Anger and worry have greeted the return to energy of former US strongman, Donald Trump, a corrupt far-white extremist coup plotter who can also be a convicted felon and rapist, following a shock presidential election outcome. Ethnic tensions have been on the rise with members of the traditionally oppressed minority Black ethnic group reporting receiving threatening textual content messages, warning of a return to an period of enslavement. In a startling editorial, the tension-wracked nation’s paper of report, The New York Instances, declared that the nation had made “a dangerous selection” and that its fragile democracy is now on “a precarious course”.
Trump’s victory marks the second time in eight years the extremist chief, who’s awaiting sentencing after being convicted of utilizing marketing campaign funds to repay a porn star he had cheated on his spouse with, has defeated a feminine opponent from the ruling Democratic Occasion. Girls proceed to battle to succeed in the very best workplace within the deeply conservative nation the place their rights are more and more beneath assault and youngster marriage is widespread.
This has prompted traumatised supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris, who had been handpicked to switch the unpopular, ageing incumbent, Joe Biden, to accuse American voters of racism to sexism. “It’s misogyny from Hispanic males, it’s misogyny from Black … who don’t want a lady main them,” insisted one TV anchor, including that there “could be race points with Hispanics that don’t desire a Black girl as president of the USA.” The hateful tribal rhetoric has additionally included social media posts calling for any individuals of combined race who didn’t vote for Harris to be deported and for intensification of the genocide in Gaza on account of Arab-American rejection of Harris over her help for the continued provision of weapons to the brutal apartheid state committing it.
“Victory has many fathers however defeat is an orphan,” goes the saying popularised by former US President, John Kennedy, who was shot 61 years in the past this month. The reluctance to attribute the loss to the grave and gratuitous missteps made by the Harris marketing campaign has mystified America-watchers all over the world. For example, analysts level to her wholesale embrace of the Biden regime’s genocidal coverage within the Center East regardless of opinion polls exhibiting that it was alienating voters. Harris and her supporters had tried to counter that by claiming that Trump would even be genocidal and that she would ameliorate the ache of bereaved households within the US by decreasing the worth of groceries. Nevertheless, the election outcomes confirmed that this was not a message voters appreciated. “Genocide is dangerous politics,” stated one Arab-American activist.
As the dimensions of the extremists’ electoral win turns into more and more clear, having taken management of not simply the presidency however the higher home of parliament as properly, many are anxious concerning the prospects for democracy within the US which remains to be struggling to emerge from Trump’s first time period. Regardless of conceding defeat, Harris has pledged to proceed to “wage this battle” at the same time as pro-democracy protests have damaged out in a number of cities, elevating fears of violence and political uncertainty within the gun-strewn nation. This might imperil stability in North America and sub-Scandinavian Europe the place a Caucasian Spring democratic revolution has didn’t take maintain, and a plethora of white-wing authoritarian populists have as a substitute come to energy throughout the area.
Nevertheless, there’s a silver lining. The elections themselves have been a large enchancment over the chaotic and shambolic, disputed November 2020 presidential polls which paved the way in which for a failed putsch two months later. This time, the voting was largely peaceable and there was comparatively little delay in releasing outcomes, a outstanding achievement for the numeracy-challenged nation the place conspiracy theorists stay suspicious concerning the Islamic origins of arithmetic, seeing it’s as a ploy by the phobia group “Al Jibra” to introduce Sharia Regulation to the US.
Within the coming months and years, there can be a necessity for the worldwide neighborhood to remain engaged with the US and help the nation to try to undertake much-needed reforms to its electoral and governance programs, together with adjustments to its structure. Through the campaigns, Harris loyalists warned {that a} win by Trump may result in the whole gutting of its weak democratic programs, an end result the world should work laborious to keep away from. Nevertheless, determining help reform within the US and interact with a Trump regime whereas not being seen to legitimise the election of a person convicted of significant crimes, can be a difficult problem for the globe’s mature Third-World democracies. Many could also be pressured to restrict direct contact with him. “Selections have penalties,” as a US diplomat eloquently put it 11 years in the past.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
