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At first glance, regardless which side of the political aisle you reside, it might be tempting to think that with the presidential election having crossed the finish line, we might get a return to normality in the US as the toxic political ads and increased rhetoric evaporate. Don’t bet on it.
Before his victory, President-elect Donald Trump had made clear his preference for divisive politics and his affinity for making an enemy out of anyone who disagrees with him. Neither had he shown any sort of remorse for the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection weeks after he lost the previous presidential election. Those aren’t political thoughts; those are realities to even the most casual observer.
In many ways, Mr Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, are as different as they come in politics, for a number of reasons. Yet one thing both candidates in this highly divisive election agreed on during the rough and tough campaign trail was that this was the most important presidential election ever.
Given the platter of geopolitical problems coupled with domestic disagreements over the economic and social policies, few would argue with them. Yet we’ve heard about the unprecedented importance of US presidential elections throughout the last few cycles.
For once, therefore, it would be refreshing to experience a dull, unimportant and purely incidental presidential election.
Do yourself a favour and watch TV news election highlights from the 1996, 1992, 1988 or 1984 presidential elections. Watch the debates as well while you’re at it. What you will find throughout the videos is a refreshingly dull, civil and informative discourse. In short, it seems like a completely different world, because it is.
This is not to fall into the trappings of golden-age thinking, but how did we get to this circus-like political atmosphere in which we currently reside?
Some may accuse me of recency bias given my age of 39. But to me, it definitely feels that in addition to the polarising and increased rhetoric presented by Mr Trump, the origin of the tensions seemingly baked into our presidential elections can be traced back to the 2000 election between then vice president Al Gore and then Texas governor George W Bush.
That election had just about everything to sew distrust in the minds of many Americans.
You can start with the fact that Mr Gore won the popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, only to see the electoral college emerge as the deciding factor that would lead to his defeat. Yet that grossly oversimplifies the fact that there was ample confusion over a problematic ballot that saw a disproportionate number of people vote for Pat Buchanan, the independent conservative candidate, in Florida.
Making matters more dysfunctional, when a recount in Florida finally got under way and showed Mr Gore on the path to win the sunshine state, the Supreme Court stepped in and made what many describe was a partisan five-to-four decision to halt the recount, and essentially send Mr Bush to the White House.
Any trust that was built up in the countless presidential election cycles prior to 2000 quickly dissipated. The idea of voting itself, it seemed, suddenly became polarising in the subsequent presidential elections. Somewhere along the line, distrust in elections shifted mainly to the Republican Party. It coincided with the rise of Mr Trump and his blunt political rhetoric, and it remains to be seen if it will linger beyond his time in politics.
Most recently, a Pew poll found that 90 per cent of Harris supporters were confident in the integrity of US elections, while only 57 per cent of Trump supporters had confidence. Yet when Pew asked if those surveyed felt that the Supreme Court would make non-partisan decisions if presidential election court cases came on the docket, only six per cent of Harris supporters felt that the land’s highest court could leave politics out of its decisions.
In other words, there are no quick fixes that will make this level of distrust and anger go away at this point.
There’s much work to do to calm the rhetoric. Although many will rightly point the finger at Mr Trump for his xenophobic, racist and bombastic style, it’s worth noting that he is simply exploiting the divisions that have gone unresolved over the years.
I don’t have any particular answers. Finding big-picture, consensus issues that both sides agree on is a start. So, too, is the idea of term limits for Supreme Court judges perhaps. That’s just off the top of my head.
Regardless – again – just to reiterate my main thesis, I sure would like to see a boring presidential election again in my lifetime.
