In an election campaign that saw a blustering Trump with his misogynistic swipe at his rival Kamala Harris, American voters have chosen to return the former as their President. Never before has it been so difficult for commentators to write on an election which many predict will push the United States on a precarious course that is difficult to envision. Trump has his peccadilloes and it will take the Opposition a huge dose of political energy to pull the reins on a President whose past defines his future actions and decisions. The United States was founded on strong principles of democracy yet the American Constitution also envisaged that there is a strong possibility that voters might at some point elect an authoritarian leader and wrote safeguards into the Constitution which include powers granted to two other branches of government designed to be a check on a president who would bend and break laws to serve his own ends. And they enacted a set of rights — the most crucial one being the First Amendment which gives citizens the right to assemble, speak and protest against the words and actions of their leader.
Commentators during the course of the campaign had pointed at the undecided voters whose swing votes the Democrats needed to win this election. These undecided voters looked for some policy directions from Kamala Harris on issues that hurt the common citizens, namely soaring prices, the issue of immigrants coming in through the porous southern border and economic policies that exacerbated the inequality in American society. Harris did not clearly spell out if she and her Party were going to address these issues. In rally after rally, Harris was just responding to Trump’s reckless taunts. Finally, Americans cast their votes in favour of some change rather than for the status quo. It’s difficult to imagine how the world’s oldest democracy has chosen to vote for a man who is considered by some of his ardent supporters to be deeply flawed and to entrust him with the task of fixing America’s most urgent problems.
Trump has never camouflaged his xenophobic and misogynistic tendencies. Add to that the racism that he overtly professes. It therefore means that the American voters endorse all these proclivities of their President. Else they had a choice to reject them and vote for the alternative. But what has pushed Americans to vote for uncertainty and chaos? Is it because the alternative is equally chaotic with many protesting the Biden Government’s overt and covert support to Netanyahu and almost endorsing his genocidal tendencies. There was a huge divide in the US over whether it should continue to support Israel despite all the atrocities on Palestinians. This too played a major role in the elections. Although this is a decisive verdict, it will be safe to say that Trump’s second innings will be hugely challenging when it comes to dousing Israel’s jingoism and stifling military support to Ukraine. Whether the 47th POTUS will be able to usher in a new world order will be globally watched with interest.