As America votes

With today’s final poll, Americans have plateaued to that level where it could either mess up big time or show the world that it has the attributes of the Phoenix. For the sake of democracy, let’s hope that it chooses the latter. It has made enough global foes likely to dance on its political grave if it goes the other way. As far as elections go, the GOP has sown the wind, for the survival of a true rainbow nation, let us hope that it is not consumed by the whirlwind.

After seemingly righting centuries of wrongs, America’s friends thought it had turned the page of history with the two-term election of Barack Obama. From there, it was expected to advance not regress into the abyss of acrimony. It missed an opportunity to elect its first female president in Hillary Rodham Clinton and opted for a so-called Washington outsider in Donald J. Trump. It has been riding the rough winds of incendiary local politics and the tempestuous excoriation of international diplomacy.

The hitherto quotable rhetoric of ancient American politicians has been replaced with Twitter-curated incendiary monologues tainted with offensive rudeness hitherto identified with the gutter politics of banana republics.

Hillary lost the sobriquet of Secretary of State to be called Crooked Hillary who should be jailed without trial or evidence. It was a bad example for societies uncomfortable at seeing women shatter the glass ceiling erected in years of patriarchy. America lost the righteous anger of calling out nations treating the female gender with indignity and disdain. It needs to buy back those rights with good words and concrete enviable action.

If any casual observer thought it was just a bland joke, they would be shocked when the emergent President Trump hit harder at women who worked and later disagreed with him. A country that taught the world phrases like political correctness and inclusion clapped as its leader disparaged the physically challenged, took potshots at the media, ignominiously baptising it as fabricators of – fake news!

These vituperations are not limited to women alone, today’s challenger and a man with over four decades of basically unblemished public service is in his senior years not addressed as Vice President Joe Biden, but Sleepy Joe!

If the gold of reverent national figures rust, imagine the decay of the iron of other nations. Before he finally began to call Kim Jong-un of North Korea as ‘Chairman’’, Trump christened him the little or fat Rocket Man. Confidential files about descriptions of other foreign presidents are in the archives including an uncharitable depiction of Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari.

Trump’s adjectives for minorities and migrants punctured the myth that America is the land of opportunities. He singled out Muslim nations for his executive travel ban. To him, Hispanics are rapists and people of colour amount to nothing. In all this, Trump has unalloyed support of the far-right, and although never known to attend church, got the endorsement of America’s powerful evangelical movement.

In spite of these antecedents, Trump remains the man to beat at today’s polls. But he has left a wiggle room for poll predictions that he might be kicked out of the White House. He is not taking them lightly even with the reality that people change their minds before Election Day.

Trump is not taking chances; he thinks the elections might be rigged in favour of his challenger. It is perhaps the first time in contemporary American politics that rigging is used in the same sentence describing American elections. Trump has told ultra-right groups sworn to keep him in the White House to ‘stand down and stand by’ while ordering troops to quell racial protests. It is a battle cry, a call for anarchy that his followers are taking seriously. For a nation that has more guns than headcounts, this is a clear and ultimate danger.

Trump’s stunned neighbours are soaking these in with caution. For months, Canada has closed its borders as a result of threats of COVID-19. The virus has claimed over 200,000 American lives so far while supposedly afflicting Trump himself. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada would be closely monitoring events south of his border. Mexico, America’s other neighbour would be closing its manned frontiers.

What all this means is that for once, American presidential elections is not fought on the altar of programmes and projects, but on a roadmap only visible to Trump and his supporters using the catchphrase make America great again. In the last five years, the American economy has thrived in spite of the no clear-headed economic policy better than the bombast – America first! The successes have come on the backs of broken alliances and scuttled friendships.

Last week, Trump warned Americans not to vote for Biden warning that if they did, they would be enmeshed in the deepest recession ever known to the nation. None of these effusive statements are based on facts, but Trumpers lap it up with relish and are ready to kill or be killed for it.

These are some of the reasons why today’s polls would be a make or mar for America. As in all contests, a winner and a loser would emerge. That prospect has seen some shops boarded up, and the fear of the kind of arson and violence hitherto associated with developing nations. Sadly, every organ of neutrality is skewed in his favour, the Supreme Court just added a new member sworn in at night. The police union has pledged allegiance to Trump and the legislature is as divided as ever.

How ironically iconic it would be if a government sends a warning to America to behave itself at these polls or be damned or issue travel advice to its citizens to avoid polling stations or states marked down for volatility. It could even go further to mention the names of such states and towns likely to be soaked in violence. These are possibilities that ridicule American democratic credentials.

If America falls, there is very little hope for the rest of global democracy or even global economy. International commerce is denominated in dollars and the global dream of making democracy the dominant system of governance across the globe would be jeopardised.

Whatever happens today, for the sake of global peace, one hopes and even prays that the elections are peaceful; that whoever wins is magnanimous in victory and that the loser would concede defeat without acrimony. If there is a tie, it is hoped that sanity is employed in sorting it out in a way that upholds the sanctity of democracy. For America’s sake and for the stability of the rest of the world – a nuclear button in the hands of a narcissistic megalomaniac is the worst form of global threat imaginable, yet it is closer than imagined.

For the sake of global peace, entente and development; here’s wishing happy elections to America. Don’t sink on this one, swim!