January 13th – The aftermath of the riots in the U.S. Congress is still in the balance.
The New York Times said on the 12th that the incident not only exposed the crisis of American democracy, but also the crisis of American power.
“The United States and its democracy have become the laughingstock”.
The excerpt from the article is as follows:
The Trump administration promised to make the world respect and fear the United States, and in the end neither of them came true, and the United States and its democracy became the laughingstock.
The scene of the riots in the United States Congress looks like the product of the “color revolution”. The only difference is that the storm took place in the United States: anger citizens, driven by social media, wearing American flags, protesting elections that they regard as fraud and calling for “democracy”.
There has been a lot of comments on the impact of this incident on American democracy.
The turmoil in the United States and the resulting impeachment against Trump not only show the crisis of American democracy, but also expose the crisis of American power.
Washington law enforcement has inexplicably failed to stop protesters from invading Congress, second only to Washington’s major failure in responding to the epidemic. It makes the United States look dysfunctional and weak, and unreliable to allies.
The United States is about to usher in a new government, not a new country.
The four years of the Trump administration will continue to have a worldwide impact, and will also affect the core foreign policy of the United States, including the desire of the United States to establish an effective democratic coalition to defend its liberal order.
However, the United States’ own democracy is still in a mess.
In addition, Jack Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser Biden will appoint, made it clear that the establishment of transatlantic partnerships will be regarded as the pillar of the new government’s foreign policy.
Just a week ago, many Europeans tended to reach an agreement with Sullivan, but how realistic have they become now? In the current situation, this will become very difficult. The reason is straightforward: they are all worried about the weakness of the United States.
In the weeks after the U.S. election, a survey commissioned by the European Committee on External Relations showed that most Europeans doubted whether the new president could restore the global leadership of the United States.
At the same time, most Germans believe that after the Trump administration, the United States is no longer believed to be a predictable ally.
In short, the American riots not only gave Trump a last blow, but also the most effective attack for the American alliance. Over the past century, the power of the United States has also represented the power of democracy.
However, after the turmoil in the United States, European leaders cannot take American democracy for granted its resilience and global influence.
