Which way America?

It’s Wednesday and the day after the 2020 elections in the US. Don’t expect to know the winner just yet. Even though almost 100 million votes had been cast by election day, surpassing two-thirds of the total votes of the last election in 2016, tallying all the votes and declaring a winner might still take a few days. As you know, in spite of the fact that there are Americans who identify as Independent voters, the battle is mainly between the candidates of these two political parties — Republican (conservatives) and Democrat (liberals). Also, even though other positions being contested were included in yesterday’s voting, most people are waiting for the presidential election results, to see who wins between Donald J. Trump (Republican) and Joe R. Biden (Democrat). Will Trump get 4 more years, and will democracy survive after four more years? Or will Biden win and become the 46^th US president thereby giving the whole world a chance to exhale?

Months before the November 3rd election day, there have been all kinds of speculations on what could happen after election results are released. And because of what President Trump has said and done in the run-up to the elections, no scenario has been too extreme for political pundits to consider. In the immediate, there were fears that Trump could declare himself the winner and claim early victory especially if he’s ahead-even when millions of votes remained to be counted. This was the alarm that was being sounded by liberal-leaning journalists, commentators and even some people who belong to the ruling Republican Party. Trump might borrow a leaf from Nigeria and pull an Orubebe when the results are being announced and he’s not winning. For what it’s worth Trump is certainly taking some steps in protecting himself from what only he knows. The White House has added what’s being called a non-scalable fence to protect the White House. Let’s not get into the mystifying reason the United States, the world’s greatest nation can’t conclude an election the day after. Mind you, early voting began in some states like Illinois in late September. As for the greatest nation bit, I’m just repeating all the hype we used to hear and believed before the wind of COVID-19 blew and exposed the greatest nation where people have little choice but to suffer illness or death due to the prohibitive cost of health care. I have avoided any coverage of the election results and will only start taking the news seriously by tomorrow. Except if of course, my curiosity gets the better of me.

Nonetheless, the timely release of results is one thing, it’s the tension that’s in the air. Many people expect some kind of violence and agitation regardless of who wins. In fact, Canada, one of America’s neighbours is preparing for civil unrest in the US no matter how the vote goes. How did things degenerate to this level? People in parts of the US have been told to store up to 2 weeks’ worth of food. Trump’s do or die is understandable. If he doesn’t win, he might have a hard time escaping punishment for all the crimes he has allegedly committed. For instance, his personal lawyer Michael Cohen got a three-year jail sentence over a campaign finance-related crime he claimed to have committed at Trump’s behest. In fact, Trump is named in that case as ‘Individual 1’. It was Trump who gained from the crime of paying off porn stars Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal to keep them quiet before the 2016 elections.

There’s no gainsaying that the 2020 elections pivotal to which direction democracy goes in the US. And this will also have global consequences. Right before our eyes, things have happened in the US that would’ve been unthinkable. Now, if some of the things that have happened pre-election day had happened in so-called third world countries, you bet the US as the policeman of the world, leader of the free world, would’ve felt bound to intervene and got allies or people who want to be in her good books to follow suit. Voter suppression was at an all-time high. The US Postal Services, USPS, headed by Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor was accused of going out of its way to slow down mailing. It removed mail collection boxes and reduced hours of operation across certain states. The USPS had to be compelled by a court to temporarily stop the changes which didn’t appear to have had much effect. A few days to the election, people who hadn’t sent in their mail-in ballots were being advised to abandon mailing them because first class mails were taking nearly one week. And there was voter intimidation, people being warned off from voting, etc, etc.

To cap it all, Donald Trump would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power. He wouldn’t say whether he’d leave if he loses the elections. This is after spending months disparaging the whole electoral process and sowing doubts in his supporters’ minds that the only way he’ll lose is if the elections have been rigged. Can you imagine if, in 2015, former President Goodluck Jonathan had refused to commit to a peaceful handover to Gen (rtd) Muhammadu Buhari? Wouldn’t the US and the rest of the leading countries have come down heavily on Nigeria? But as it is, rich countries can get away with a lot.

Shortly before Donald Trump was elected, I’d written a satirical piece wishing he’d win. I thought America deserved to enjoy some of what they served the rest of the world. I didn’t really mean it, of course. At the time, the chances of him winning were very slim. Now, four years later, I can’t even wish a Trump victory, not even sarcastically. The man is not healthy for the world. I doubt he’s healthy for himself. Before Naija Trumpists pull their teeth in anger, I don’t hate Trump. I’m only following his lead by reciprocating his feelings towards me as a Black woman who’s from, in his words, a ‘shithole country.’ The Bible did say to love our neighbours as ourselves, not more than ourselves.

• Republicans vs. Democrats: Tribalism by another name

I know we Africans are often denigrated because of tribalism. But I’ve now identified that Americans two-party system is the closest thing to tribalism in the US. Both sides hold onto their political ideology with religious fervour. Each side looks the other side like they dropped down from another planet. Republicans would mention ‘liberals’ like it’s most horrible word for the worst people on earth; and vice versa.

