After the farce of the previous day, the 2020 US general election finally settled on January 7, local time, and the US Congress officially confirmed Biden’s victory.
From the very beginning, this election has far surpassed the presidential election itself, and has been accompanied by people’s observation and thinking of the American democratic political system.
Some people see the hypocrisy of American democracy and believe that this is evidence that the United States is bound to decline; some people see from it that the vitality of American democracy can be restored under such circumstances; some people also see the United States from it.
Democracy has both advantages and disadvantages.
Regardless of the perspective, the “Trump shock wave” has basically ended and American politics has resumed as scheduled, indicating that the American democratic political system has experienced and withstood a shock.
Rules defeated anti-rules, procedures defeated anti-procedures, and conventional forces defeated unconventional political forces.
Although Trump has an unprecedented number of 75 million supporters, he has not achieved his goal. Moreover, although the United States has solved this problem, although there are some losses, the system has not changed.
However, although the US election has come to an end, the root causes of this round of political and social unrest have not been eliminated.
The rapid changes in ethnic structure and rising conflicts of values will continue to plague the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States.
The rapid change in ethnic structure is the main source of problems facing the United States today, and it may surpass the speed of adjustment of the American political system, leading to another overload of the American political system.
With the rapid increase in the proportion of minorities in the American population, the starting points and goals of some minorities in participating in social and political life have undergone major changes.
During the civil rights movement in the United States in the last century, minorities hoped that mainstream society would accept it, hoping to obtain equal social and economic status with whites.
At that time, most ethnic minorities actually had “white hearts” or were struggling to obtain a “white heart”.
It’s different now. With the increase in the proportion of ethnic minorities, they have achieved a dominant position in some areas, controlling the seats of some local governments and even members of Congress.
The political goal of some ethnic minorities is no longer to become similar to white people, but to emphasize their unique identity to distinguish them from white subjects in order to obtain unique social and political benefits.
In this way, the identity difference between minorities and white Americans has gradually become a political difference. Seeking common ground has turned into reserving differences, and it may eventually become seeking difference.
The increasingly acute conflict of values is another important issue in the United States.
This issue is not only related to ethnic conflicts, but also related to different groups’ judgments on the direction of American development.
With the rapid increase in the minority population, the Democratic Party has gradually turned to the left and defined its political life more on the support of the minority groups.
Therefore, the policies of the Democratic Party increasingly have the characteristics of European-style welfare capitalism.
Some radical leftists in the Democratic Party, such as Sanders and others, put equality, especially equality of results above all else, and even put forward a slogan similar to “Hit local tyrants and divide fields”, advocating that the wealthy Wealth is distributed to the poor.
Corresponding to the fact that some people in the Democratic Party turned to the left, some people in the Republican Party turned to the right in an attempt to counteract the increasing influence of left-wing political forces.
One faction is to the left and the other is to the right.
The moderates in the middle are under increasing pressure and it is increasingly difficult for them to function as a stabilizer of American society.
Although this phenomenon of value polarization will be eased by the end of the general election, the trend of long-term polarization will continue.
Therefore, the fact that American democracy has withstood this test does not mean that there will be no losses. From a historical point of view, in modern society, the democratic political system of the United States is indeed tough.
It has experienced many internal and external shocks without failing. A constitution can last for more than 200 years. However, after many shocks, the current democratic politics in the United States, even on the most fundamental issues of democracy and freedom, has been far from the vision of the founders.
Any political system, no matter how perfect it is designed, will have a limit of development. Every time you experience an impact, you will get closer to this development limit.
By responding to the “Trump Shockwave,” American democratic politics has demonstrated its resilience. But on the other hand, the destruction of American democracy in the past four years and the social rifts caused or expanded, although temporarily concealed, are difficult to bridge.
The foundation of a democratic political system is a democratic political culture, and the foundation of a democratic political culture is people with the same or similar values and living habits.
Since the founding of the country, the foundation of American political culture has been constantly changing, and the political system has been continuously adjusted, which has allowed the United States to continue to this day.
And now, the most likely problem in the United States is still this political and cultural basis. Moreover, this crisis is not only American, it may also be an overall crisis facing Western society.
Britain left the European Union and France recently passed some special laws on ethnic minorities, to a certain extent, in response to changes in the political and cultural foundations of the West.
In this sense, Trumpism is actually a kind of liberalism with racist characteristics. Not only will it not disappear because of Trump’s departure, it will even continue to affect the United States and even the entire Western society.
