Democratic Party's Election Gains to Deepen US Polarization & Fuel a More Assertive Foreign Policy

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Democratic Party's Election Gains to Deepen US Polarization & Fuel a More Assertive Foreign Policy

If Democrats take control of either the House or the Senate, they will seek to steer US foreign policy in a more anti-Russia and anti-China direction, US constitutional historian and political commentator Dan Lazare tells Sputnik.

"It’s impossible to know as to how things will turn out. But I’m confident there will be more instability rather than less," Lazare says, adding that a confrontation with Beijing over Taiwan is likely to feature on the Democratic Party’s agenda. "Whatever happens with tomorrow’s election, divisions will undoubtedly deepen."If Democrats win enough seats, they will use their newfound power to tie the Trump administration “up at every turn,” Lazare believes. The White House, in turn, will respond with countermeasures and threats, potentially raising tensions “to a boiling point.”There is no escape from this “negative dialectic”: the problem is rooted in the political system itself, according to Lazare.Like other presidential systems, the US government is built on the separation of powers and a system of checks and balances. With each branch enjoying a degree of autonomy, forging consensus around a common policy can be extremely difficult.While this system is designed to prevent the concentration of power and ensure that major decisions face proper scrutiny, its checks and balances have increasingly become weapons in the political battle between Republicans and Democrats, the pundit says.As a result, rather than easing tensions, each successive election only escalates the political conflict further, the commentator concludes.

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© AP Photo / John MinchilloVoters fill out their ballots before bringing them to counting machines at a polling site in the Brooklyn Museum as the doors open for the midterm election, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

"It’s impossible to know as to how things will turn out. But I’m confident there will be more instability rather than less," Lazare says, adding that a confrontation with Beijing over Taiwan is likely to feature on the Democratic Party’s agenda. "Whatever happens with tomorrow’s election, divisions will undoubtedly deepen."

If Democrats win enough seats, they will use their newfound power to tie the Trump administration “up at every turn,” Lazare believes. The White House, in turn, will respond with countermeasures and threats, potentially raising tensions “to a boiling point.”

There is no escape from this “negative dialectic”: the problem is rooted in the political system itself, according to Lazare.

"The reason is that the US is a minoritarian system in which small numbers of congressmen are able to take advantage of numerous chokepoints to bring business to a halt. Paralysis is therefore a recurrent fact."

Like other presidential systems, the US government is built on the separation of powers and a system of checks and balances. With each branch enjoying a degree of autonomy, forging consensus around a common policy can be extremely difficult.

While this system is designed to prevent the concentration of power and ensure that major decisions face proper scrutiny, its checks and balances have increasingly become weapons in the political battle between Republicans and Democrats, the pundit says.

"Things began to break down following Watergate, defeat in Vietnam, and the free-market policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. By the mid-90s, the two parties were at war. The breakdown intensified with Trump's election in 2016, Russiagate in 2017-2020, and the attempted coup on January 6, 2021."

As a result, rather than easing tensions, each successive election only escalates the political conflict further, the commentator concludes.

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