Joe Biden's relief on seeing that the Democratic defeat had been less severe than the polls and analysts predicted is one of the keys to the US mid-term elections. Neither Biden nor Trump were running, but the president felt like a winner and the former president reacted like a loser.
What was at stake on Tuesday was whether lies prevailed over truth at a time when fake news is circulating in all directions and is accepted as credible by large uninformed publics. The truth, wrote George Steiner, is condemned to permanent exile and it is in politics, before and now, where the facts are most hidden if they harm a government or the opposition. The loss of prestige of politicians basically stems from the handling of lies or half-truths.
In 2016, Brexit won in the United Kingdom and Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. In the two campaigns to win without scruples, very thick lies were resorted to that time has already disavowed.
The indifference to the truth in the two most solid democracies has had a great impact on the authoritarian populisms that are sweeping the planet. Brexit has not improved the lives of the British and Trump's time in the White House became a nightmare for many Americans who were perplexed by the "alternative facts" that replaced evidence such as the lower attendance at the opening session of the President. The truth, in the Trump mandate, was one more version, not the only one, of reality. The assault on Congress was nothing more than violently disavowing the results that gave Biden victory in 2020.
Tuesday's results show that centrism also exists in the Republican voter who has not endorsed many Trumpist candidates who still deny the 2020 results and have spread conspiracy versions about everything that goes against their fanciful visions of politics. The Washington Post entertained itself by noting the more than 30,000 lies of Trump's term. Biden's relief is understandable, despite having lost, because Trumpism has come out weaker than expected.
