Terror helps Trump

In normal times, the cooperation between the police and FBI would be celebrated. Less than 24 hours after bomb attacks in New Jersey and New York City, the suspected perpetrator was not just idenfitied, but also arrested - on top of that, he was only slightly injured during his capture.

The fact that such a performance by the authorities received so little media attention - like almost everything else this week - is down to one reason: Donald Trump. Once again the Republican presidential candidate had a simple answer to Americans' fears of further attacks by radical Muslims in their own country: racial profiling instead of political correctness. The fact that the practice is banned in the US is of little concern to Trump. Quite the opposite. Whenever one of his ideas goes against the law, it is just a reason for him and his supporters to demonstrate how corrupt, broken and wrong the system is. Only a political outsider can make sure that the laws are put aside for the greater goal: security in one's own country.

Immediate solution

The complex analysis from Hillary Clinton was hardly popular. Many people do not want to hear about how a war in far-away Syria or Iraq is linked to radicalized Muslims in their own country. They are unsure. They are afraid. They want solutions. Immediately.

People do not want to come to terms with the medium and long-term effects. There is no place for the question of what it does to a society that defines itself by differentiation and counterterrorism and is dominated by fear and uncertainty. But the claim that you have had enough and can lift a ban because of fear is reminiscent of the German right-wing Alternative for Germany party's "You will actually be allowed to say that" claim.

The United States has very obviously not found a way to deal with how much part of the population can be driven by the feeling of bullying. How discussions are organized is based on the law, but citizens nevertheless feel they want to be honest with their feelings, concerns and hopes. Many have apparently not come up with a way to comb their fears and uncertainties for racist and xenophobic tendencies.

Elites weakened

And the country has found no answer up to this point for the question of which social forces are strong enough to prevent this conflict from getting out of hand. What is clear is that neither the elites nor the media can accomplish this task. Those are the conflicts that the US and countries like France, Britain, Poland, Denmark and now Germany, are grappling with.

But there are also questions that the US cannot find time for in the heat of the moment.

Cozy complacency

The US is so beaten and polarized after the months-long election campaign that it is seemingly falling apart in front of the cameras and real-time on Twitter. For this election, it is too late to try to pick a fight over dealing with taboos and the moral standing the country wants to have. Politicians in other countries, in the face of big elections, have a little time yet dispense with cozy complacency and insert themselves into reality, where the real people live.