One of the reasons Trump has any chance at re-election is the fact that there are many people who only vote for party, and not the individual. That and the electoral college that makes nonsense of the popular vote. It doesn’t matter than Trump has reportedly told over 20,000 lies. Many of those lies are needless. During the debate, Trump said he was the least racist person in the room. It wasn’t enough to say he wasn’t a racist, he had to be ahead. This is a man who along with his father Fred Trump in the 50s had to be sued by the government for refusing to rent his property to Black people. This same Donald Trump took a full-page advert in several newspapers in 1989 to ask for the death penalty for the now exonerated Central Park 5 who were wrongly accused of raping a woman in New York’s Central Park. Even after they were released because someone else confessed to the crime and the case wasn’t well handled to begin with, Trump still refused to apologise. I don’t suppose you need me to tell you that the Central Park 5 were Black and Brown?

Still, party ideology and the lust for power keeps Trump’s base largely intact. And were it not for the coronavirus, many Americans wouldn’t have been bothered about all the nasty stuff. How is this different from the way tribalism works? Reminds me of a family friend who confessed to rigging in an election, in tears, to help his tribesman. That is, he was crying as he was rigging his ‘brother’ to victory. Why? His reply was telling: ‘How can someone from my tribe not be at the FEC (Federal Executive Council) meetings? It didn’t matter that the man was not delivering for his people. After all, in the wake of the #EndSARS protests, some rented Katsina State (President Buhari ‘s state) residents were on hand to do a counter Pro SARS march. How can anybody in Katsina be pro-SARS? The same Katsina State whose residents took to the highway to protest attacks by so called bandits? The same Katsina residents who went to sleep in Niger Republic, returned to Nigeria in the morning because of insecurity? The same state that’s among the poorest states in Nigeria? Yet, because their tribesman is the president, none of that matters.

Is it any surprise then that even those Republicans who publicly denounced Trump in 2015 like Lindsey Graham are now in his corner? Although it must be noted that before the rise of Trumpism, each side respected the other to a large extent. All that’s now gone. It seems like the Republicans want power and to hold on to it at all costs. Where have we seen that before?

• Like America, like Nigeria

In the course of this article, I’ve already mentioned Nigeria a few times. That’s because there have been several events that remind me of happenings in Nigerian politics. In fact, there are quite a few things happening in the US that reminds one of Third World countries. For example, Trump urged his supporters to go police voting on election day. Of course, in states where people can carry guns openly, that only adds to voter intimidation. In Michigan, a judge (Christopher Murray) overruled the secretary of state Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, who had banned open carry of guns within 100 feet of polling stations. And on Monday, the eve of the election, Trump’s tweets had to be flagged by Twitter for inciting violence. Where have we heard that before? During the last elections in Nigeria, our president campaigning in Zamfara told Zamfarans (who had been suffering attacks from bandits) that on election day they should eat very well before going to vote. So that they can help to protect the vote? Nigerians have also heard of the dog and the baboon being soaked in blood analogy. Last Friday, a caravan of Trump supporters tried to run off a Biden bus off a highway in Texas much to President Trump’s delight.

Is it any wonder that there are quite a few Trump supporters in Nigeria? Last week Sunday (October 25), Most Rev. Daddy Hezekiah, founder of Living Christ Mission Inc, led his church members on a prayer walk for Trump’s re-election, all the way in Onitsha, Anambra State. This raises another point about the Christian argument made by some Christians in support of Trump. I think I’ll just let that one go for now. The question remains: Which way America? Many people have talked about how this is the most important election in America. Does America wish to return to the 50s where it was ruled by the racist minority…where civil rights were an unaffordable luxury for Blacks… What will America do? W.W.A.D? Will it stop itself in its tracks, change tack and make a U-turn? Or will America continue to slide into Third World dictatorship/corruption?

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Hon. Moji Alli-Macaulay: “Most youths high all the time”

On October 26, during plenary of the Lagos state House of Assembly, Hon. Moji Alli-Macaulay, representing Amuwo-Odofin LCDA 1, on the looting and violence that trailed the #EndSARS protests, said among other things: “We need to begin to orientate our young people. They are high on drugs all the time, most of them. They go to social media and do all sorts of things. I’m even scared to give my young children phones because I am scared of what they may see on social media. It is that bad…”

This is coming from a woman who calls herself Mama Amuwo? Are these youths among those she’s ‘mother’ to? It seems this is the season politicians are revealing their true colours. Thanks to the Internet and social media. Perhaps, we all should be asking: What are they smoking?

Onoshe Nwabuikwu, AIRTIME columnist is a renowned TV/Film critic, and Film scholar. She also has experience in Advertising as a senior Copywriter and Corporate Communications as Communications consultant. Email: [email protected]