Tuesday, November 12, 2024

America’s Version of Armageddon

In 2016, it was the first time that citizens of the US protested the results of a presidential election outcome. It was unusual that Americans took to the streets to express their displeasure on the outcome of the election. Hillary Clinton had score more votes by over three million but it was the Electoral College that let her down. Most of the world still does not understand how election rules work in America.

The Trump/Clinton debacle was in fact a repeat of the 2000 election when Al Gore lost through the Electoral College and yet he had pulled a few millions ahead of George W. Bush. Apparently several Americans remain frustrated with the Electoral College system and this was why they took to the streets in 2016. But looking at history, it seems the Electoral College works best for Republican candidates. This is why Trump is spending all the remaining campaign days in Florida and Pennsylvania.

I am not a prophet of doom but I can see that there is going to be bloodshed after Trump loses on November 3rd. He insists that the winner should be declared on the night of the election or otherwise that would be a fraud. Further to this, Trump has tried every trick in the book to discredit America’s electoral system and he has repeatedly poured scorn on the integrity of the mail voting system.

Americans are doing everything to make sure that their vote counts. The US’s early voting shows that a little over 57 million Americans have already cast their vote via mail and over 22 million in-person voting. The reason why there has been a record number of voters going ahead of the election date has very little to do with the corona virus risk. It has a lot to do with the fact that the electorates are sure of what they want this time arounds. Because of the behaviour of the president, everyone has already made up their mind and there are no fence seaters this time around.

Trump has continued to be reckless in almost all of his speeches and by so doing he has automatically lowered the bar for Vice President Biden to win. But even with polls and all indicators pointing to the Biden win, it is the Trump loss that worries the intelligence community in America.

All are at odds against the president and he is scrambling at every solid object to try and save his presidency. The surge on the number of corona virus positive cases and the dwindling economy has sent chills on the republican spines. Polls show that more than 60% of American think government is making Covid recovery worse than it should be.  

Trump as an English word has a variety of meaning and the most appropriate for the purpose of this discussion is “undermine.” And this is exactly what the president is at. He is doing everything within his reach to undermine the law of the land and even undermine the devastating effect of Covid-19.

But all odds are against the “underminer” and the writing is on the wall. It has never happened in the history of US elections that a family member can be so instrumental in de-campaigning their close relative as we see the actions of Mary Trump. This woman who has published a book disparaging her uncle a few months ago is still on the trail campaign telling Americans about how dangerous her uncle is.

From Warm Springs, Georgia, Biden gave a more presidential speech promising to heal America. This was so symbolic to pronounce a healing message at this place as it was known to be a famous stopover for President Franklin Roosevelt who used to soak his body in a literal sense in the natural warm springs there. America needs a message of healing even though Trump tries everything to discredit the very systems that brought him to power..

Unlike Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden is way much popular and there is very little that Trump’s utterances are doing to his campaign. But Biden who has very good poll ratings is surging ahead literally in all aspects of the campaign. Coupled with stronger campaign funding, it seems this presidential candidate has very few impediments to stop him from reaching the White House.

The fact that Trump still has so many followers, who are religiously attached to his ideology if one can call it, is a cause for concern. In the final week of campaigning, Trump has done nothing except to act as a rubble rouser. The core of his message is COVID, COVID. He has chosen not to talk about the economy which has been his strong point. But instead he has chosen to push back the Covid train that’s coming to crush him.

Upon Trump’s loss at the ballot box, America is going to see violence and it is the rubble rouser-in-chief who is already instigating at it. As usual it is the African-American community that is going to bear the cost of the Trump post-election violence. That is already happening as a black man was shot by the police a week before election and that goes to show that under Trump, Black Lives Don’t Matter (BLDM).

Black people must know that they are going to be the worst victims as they are made to account for the behaviour of Trump while president as though they had a say in it. The Klu Klux Klan is coming in many forms and the manifestation of that will come in the torching of black churches. The lynching of black people by the white far-right nationalists who will not stomach the loss of their rubble rouser-in-chief is coming back upon the African-American community.

In the great words of Mitchell Obama, “the presidency does not change who you are but reveals who you are.” But it seems some Americans have not listened when the facts speak for themselves. What is happening in America is a great lesson to the rest of us living under democracy. We have to cherish and protect it.

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