obsessed over the “stolen” 2020 election. Democrats droned on about threats to democracy. This American political dysfunction is a matter of concern because it frequently has “destructive spillover effects” for the rest of the world. The stark partisan divisions in American society translate into “untrustworthiness” in the international arena. U.S. leaders don’t value stability or continuity, but feel “smug” in ripping up their predecessors’ policies—as we saw just a few years ago when President Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, the U.N. climate treaty, and arms control talks. U.S. democracy has become “highly sensitive, capricious, neurotic, and aggressive.” And because America is a superpower, “when its system is sick, the whole world is afflicted.”
At least this time, American voters came through, said the Toronto Star (Canada). “Democracy may be bruised in the U.S., but it did not crumble.” While the opposition party usually sweeps Congress in the midterms, the ruling Democrats held the Senate and came within a hair of retaining the House as well. This outcome is largely thanks to American women, who mobilized by the millions after a Supreme Court ruling took away their right to abortion care. The Republican Party ran a slate of extremists and crazies, including many election deniers who insisted Donald Trump rightfully won the 2020 presidential race, but most of them lost—and, crucially, conceded. Those who did get in may now be more likely “to leave Trump to stew in his own soup of lies, victimization, and grievance.” All this means that, for now, American democracy is “still viable,” said Hélio Schwartsman in Folha de
São Paulo (Brazil). Still, “far-right authoritarianism” remains a force in U.S. politics, and that’s “dangerous” for the rest of us. Few countries in the world want to see a repeat of the Trump years, when the U.S. pulled out of international treaties and sneered at long-standing alliances.
It’s horrifying to think how much global stability depends on the whims of a few undereducated Americans, said Thomas Legrand in Libération (France). Trumpism thrives on the “misconception that America has lost its influence” and must be made great again. Yet in fact, for the French, and for most other people on this planet, U.S. elections are actually “more decisive” than our own in shaping our lives. If Washington doesn’t regulate the social media behemoths spawned in Silicon Valley, misinformation undermines our democracies. If it yanks its military support from Ukraine, that democracy could lose its war “on our doorstep.” And if a climate skeptic lands in the White House, the entire planet burns up. If there were any fairness in the world, we should all “be able to vote in American elections.”