The storming of Capitol Hill was just the latest in a series of events which leaves the US’s international reputation in tatters
Oddly enough, the first ‘putsch’ in modern times took place at Paradeplatz (in Zurich), today home to banking putsches. In 1839, the conservative, religiously fervent rural community from beyond Zurich led the ‘Züriputsch’ against the city’s liberal elite, thereby coining the term ‘putsch’ for an excited uprising, or incitement of the people, if we can put it like that. Later, the 1923 Munich Beer Hall putsch gave the term a more deadly meaning.
The episode came to mind with the storming of Capitol Hill last week, an event where it is difficult to add to the sense of disgust at confederate flags and Auschwitz/6MWE T-shirts being paraded through Congress.
Subversion of law
In the old days, putsches and coups d’états were frequent occurrences across Africa, or more sporadic events in Latin America guided by the hand of Henry Kissinger as the myth goes. What transpired last Wednesday was not a coup but the subversion of laws and the takeover of the office of state, and of a political party by the cult of an individual.
The development that the Democrats gained two seats in Georgia was lost in the fog of the ‘putsch’. Leaders in other countries where individuals have subsumed institutions – Russia, China, Brazil for example – may have been thrilled by what they saw.
The political implication of Wednesday’s event is that social media companies now have an opportunity to rethink the intersection of politics and social media. Further, there is a very likely formal split in the Republican Party between a Liz Cheney ‘Country Club’ faction and a Pompeo/Hailey/Hawley/Cotton raw, nationalistic cabal (half of Republicans supported the ‘putsch’ according to early polls). A profoundly divided Republican Party means that like the 1912 election, a Democrat will win in 2024.
From an international point of view what is worrying is that the US, and by extension the international institutions it anchors, will lose moral authority with respect to their ability to condone human rights abuses, corruption and the degradation of democracy in other countries (note events in Hong Kong last week). In the future Turkey, China and Hungary will request to send observers to oversee elections in the US.
Washington has been the keystone or locus of the globalised world, and its violation is, like the smothering of Hong Kong’s democracy this time last year, another rupture that announces the onset of a different world order.
Europe looks on
From a European point of view, events in Washington will spoil the prospect of a full reconciliation between European and US diplomacy granted the fear that the underbelly of US society is now isolationist and nationalist. In general, European leaders will be more wary of the US, and at home will take steps to ensure that extreme political groups are marginalised.
The daunting challenge and opportunity for Europe is to frame itself as the cradle of modern democracy and the beacon of liberal values. The EU has already stated as much through its ‘European Values’ policy thread, but predicably failed to follow through during recent budget negotiations involving Poland and Hungary. The stakes are much higher now, and Europe’s political centre needs to take a big risk and aggressively defend liberal democracy.
Many politicians, and many of us, may hope that with the inauguration of President Biden the ugly side of American politics will subside, or that, in the long-term it can be mollified with education and progressive policies. This sadly is an illusion.
The path that the UK has followed with Brexit is the likely direction for public life in the US – derision, lack of direction and division – until an event or nadir is reached that gives a common cause (it should have been Covid, or climate damage). This common cause could be the collapse of the US economic model in that face of extreme inequality and indebtedness (with a fiscal version of Paul Volker as the catalyst in redistributing wealth) or more predictably an open strategic conflict with China. The former would excite Democrats and the latter Republicans.
This sobering scenario points toward at least five more years of political dislocation in the US. In that time other nations will ‘go it alone’, we will continue to see a ‘levelling’ of power between nations and new approaches to ‘doing things’ that are no longer tied to the Washington Consensus will spring up.
America’s credibility is in tatters. Recall that Donald Trump withdrew the US from the World Health Organisation (WHO) amid the worst pandemic in a century. He has now broken its society and political system. These will take a very long time to repair.
Markets have so far focused on the fiscal implications of the Democrats’ ‘Blue Wave’ and rising bond yields, a still weak dollar and strong small cap and cyclical stocks are all harbingers of this. In short time however, political deadlock and division may hinder the recovery, and risk turning dollar weakness into a credibility crisis.
Michael O’Sullivan is the author of ‘The Levelling’ (PublicAffairs)
