2021 is the first year after President Donald Trump and the first year in office of US President Joe Biden. He took office as President of Reconciliation. As President of all Americans. As a bridge builder. But the trenches don’t seem any less deep than last year. The storm of the Capitol, the tale of the stolen election, split the country. Biden fights against opponents in his own party and poor poll numbers. The political scientist Constanze Stelzenmüller draws an interim balance.
SRF News: Is Joe Biden’s record really as devastating as the Republican broadcaster’s headlines would have us believe?
Constanze Stelzenmüller: Of course not. It is less than a year in government and Biden has been able to implement some of his very big agenda items: a large emergency package in spring, the huge infrastructure package now in autumn. What has not worked is the Afghanistan withdrawal and driving out the pandemic. The government took office with the promise that they would get it under control by the summer. Now the Omikron wave has a firm grip on the country.
It is a pleasant circumstance to be ruled by a government that is committed to rational principles.
All in all, one has to say: If you’ve seen Trump for four years, it’s a pleasant circumstance to be ruled by a government that is committed to rational principles.
There are many people who do not believe in the legitimacy of Biden’s election. Has that worsened over the course of the year?
Indeed, my colleague Jonathan Rauch from the Brookings think tank has written a book in which he speaks of an epistemological civil war, i.e. the emergence of two worlds of perception that can no longer communicate with each other. It is shocking.
The Republican Party has radicalized itself here to an extent that many observers could not really have imagined.
As is well known, this does not only exist in the USA. But it seems more dramatic here because there are only two parties. And because the party that is currently in the opposition is getting ready to prepare for the 2022 mid-term elections. And – unlike in the chaotic term of office of Trump – very systematically and also with systematic processing of the public opinion of large sections of the population, according to which the Democrats and President Biden would have stolen the 2020 election.
There are midterm elections in a year. When the election campaign picks up again, is it likely that the mood will not be more conciliatory?
Indeed, it will be a hot election year. There are various reasons for this. The fact that the Republicans are working, firstly, to change the electoral law in their favor and, secondly, to re-appoint the electoral authorities. The problem with the 2020 election was that Republican electoral officials had opposed attempts by Republicans to torpedo the election or to interpret it in their favor.
Republicans want power back. The question is, with or without Trump. Doesn’t that also give room for new movements?
I don’t see that at the moment. Perhaps this is also due to the fact that the parties in the USA, unlike in Europe, are much looser associations that can withstand much more tension and dynamism. They are not so organized with local associations and tight vertical power structures. This means that new movements will have a harder time arriving. What one can say, however, is – and this is new in the history of the American parties – that the Republican party has radicalized itself here to an extent that many observers could not really have imagined.
The interview was conducted by Christina Scheidegger.