Eight bullets, an assassination attempt and a former president who miraculously survived. In Pennsylvania, on July 13, the fate of American democracy changed. “This photograph of Donald Trump wounded, his face covered in blood and his arm raised, will remain a legendary image, which will become central to this presidential campaign and makes his victory likely, says American political scientist Ian Bremmer. If Joe Biden seems so vulnerable, it is because of his age and physical fragility. Trump’s incredible reaction, captured by the cameras, is the opposite of fragility and will rally his supporters for a long time.”
Three months before the presidential election, the former president was already leading the dance in this campaign. Since the end of June and Biden’s cataclysmic performance during their debate, the Republican billionaire only had to remain silent to see his rival collapse. Far from being obvious to him, but devilishly effective. A sign of the outgoing president’s decay, his campaign team congratulated himself on his press conference at the NATO summit last week, in which he “only” mixed up Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, then his vice-president Kamala Harris and Donald Trump…
Biden’s only agenda: stopping Trump
In 2020, Biden won because he embodied stability, that “good old Joe” who had been part of the American political landscape since the 1970s. A return to normal after four years of chaos. But what is this 81-year-old candidate proposing today, forced to declare that he is still capable of staying awake past 8 p.m.? Block fascism, stop Donald Trump. The refrain is struggling to seduce, for the Republican’s third election in a row.
Even the attempted insurrection on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol, did not tarnish Trump’s reputation among his millions of die-hard fans. Conversely, his trials and criminal conviction have cemented his status as a martyr. “I am the only man in history whose popularity ratings have increased after being convicted by the courts,” Trump smiled at a rally. By surviving an assassination attempt with panache, he completed the myth of his invincibility.
But the young American nation was built on stories, from Christopher Columbus to Hollywood, and the Democrats are seriously lacking inspiration. The world’s leading power needs a future, ambition, hope. Everything that Joe Biden can no longer embody today.