Ian Bremmer: In 2022 there’s been rare good news from America’s chaotic politics

Looking back on this year, the US midterm elections delivered welcome good news to Americans and the world: candidates who threatened the integrity of US political institutions and future elections were soundly defeated.

Whether you support Democrats or Republicans, last month’s votes in both houses of Congress and state governments restored the future by overwhelmingly defying those who claim they can’t trust the US political system.

The results are a victory for US allies and partners who need to know that future US administrations will not suddenly abandon Washington’s international security and economic commitments.

Former President Donald Trump has never admitted that he lost the 2020 presidential election fairly. Just days after the votes were counted last month, he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2024.

Then, in early December, he used his self-invented social network, Truth Social, to call for the “termination of all rules, regulations and articles found in the Constitution” to restore him as a duly elected president. Members of both parties have condemned the scandal.

More importantly, voters have made it easier for fellow Republicans to speak out against President Joe Biden in 2020 by rejecting most of the major candidates for this year’s election who have publicly denounced or questioned his victory.

This is critically true for state governors and law officers who administer all elections under the US system. In fact, in the 13 elections for governor, secretary of state or attorney general held in six of the most closely contested states since the 2020 presidential election, “electoral denialists” were defeated in every vote.

In this sense, the election was not a victory for Biden’s Democrats, who lost their majority in the House of Representatives, or for Republicans, who failed to win the expected majority in the Senate.

Instead, it is a victory for members of both parties who believe that the laws governing US elections must be respected and the institutions that guarantee the impartiality of their conduct are sacrosanct.

Ironically, the result helps the Republican Party in one important way: It discredits Trump acolytes who persuade large numbers of voters on the right that their votes won’t be counted fairly because voting is a waste of time.

This is a victory for the governments of other countries who value the integrity and future of their relations with Washington.

Even those who believe that US foreign policy is not a force for good in the world can take comfort in the hope that the only country in the world that projects military might into every region of the world will not become a wildcard in international politics. and the global economy, with major policy reversals following each new election.

Trump remains a formidable figure within the Republican Party, and there’s no guarantee he can’t win his party’s nomination for president in 2024, especially if anti-Trump Republican candidates split the anti-Trump vote among themselves.

But most Republicans have found the courage to publicly denounce Trump’s conspiracy theories and his calls to end constitutional rule. More importantly, the interim results confirm that there will be no cabal of political officials with oversight over the upcoming elections who actively seek to reverse unfavorable results. It is the single greatest real threat to US democracy, with dire consequences for US foreign, trade and investment policies and global economic growth.

What can we now expect from the US government from January 3? Good old-fashioned gridlock. Republicans will use their narrow majority in the House to block Biden’s agenda and wage a political war on his presidency. Democrats will use their narrow majority in the Senate to block passage of Republican legislation and to approve more left-leaning judges to federal positions to balance right-leaning judges appointed by Trump.

In short, US politics will remain predictably dysfunctional – but no longer in a way that threatens US and global stability.

Ian Bremmer Chairman of Eurasia Group and Gzero Media and author of The Power of Crisis. His Twitter handle is @ianbremmer and he is on Facebook as Ian Bremmer.