It’s up to US voters now

Citizens are democracy’s first and last line of defense. Institutions are shaped to anticipate problems and prevent deadlock, to regulate the state’s functions, to protect the weak and check the powerful. In the end, though, it is citizens who determine the country’s course, based on their interests – or, rather, on what they perceive their interests to be at that time. Here is where the crucial questions of a democracy arise: Are the citizens sufficiently informed as to what is in their interest? Are they focused on short-term gains at the expense of their future? Do they like the candidate whom they are supporting, or do they just dislike his rival more? Perhaps they are too hasty to get cross with the candidate who is closer to their positions because he is not the perfect one that they desire, and, in this way, help his rival and harm their own interests? What role do the news media and powerful economic interests play in shaping citizens’ idea of what is in their interests? Seldom have we seen so clearly the questions that democracy raises as we see in the United States today.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump will again be fighting for the presidency in November. Much will happen by then, of course. Trump is facing 91 charges in four major court cases. Whatever revelations may come, though, his supporters, donors and the Republican Party can be expected to remain squarely behind him.

Biden, who last night was expected to list his achievements in his State of the Union address, is up against problems that are not directly related to how he has governed. From his age to his inability to check Benjamin Netanyahu’s behavior in Gaza, every move, every slip will be analyzed and judged by friend and foe alike.

The overriding picture up to the elections will be that of a gladiatorial contest in which the weaknesses of the two protagonists will be stressed continually. The problem, though, is that for Trump weaknesses are not a problem – his supporters do not care about them. There will be less focus on the qualitative difference between Biden and Trump, on the way in which each governed, what he achieved and what he will do if elected. Where the political system, the news media and the institutions cannot avert danger, the responsibility falls to the citizens.