Can America’s broken politics be fixed? The answer is no

Saturday November 7, 2020. 11:26 AM Eastern Standard Time. The moment history was made; the moment Donald Trump’s wretched, monstrous, disgusting presidency was consigned to the dustbin of history.

As CNN called the election for Joe Biden, swiftly followed by most other stations, thousands raced into the streets across America for a spontaneous celebration. This wasn’t just about joy; it was about relief. Of a whole country escaping its serial, malignant abuser, and finally having the chance to start a long healing process from collective trauma. Collective PTSD.

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Around the world, hundreds of millions felt very similarly. After these appallingly dark years of Trump, Vladimir Putin, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orban, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Rodrigo Duterte, Andrzej Duda, Binyamin Netanyahu, Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Brexit — not to mention a global pandemic which has ravaged economies, social structures and health systems — was this, finally, the turning point?

Well yes: there is light at the end of the tunnel… and maybe it isn’t an oncoming train after all. A terrifyingly swift descent into fascism has, for the time being at…