I’VE been keenly following the political developments in the United States, this being an election year — and for as long as I remember I’ve been fascinated by how Americans comport themselves every four years when they troop to the polls to elect a president.
My earliest memory of following a presidential election was the Nixon-McGovern battle of 1972, the year I was ten. It was also the year when Nixon’s henchmen surreptitiously launched what became the Watergate scandal, which forced Nixon to be the first and only president to resign from office. Since then, I’ve keenly followed every one of the 12 elections thereafter: Carter-Ford in 1976, Reagan-Carter in 1980, Reagan-Mondale in 1984, Bush-Dukakis in 1988, Clinton-Bush in 1992, Clinton-Dole in 1996, Bush-Gore in 2000, Bush-Kerry in 2004, Obama-McCain in 2008, Obama-Romney in 2012, Trump-Clinton in 2016 and Biden-Trump in 2020. And in three of the last four elections (2020 was the sole exception), I’ve made it a point to be somewhere in the USA on Election Day to witness the elections in person.
‘Over the years I’ve been amazed and amused — and of late bothered — by what I’ve observed about the things the American electorate believes in.’
This year will be another of those years.
Over the years I’ve been amazed and amused — and of late bothered — by what I’ve observed about the things the American electorate believes in. Beliefs that motivate them to vote this way or that, not to mention act this way or that during an election campaign and even after.
The spectacle of a January 6 (2021) storming of the US Capitol by partisans of a losing candidate — on his egging — is a shocking testament to how things have gotten far out of hand that democracy itself is imperiled.
And four years later, things are not better.
We all, each one of us, have an issue or two (or more) about which our minds and hearts are set, no matter what we discover or are told. For some, this is divorce, abortion, same-sex unions, and even ETs and UFOs; while for others I know it is mining. While society is best served by dialogue more than debate, it should be abundantly clear to all of us that on these hardcore matters where things are “set in stone” neither debate nor dialogue is possible.
Which can only mean a significant level of static in a society, conflict even — and one that is difficult to resolve.
How Americans move forward politically in an environment so divided at the poles is a concern that even non-Americans share given the influence that the USA plays on the global stage politically, economically, culturally and socially.
And that’s why, despite not being an American by birth nor by naturalization, I still keenly follow how the residents of its 50 states plus Puerto Rico think and what they believe in as expressed in how they vote because their decision affects me in one way or another.
