Thoughts on the American elections

What is the reason for our keen interest in the 2020 American elections? This is not too difficult to comprehend. It is because of the United States’ disproportionate influence in the world. For more than 70 years, America’s domineering influence in the world has been unmistakable. Though this is dwindling, the United States will continue to be a major global power for a long time to come. So, our deep interest in their elections is well-founded.

It was the late President Ronald Reagan who described America as a “shining city on a hill”.  Reagan was a man of optimism; one with no guile and a good man. He radiated a positive outlook on life; he never allowed himself to be crippled by the daunting challenges of life. His optimism was infectious, which was why many Democrats voted for him twice. In 1980 and 1984. Before then, he had ruled the largely Democratic state of California for two terms. Those supporters were called the “Reagan Democrats”.

Now, we have his latest successor in the White House having none of his endearing qualities. The only thing they have in common is that they are of the Republican Party, the GOP – the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln. But there are those who will argue that the Republican Party of Reagan’s days is vastly different from the one presided over by Donald Trump.

What the 2020 elections have revealed in concrete terms is that America is a deeply divided country; a characteristic that is prevalent in most societies. But their division is of a dangerous type. The American people can be classified as those who belong to the Progressive School of Thought and the Donald Trump School of Thought.

The Progressives believe in equal rights and opportunities; equality before the law; helping the less privileged; zero tolerance for discrimination of any sort, access to medical care for citizens, etc. On the other hand, is the Donald Trump Republican Party that believes in hefty tax cuts for the very wealthy; hatred for immigrants; does not believe in the equality of all men; promotes fear and hatred, denies the poor medical care, etc.

So, the choice before the American people in the presidential election was pretty clear. For me, the choice you made was a fair reflection of your core values. You either believe in the equality of man and the freedom therein or you subscribe to the division, hatred and preferential treatment of the of the privileged which Trump encapsulates.

And Americans made their choices. They did that in tens of millions on both sides. That’s the beauty of democracy. The danger, however, is that one side of the divide does not understand the basic tenets of democracy: they do not believe that they can lose an election; they do not believe that democracy is a game of numbers. Because they live in an alternative world, they cannot comprehend the realities of things.

More than one week after the elections, and several days after the election was called, they are yet to come to grasp with reality. They still dream of winning the election. They dredge up frivolous stuff that makes them remain in the dream world. Not even the fact that the courts have routinely thrown out their frivolous charges has been able to help them engage with reality. It is such a sad thing. I have several friends who belong to this group and I have nothing but pity for them.

It was the philosopher, Blaise Pascal, who wrote: “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction”.  Many of Donald Trump’s supporters have played the religion card. They claim he is a warrior for God. That he defends Christian values and that he has supported the movement of Israel’s capital to Jerusalem, etc.

What they have not told us is how a man who does not go to church, a manifest racist, a misogynist and one who fans hatred and division can be doing God’s work. For their god is different from mine.  And who told them that it is only those who subscribe to their brand of Christianity that are children of God? Who told them? Is God limited by religion? The resounding answer is NO!

Some call themselves Evangelicals. But there is hardly anything that shows them as evangelizing for Christ. They traffic in ignorance. Many of them portray a picture of hate and prejudice and a sense of entitlement.

Katherine Stewart, author of the new book, “Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism” recently tried to explain this phenomenon on Al Jazeera. According to her, “Generalizing about what draws people to the movement is difficult because people come for a wide variety of reasons. These reasons include questions about life’s deeper meaning, a love and appreciation of God and scripture, ethnic and family solidarity, the hope of community and friendship, and a desire to mark life’s most significant passages or express feelings of joy and sorrow”.

It is this amalgam of reasons that politicians like Donald Trump have exploited over the ages to claim and hold on to political power. For them, power is everything. The only thing they value is power. And Trump has come onto the scene as an embodiment of their values.  Like Trump, many of them lack empathy; they lack decency; they see people holding opposing views as their enemies; they appeal to the demons in the human spirit; they do not understand why we should appeal to our better angels. They exploit the deeply held anxieties of the people and profit therefrom.

Everything for them is transactional: What is in it for them? It is either money or power or both. Altruism is alien to many of them. They do not have a sense of community; not for them the concept of doing good without expecting anything in return.

So, the election was actually a fight between Day and Night; between the Past and the Future. Those in Nigeria and other Third World countries who are supporters of Donald Trump are obviously suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome: You evolve to love those who kidnapped you, who abused you, who consider you to be less than human. It is such a shame.

The defeat of Donald Trump came about as a result of many factors. A majority of Americans felt that the time has come to put a decent man in the White House. It is not that a majority of them did not reject him the first time; he got there courtesy of their archaic Electoral College system. But we can easily handpick the Coronavirus pandemic and the protests arising from the killing of  George Floyd by policemen in Minneapolis, as the catalysts that led to his downfall. His pathetic handling of these issues sank his political fortune. It doesn’t matter that Trump and his band of supporters are yet to come to grasp with this reality. In the fullness of time, they will.

As from January 20, 2021, there will be a smile in the White House; empathy shall be in abundance and meanness will disappear from the corridors of power in the United States. We expect a more humane administration from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Two decent people who will be in charge of the levers of power of the most powerful country in the world.

The United States will be expected to take back its leading role in world affairs. The country will be expected to return to the Paris Climate Change agreement. It will take its rightful place in the World Health Organization and re-engage Iran in respect of the latter’s nuclear arms ambition.

We expect to breathe a sigh of relief from next year; for the nightmare of the Trump administration would have been over.