Stephan: We are witnessing an attempted coup by Trump and the Republican Party; there can be no doubt about any of this. I think we have reached a point where Trump, on the 21st of January, should be indicted, arrested, tried, and sent to prison, and those senators who have backed him should be removed from office. I think this is very serious, and there must be an accounting or, the next election, a more competent coup will be attempted. The only thing that is saving American democracy at this point is the inertia of the system, the macro-systems of governance have a momentum that is hard to change, and the incompetence of the coup attempters.
No ethical person who supports democracy can remain a Republican and that needs to be acknowledged.
The US faces a huge task in reversing a culture of “crazy conspiracy theories” that have exacerbated divides in the country, Barack Obama says.
Mr. Obama has said that Joe Biden, who he is greeting here with a socially distant “air elbow”, has “all the qualities we need in a president right now” Credit: Getty
In a BBC interview, the former president says the US is more sharply split than even four years ago, when Donald Trump won the presidency.
And Mr Obama suggests Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 US election is just the start of repairing those divisions.
“It’ll take more than one election to reverse those trends,” he says.
Tackling a polarised nation, he argues, cannot be left only to the decisions of politicians, but also requires both structural change and people listening to one another – agreeing on a “common set of facts” before arguing what to do about them.
However he says he sees “great hope” in the “sophisticated” attitudes of the next generation, urging young people to “cultivate that cautious optimism that the world can change” and “to be […]
