A world at war

IT WAS an outrageous act of doublespeak, even for him.

In the dead of night, Donald Trump took to a podium and declared himself winner of Tuesday’s US presidential election. “We were winning,” Mr Trump declared. “This is a fraud on the American public. A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise...people.”

The US president’s claim that he had won even as ballots were still being counted, his wilful obfuscation of the processes of counting and voting (he called for “all voting to stop” after polls closed) and his own contradictory reliance on the same process of counting (“we were going to win”) mark the actions not of a president but a despot.

The only evidence of “fraud” and “disenfranchisement” is what has been supplied by Mr Trump himself. In September, the president refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Then he suggested mail-in ballots be thrown out. In 2016, he deemed the whole voting system “rigged” until he later won.

And yet Mr Trump’s irresponsible statements were met with robust applause as he spoke in the East Room of the White House early yesterday. The applause underlined the fact that notwithstanding everything that he has done, millions of Americans still voted for him.

Here is what we can safely say. No matter who emerges as the eventual winner of this election, there is no winner. Four years ago, Mr Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. In the popular vote, almost three million ballots separated the two candidates, each representing a dramatically different view of the world. It was Ms Clinton who won more votes; Mr Trump’s victory was owed to the electoral college.

As counting continued yesterday it was plain the needle had not shifted. A record-breaking turnout has done little to clarify the character of America. Or rather, that divided character had been clarified all too well. Mr Trump has maintained the support of millions. The rout of Republicans which had been predicted by some did not materialise.

At the same time, however, Democratic candidate Joe Biden flipped Wisconsin and key liberal figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have been re-elected to Congress. As the world ponders all of this, it might be tempting to see these contradictions as unique to America.

In truth, the division of that country mirrors – indeed inflames – the fractures already evident in democracies all over the world: the Brexit vote in Britain, the rise of figures like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and the growth of the political right in country after country.

“Our world is at war with itself,” masman Peter Minshall lamented a few days ago in new media work. He called for: “one world, one people, one love.” The US election provides compelling evidence that such a utopia is more easily dreamed than done.

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