Four years ago, in a column trying to understand Trump’s win of the presidency, I used these lines written by Paul Simon from his wonderful ballad America.
That song describes a young couple hitchhiking across the United States seeking their fortune, but ends in a longing and angst for an America that seems to have disappeared. And this was written fifty years ago.
That disillusionment, particularly out of the rust belt, is what fuelled the support for Trump then and now.
The American middle-class has shrunk as more people have become rich and more have become poor. Trump has successfully played to their fears and concerns. It is one of the richest countries in the world with some of the biggest inequalities. It’s no wonder folk are pissed.
Since the 2016 election, over the last four years we have watched the US become increasingly divided and riven down party lines.
It is the United States in name only for now.
Some say that the country is as divided as it was in 1860 and we know what happened after that.
Their election last week was important.
Naturally, to elect their president and Senate and Congress seats that were up for election.
But also, to maintain and demonstrate a functioning and stable democracy.
There is a long-running study that reports on the health of global democracies and for the last 14 years, there has been a decline in that health.
The usual suspects like China, Russia, Iran, and scores of other states remain totalitarian and repressive of any alternative internal views.
But more disquieting, is the number of democratic nations whose populist leaders are using nationalism and jingoism as an excuse to breakdown institutional safeguards that protect the rights of critics and minorities.
There are only 41 established democracies, and 25 of those have seen their democratic freedoms and rights deteriorate over these 14 years.
Our country is fortunate that we haven’t seen this decline and we need to make damn sure we don’t, and not take what we have for granted.
We have just had a free and fair election, and the results accepted by all whether they liked the outcome or not.
But the US, along with the likes of India and Israel, have seen declines in their democratic health.
And that is why the US needs a robust result in this presidential election.
At the time of writing, it would appear that Biden has won the presidency. But by a fine margin in several of these battleground states, which doesn’t allow them to move on easily.
Compounding this is that Trump has sent out teams of lawyers to contest any result they can. They are throwing the kitchen sink at any voting outcome they don’t like. Which could tie this whole election result up in knots for weeks, maybe months. This will not only delay any final result but continue to fan the seeds of discontent.
He is claiming voting fraud and that Biden is stealing the election but there is no actual evidence of this. All the independent parties overseeing the various states’ counting procedures are insisting that it is a proper process. But that lack of evidence of voting fraud will do little to assuage his fervent supporters.
To insist that the early postal votes, which are a valid and legal method of voting, shouldn’t be counted purely because they favour the Democrats is a further attempt at eroding democracy. And the confidence in it.
Of all the bad things Trump has done, purposely destroying Americans’ faith in their own democratic process for personal ambition is easily the biggest crime.
With the scenes of cities boarded up should violence erupt and earlier footage of heavily armed gangs of black militants and white supremist prowling streets of various cities, we know that country is a powder keg of emotion.
It remains the biggest economy, it has been a bastion of democracy, it’s one of our important export markets and it is full of good people.
It is not in the interests of that nation or anyone else except perhaps China, Russia, and a few others that the US gets through this election process safely and then works on healing the rifts within that society.
But that wish is increasingly looking like an optimistic view.
I hope I’m wrong in that opinion.
