Legacy of Jan. 6 insurrection: U.S. seen globally as a power in decline

The global impact of the Jan. 6 insurrection is still growing one year after the attack.

Most Americans don't realize the shock felt by our foreign friends, and the glee of our adversaries, at watching mobs of MAGA vandals storm the Capitol of the world's greatest democracy.

Even when European and Asian allies disagreed with American policies, they still looked to the U.S. as the leader of the community of democratic nations. Especially given the growing strength of China and the muscle-flexing of Russia.

The coup attempt on Jan. 6, along with its continuing reverberations, has shaken our allies' faith in America's future. Despite the Biden administration's success in strengthening alliances Trump rebuffed — and building new ones in Asia — foreign officials now worry about the stability of the United States.

They watch with astonishment as the former president continues to promote his Big Lie about election fraud in 2020 — and as most GOP leaders support his falsehoods. They wonder whether Trump will try again to steal the election in 2024, and whether more of his supporters will use violence.

No NATO ally could have conceived of such a scenario before Trump incited the coup attempt at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"This is a year in which the crisis of American democracy has become incredibly visible to all," the noted British columnist Martin Wolf told a Financial Times podcast in late December.

Wolf's colleague Gillian Tett, the Financial Times' Editorial Board chief, added: "When it comes to the question of American democracy right now, there's a huge amount of uncertainty. Yes, the potential insurrection on Jan. 6 was suppressed. Yes, we have a new figure sitting in the White House as a result of an election. But one of the signs of just how dazed and confused everyone is, is that when everyone talks about what could happen in 2022, with the important midterms coming up, there's a lot of discussion about whether or not people will actually believe the results.

"And what's even more remarkable is that the person who is seen as being behind this insurrection … is being deemed a significant contender for the 2024 presidential race."

European and Asian leaders wonder whether the partisan madness eating away at America's democratic institutions will undercut any effective U.S. foreign policy. This is a time when our country needs to be united against China's advances and Russia's aggression. Moreover, NATO allies know they can't handle these threats alone, and are looking for solid U.S. leadership in pushing back against Moscow and Beijing.

Instead, foreigners watch with amazement (or glee in Beijing) as Trump, his congressional acolytes and pro-Trump media shatter the most sacred principle of democracy: the commitment to free and fair elections in which the candidate who gets the most votes wins and the loser steps aside.

Never mind that audit after audit, court decision after court decision, debunks GOP claims that votes were altered, voting machines fixed, or absentee ballots misused. Never mind that a monthslong study by the Associated Press of every potential case of voter fraud in six key battleground states found fewer than 475 individual cases of potential fraud out of 25.5 million votes cast.

In foreign capitals, they are already imagining the domestic U.S. political chaos if the GOP refuses to accept the results in the 2024 presidential ballot. They also worry about bitter U.S. domestic conflicts in the long run-up to 2024 elections, especially if the GOP wins a House majority in 2022 and makes clear its plans to upend 2024 results it dislikes.

No wonder America's friends wonder whether our country is on its way to destroying itself. No wonder our adversaries believe this to be the case.

"Trump has handed authoritarians such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping a huge gift: a United States divided, internally preoccupied, and contradicting its own democratic ideals," writes the noted Stanford political scientist Francis Fukuyama in Foreign Affairs.

Indeed, Chinese state media, and political leaders, point to the chaos of Jan. 6 at the Capitol as proof their system of governance is superior to America's. The divisiveness that paralyzes American politics increases their self-confidence in their authoritarian order, and their conviction that the United States is in decline.

Trump's Big Lie, which keeps the legacy of Jan. 6 boiling, is the gift that keeps giving to America's adversaries. So long as Republican leaders refuse to rebuff that lie in public, they are handing China and Russia a compelling advantage by helping rip up American democracy at its roots.