Lesson from the US election

OK, SO spoiler alert: the majority of people in this country will learn zero from the US election. This column, though, isn't pitched to that sprawling demographic of the vainglorious incurious called TT society. For the few who can appreciate the third side to every story, there's certainly one here for us.

People who voted for president-elect Joe Biden or the person who isn't Donald Trump are wining furiously in Republicans' faces. Many see this as a triumph of light over darkness, or good over evil. For millions of Americans and, indeed, people around the world, Trump is the embodiment of the venal, the immoral and the profane.

His satisfying vanquishment must feel like a reset for a certain cohort. People somehow convinced themselves that the tyrannical tycoon's incursion into US politics and his bizzarro tenure merely represents an ephemeral misstep, a fleeting blip on a timeline that will now revert to normal. This is a variety of delusion, the likes of which got Trump into office in the first place. Never forget, in election 2020 Donald Trump secured the second highest number of votes in the history of the US.

"Trumpism" is an ideology that will live well beyond its namesake. It's the outward manifestation of a swing in American politics that's more epochal than episodic. People can trill all they want about Kamala Harris and that glass ceiling claptrap. The fact is Republicans have a strong showing in the Senate. The reality president may be gone, even though he seems unaware of it, but the potency of his miasma remains.

CNN host and contributor Van Jones expressed hurt that the race was so close. In all fairness, he used the word “hurt,” not surprised. Many were ready to assume a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for racism, corruption and depravity. Nothing in life, however, is ever that black or white, or more plainly, black vs white.

One upside of election coverage in the US is the granular nature of the analysis of voting patterns. For example, a journalist asked a voter at a polling station who he voted for and why. The young man said he was on the fence until the very last minute. He explained he is a strong pro-lifer but he's uncomfortable with Trump's views on race. He held his nose and voted for Trump.

One television commentator made the most profound statement of perhaps the entire campaign – voting is a selfish act. In the same way big lobby groups and powerful businesses back certain candidates, ordinary voters throw their support, not always behind a candidate, but a party whose ideologies seem aligned with theirs. That's how the religious right can justify voting for Trump, a man whose faith is decidedly opaque and whose immorality is patently evident.

Here's another example: many Floridians voted for Trump because they bought into the Republican party's fear-mongering of democratic socialism, a proxy for comunismo. Given that many “panhandlers” are Cubans who fled a communist regime, the shadow of that experience is long, therefore overshadowing voting patterns in the Sunshine State.

What the post-election analysis does, however, is invite genuine discussion on the causes of deep divides in the US. While arriving at consensus and unity across the board is like cold fusion, a frank and open discussion about the roots of enduring differences can push American society forward.

Seventy million Americans voted for Donald Trump – not all of them, not even the majority, are likely racists. Democracy is, in part, about attaining common ground among diverse peoples – even if that terrain isn't always even. Americans have the opportunity, using the available data about what drives voting patterns, to begin a real conversation hinged on taking the country forward.

Conversely, in TT, after a bitterly contested election powered largely by race-baiting, we've settled down to our old routines. All critical national issues are pushed through the lens of political loyalties. As such, the majority of Trinidadians don't have the information or, quite frankly, inquisitiveness to drive the change our society desperately needs. You see, unflinching political allegiance can only exist in a state of perpetual and practised ignorance. Therefore, the dogma of party loyalty is the gospel of eternal stagnation.

In the next column I will explore how the tendency to process all thought through our political presets severely limits our ability to learn from our past and the paths others have travelled.