A city of power, the American capital is at the crossroads of tensions between the 50 states of the Union and the central power of the federal state. At a time when the presidential election is being played out between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, “Le Temps” has delved into the psyche of this sometimes revered, sometimes hated place.
Published on November 1, 2024 at 8:05 p.m. / Modified on November 2, 2024 at 08:12.
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The capital symbolizes the country’s ills, while continuing to embody the place of power.
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Many politicians criticize the city and its functioning but do everything to stay there once they are elected there
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Report from DC, which will probably never become the 51st American state
US presidential elections
Analyzes, reports, polls, “Le Temps” is mobilizing to cover all the news from the race for the White House.
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A few days before an American presidential election whose outcome remains very uncertain, we are very interested in the pivotal states which can swing the election in one direction or the other. But one city is also in the spotlight, for the incendiary criticism or the praise it receives: Washington. Organized at the end of the 18th century in a neoclassical style by the French architect Pierre L’Enfant, it is immediately striking with its monumental character and gives off a double impression. On the one hand, it concentrates what makes the strength of the leading world power: institutions that we have seen in numerous films, the White House, Congress, the FBI and even the Treasury Department in front of which the statue sits. of a Genevan, Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury to Thomas Jefferson. On the other, it symbolizes the evils that are gnawing away at America.
No wonder Americans have a love-hate relationship with it. While they may be sensitive to the fact that the capital is more airy and less dense than New York, they keep in mind a traumatic event: the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by activists encouraged by the outgoing president, Donald Trump, who refused to acknowledge his defeat against Democrat Joe Biden. An unprecedented attack on the very symbol of American democracy. Since 2016, the Republican candidate had been able to ride the widespread anger of the American people towards the capital: he promised to “drain the swamp”. The billionaire was not referring to the fact that part of the city was actually built on a swampy area, but to the corruption and astronomical sums that flood the city’s politics. He wasn’t the only one. Texan Ted Cruz may well sit in the Senate, but he has regularly denounced the “Washington cartel”.
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