I thought that politics in America had reached its nadir. I was wrong.

No, it’s not the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi or that his attacker reportedly told the police that he had planned to hold Nancy Pelosi hostage and break her kneecaps if she lied to him. Rather, it is the response or lack of response to this atrocity.

A few Republican leaders condemned the attack, some of them with language that betrayed their insincerity. Others offered mocking comments. We got an insight into the direction in which Twitter, the most powerful social media platform, is headed under its new owner Elon Musk. He posted a reference to a scurrilous story from a discredited news outfit suggesting that Paul Pelosi and his attacker were in an intimate relationship. Donald Trump Jr quickly posted a meme depicting a hammer laying atop a man’s underwear. His father has, up to now, offered no comment on the incident. Maybe just as well.

American politics has become nasty and brutish. It is being driven not by ideas and policy positions but by a cleverly crafted belief system that is impervious to facts or evidence. Trying to understand it is like arguing with someone who believes in Obeah or insists that duppies walk around in cemeteries at nights.

America may as well be paired with Haiti and be made the subject of an intensive case study. The political discourse is riddled with hatred and violence. The American people, the ultimate guardians of their democracy, have absconded. Their outrage and revulsion at what is happening can hardly be seen or felt. The divisiveness among them is as palpable as that between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The rot goes deep. The recent report that a Federal Bureau of Investigations official had warned his superiors that “a sizeable percentage” of its agents were sympathetic to the rioters who stormed Capitol Hill is frightening.

America’s standing in the world is eroding rapidly. It can hardly exert influence beyond its borders when its own house is in such chaos and disarray and its attention is so distracted. But its deviant examples will be quickly embraced by anti-democratic forces as we have seen following Sunday’s election in Brazil.

It is not likely to get better any time soon. Mid-term elections are notoriously unkind to parties in control of the White House. It is not over until it is over, but public opinion polls forecast a disappointing night for the Democrats next Tuesday. More than half of the 569 Republican candidates running for federal, state, and local offices are election-denying, conspiracy-spouting Trump supporters.

The Democrats have done little to help themselves. Their campaign has no clear message and no strategic focus. Facing an election in which the rising cost of living is the biggest concern of voters, their efforts at explaining what has caused it and what they have done about it have been feeble. Their successful passage of legislation that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs, expand affordable health insurance, cancel student loan debts, and rebuild crumbling infrastructure is hardly talked about. Instead, much of their messaging is about abortion rights when the majority of their voters, especially males, are unable or unlikely to get pregnant.

Crime and the migrant issue loom large in this election. The Democrats have failed to put forward a coherent policy to deal with either.

The Democratic National Committee, once so ably led by people like Chris Dodd and Howard Dean, seems to be a mere spectator this time around. I had to check Google to find out who is the current chairman. Its last chairman, Tom Perez, even failed in his bid to secure nomination as governor in his home state of Maryland.

The Republican base appears to be running rings around the Democrats in mobilising its voters to turn out on election day. The Republicans have followed the Steve Bannon plan. They have embedded themselves in the election control machinery at the state and local levels. Certification of election results will not necessarily be normal. Some state legislatures have gerrymandered voting districts to maximise the number of Republican victories. In some states, the Republicans need to win only 44 per cent of the popular vote to secure the majority of the seats.

The Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter of America’s constitution and laws, is as polarised as is its politics. Its seating arrangements may just as well be configured like the House or Senate chambers, with them facing each other from opposite sides. Justice Clarence Thomas was not even minded to recuse himself from an application from Senator Lindsey Graham last week to avoid him having to comply with a subpoena to appear before a grand jury in Georgia in relation to his attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. This was part of a conspiracy in which Justice Thomas’s own wife was actively involved. He went ahead and imposed a freeze on the subpoena anyway.

Roe v Wade has been dispatched. Affirmative action is next in line. Who knows what will come after that? Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy may well be at risk.

There may well be a seismic shift come Tuesday night. If the Republicans take control of both Houses of Congress, President Joe Biden may just as well forget about his legislative agenda for the next two years. Consensus and compromise will be off the table. He will need to make sure that his veto pen is fully refilled. The paralysis in Washington will become even more intense.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Crises normally beckon someone who has the perceptiveness and fortitude to step forward, provide leadership, and inspire followership to restore order and stability and chart a new course. The sooner Biden makes it clear that he will not seek re-election in 2024, the sooner such a person — if he or she exists — will be able to step forward. The prospect of choosing between two octogenarians at a time like this is likely to end up in deeper morass. The post-2024 America may be vastly different from the one we have known.

As Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole wrote, America has always evoked a variety of emotions, including resentment, fear, admiration and respect. Today, it evokes a feeling of pity. With the vacuum it has left in the world order, I would add anger.

America’s experiences are a stark reminder to us. We used to say what happens here couldn’t happen in America. Today, the reverse is true. I don’t believe the Jamaican people would countenance the degradation of democracy that we are witnessing in America. But it is a lesson to us that we must not take our own democracy for granted. It has endured trials and tribulations. Our election results, even when razor close, are no longer a source of conflict. If we have issues, we take them to the courts and we accept their decision. We have come a long way and we must protect it every single day or else what is happening in America can happen here.

Bruce Golding served as Jamaica’s eighth prime minister from September 11, 2007 to October 23, 2011.