The USA, once a pinnacle of freedom and democracy, is standing today at the brink of self-destruction. The storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, tore a formidable wound in a nation that is searching for itself in its self-image. The politically divided landscape, in which unity has long since given way to a deep split, has not been repaired under President Biden. His attempts to mend the social rupture looked as futile as trying to catch smoke with your bare hands.

Biden, who was elected to the White House to be a healer, found himself confronted with an almost unsolvable task. His initiatives, ranging from immense economic stimulus packages to an infrastructure law, were ambitious, but they collided with a society riven with inequality and racism. The social and economic shadows that drove the rise of populism under Donald Trump have not diminished – quite the contrary.

While citizens increasingly lost trust in politics, the American Dream itself came under scrutiny. Social mobility, once the pride and engine of US society, had lost its dynamism. Today the dream of the promise of social mobility has given way to existential survival. The growing gap between poor and rich is tearing apart the foundations of a nation once proud of the middle class as the heart of its identity.

The USA is stumbling at the crossroads. Between the fading sheen of its ideals and its present reality stands a democracy that is fighting for its future. It remains to be seen whether it can win this fight.