World News: Political Chaos and The Decent of the Political Process

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Tuesday, 16 July 2024 09:06

Written by Olivier Longhi

The decent of the political process in the United States, as seen internationally, has been a constant spiral, with only brief respites, into a darkened world of violence tapping into a disgruntled and disenfranchised population.

Could the assassination attempt on Donald Trump be the expression of a drift in the democratic debate in favor of violence fed by radicalism present in many political discourses in the United States as elsewhere in the world?

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After the multifaceted emotion aroused by the assassination attempt on the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, it is now appropriate to question, of course, the motives of the shooter, even if at this time they remain unknown, vague, but also and above all on what this gesture expresses in a country, where, let us remember, some states authorize the purchase and carrying of weapons.

Historically, Donald Trump is not the first president to have been the target of gunfire. Before him, Abraham Lincoln, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan were all the victims of assassination attempts, the first two of which ended in their respective deaths. There is therefore a fairly usual recourse to arms in the world's leading democracy to eliminate the representative of the said democracy.

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Free Movement of Arms

There are several reasons for this, starting with the free circulation of accessible firearms, including individuals who should not come into contact with them. Secondly, the weight and influence of social networks, lulled by conspiracy theories from the most far-fetched to the most dangerous, not to mention the ability of the latter to stir up hatred and resentment in individuals who are weakly, if ever, exposed to constructive, thoughtful and well-argued dialogues.

The last point, which is a synthesis of the first two, is the fact that from now on the confrontation between two political parties would involve a physical and armed confrontation on the pretext that the discourse carried by one would be incompatible with that carried by the other. The militarization of exchanges, which in fact are no longer exchanges, would tend to replace the basis of all democracy: dialogue.

What can be assimilated to a more than worrying drift threatens to become the norm because in other countries, violence or assassinations against political representatives are also on the rise.

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Radicalism

Does this mean that our democracies, already subject to many pitfalls, will have to integrate this violence as a constituent part of their evolution or, on the contrary, will a common discourse and effort to rehabilitate the notion of exchange and dialogue emerge?

It is to be hoped that the second solution will be chosen, but it is also true that the speeches of certain political representatives around the world are particularly violent, both in their form and in their content, consciously or unconsciously fueling a form of anger and fury. Of course, this is by no means a generality, but the radicalism of certain speeches can feed reflexes and attitudes similar to those of which the Republican candidate was a victim.

In the end, the question facing our democracies is simple: does radicalism have a place in politics? It will be up to each person to provide their own answer.

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Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist and recognized blogger, editor, and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, was a press and publishing consultant, and was a communications consultant.