Even before light was shed on the tragedy that struck this northern city of the United States, some ultra-conservative spheres hypothesized without proof that the suspect, an African-American, had acted in response to the acquittal, Friday, from Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people on the sidelines of anti-racist protests in 2020 in Kenosha, in the same state of Wisconsin.

Cases Revealing American Fractures

Donald Trump Jr, son of the former Republican president, himself drew a parallel on Twitter between the two cases, accusing the Democrats of Joe Biden of turning a blind eye to this “multiracial visits criminal” after having been relentless on the Rittenhouse “good Samaritan”.

“The United States is currently facing extraordinary and unprecedented divisions,” “exacerbated to the extreme by antagonistic information systems and concerted demagoguery inspired by Donald Trump,” said David Farber, professor of history at the United States. ‘University of Kansas.

Each event is interpreted according to opposing reading grids, because people “have become deaf to facts that contradict their ideological predispositions,” he told AFP.

This is how the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, erected, in certain right-wing circles, as the face of resistance to the disorders that may have accompanied the demonstrations of the Black Lives Matter movement (“black lives matter”), has become emblematic of the fractures of the first world power.

The racial question took its place in another trial, that of three white Americans tried for the murder of jogger Ahmadi Arber.

They “attacked” him only “because he was black”, hammered Monday the prosecutor.

“Cultural wars”

Beyond these legal cases, the political chronicle is fed by a whole series of “cultural wars” for which schools have often become the battleground, whether it is the obligation to wear a mask against the pandemic. , issues related to gender identity or teaching about racism in the United States.

President Biden’s efforts to make the Coved vaccine mandatory for certain categories of the population crystallizes these divisions in a society fiercely committed to individual freedoms.

And old divisions, such as abortion, have been revived by the new balances of the Supreme Court, of which three out of nine judges were appointed by Donald Trump – boosting the hopes of certain Republican States which are increasing restrictive texts by betting on a conservative turn of the high court.

For Shirley Anne Wars haw, professor of political science at Gettysburg College, these tensions “had been simmering for a long time,” but were “fueled” by populist political rhetoric and the explosion of disinformation.

“There are many less visible extremist websites, especially on the right,” “which add fuel to the fire, and that’s new,” she told AFP.

“Democracy In Decline”

The United States joined for the first time the list of “retreating democracies” mainly because of a degradation under the Trump era, according to a benchmark report published by the intergovernmental organization International IDEA.

The assault given on January 6 by supporters of the former president against Congress continues to generate much ink and maintain strong divisions.

The idea, which the ex-president succeeded in popularizing within his base despite the lack of evidence, of an electoral victory which would have been “stolen” from him by Joe Biden also contributes to blocking the political debate, d ‘as much as the billionaire retains enormous influence on his Republican camp.

The current president, elected on the promise of rallying and compromise, finds himself confronted with one of the most politically divided Congresses in the modern political history of the country.

“Our democracy is in danger,” “our institutions, our political system have been weakened,” laments Mary Stuckey, of Pennsylvania State University, saying that the media’s focus on “divisions and conflicts ”only worsens the situation.

Pandemic, Inflation And Homicides

This polarization takes place in a difficult context: Americans are exhausted by the health crisis.

“We have an already tense society, on economic or demographic subjects, and to this is added a nightmarish pandemic”, notes David Farber. “As Americans tend to have a political and ideological reading of everything, this health crisis has become, in an unprecedented way, a partisan issue.”

Despite a vigorous economic recovery, it is soaring prices that mark the spirits and complicate the daily lives of Americans.

And some experts have made a link between the pandemic, and its destabilizing effects, and the explosion in the number of homicides, which increased by 30% in 2020 compared to the previous year – a phenomenon which adds to the sentiment. insecurity in a country where firearms circulate easily, with sales themselves on the rise.