US Elections 2020: A battle for conscience

I’m no expert on US politics, but I’m anyway sharing my thoughts here on this election in the world’s oldest democracy.

Before this unprecedented pandemic, unemployment rates had fallen, consumer confidence was rising, home sales were also on the rise and the stock market in the US was booming.

Of course, all of that has since changed this year thanks to the coronavirus. Most people would agree that the US President hasn’t handled the pandemic well in terms of loss of life and damage to health, but the economy in the US isn’t too worse off either.

So why is the US so bitterly divided with no clear result yet?

Even if Mr Biden does end up becoming the next President, it doesn’t take anything away from the fact that almost half of the US has voted for Mr Trump! It will be a political victory for Mr Biden but not a victory for equity and fairness.

So if you’re willing to chalk off Mr Trump’s handling of this pandemic given its unprecedented nature, he’s done well in terms of the economy, with jobs created and people occupied.

That’s pretty much all you can give to the President.

Socially, the US is more divided than ever, with a President who turns the other way when minorities are targeted, who doesn’t even pretend to care about a large portion of his nation boiling over in anger. He’s treated the situation with complete apathy and disregard resulting in massive polarisation of the population.

Those who did vote for Mr Trump can be classified into two types: those unaffected by the systemic racism and targeting of minorities, and two, those that are indeed concerned but lacking the conscience to look beyond the ‘good’ handling of the economy, and engulfed by a twisted sense of ‘patriotism’.

Make no mistake, those who are affected probably voted for Mr Biden. But what about those who did vote for Mr. Trump, and that is almost half of all voters?

Forget the Trump ‘bhakts’. It is the rest, who were indeed aware of Mr Trump’s true colours but still chose to vote for him without a touch of conscience or morality, that we should be concerned about.