MOUGAS Djamel L2 Information-Communication N. Issard Année 2020-2021 Final Assessment : « Thème d’actualité » 1. « This mirrored the seriousness with which voters from each party viewed the pandemic ». Explain in your own words (50 words ± 10%). Months before Election Day, when COVID-19 began to affect the US, measures were taken to ensure the convening of the elections. The intention was to make voting by mail more accessible, a method more suited to the global situation. Republicans were against this voting system, as opposed to Democrats who believed in this convenient alternative. Thus manifesting more concern towards the pandemic. 2. Explain the « red mirage » in your own words (50 words ± 10%). The "red mirage" describes how, on Election Day, the majority of Americans who voted at the polls were Republicans. It doesn't mean that Democrats did not vote, but the latter widely voted through mail-in ballots. The consequence was that the first results of the election declared Trump as the lead for the win, also referred to as "red mirage". 3. In your opinion, has Donald Trump behaved like the president of the oldest democracy in the world ? “There is no doubt the US example matters, as many countries look to the United States as a touchstone of democratic practice. But wherever it exists, democracy is imperfect and forever a workin-progress.» said Derek Mitchell, president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI). In fact, as the oldest democracy and most influential country in the world, the US has a deeply rooted impact worldwide. During Donald Trump’s years at the White House, democracy in the US has rarely been more at stake. This reassessment has had repercussions globally, opening up debates on already established social gains. I think of Trump's presidency as an example of democratic dysfunction. His defective politics began during his first campaign in 2016 and is still current. Disinformation has been at the center of his presidential run, wavering between false allegations and desperately trying to bypass the law. There are far too many examples that demonstrate how Trump challenged US democracy but I think the two most relevant happened during the 2016 and 2020 elections. In 2016 he falsely accused his opponent Hilary Clinton, saying she would cheat and rig the votes in a series of misleading tweets. He tried to alter the outcome of the election in the most anti-democratic way. The fraud continued in 2020 with yet another attack on the election process. This time in the context of a global pandemic. He used the election system as an argument against Joe Biden. He ended up falsely claiming his win publicly with votes still being counted. The former president-elect even got his tweets censored for sharing fake information. These examples need to be combined with four years of lies and socially harmful politics. Ultimately, his fight against basic human rights for all Americans makes his politics not only antidemocratic but also profoundly dangerous.