We could all be forgiven for expecting 2024 to be the year of live TV entertainment in its longest run yet. Thankfully, one of its legs is gone. As the votes are counted, the world can take a sigh of relief as it regroups and replenishes supplies for the second one. The race to become President of the United States has never been more absurd for viewers. For example, who was someone rooting for?
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in September, 69% of Americans admitted that they follow news about the presidential candidates for the 2024 election very much (28%) or very closely (40%). But what exactly were they getting or expected to get? “Americans most often watch news about actions on the presidential campaign, although they are most interested in his stances on the issues,” the survey reports. A fair question. Obviously the meeting did not take place.
circus of the absurd
The American electorate has so far received the concept of a plan from Trump and a promise of continuation of Biden’s ‘problematic’ policies from Harris. Many Americans are not participating in this election, and who can blame them? Descriptions of a golfer’s penis or how immigrants are eating other people’s animals, hints about possible election theft on the one hand and a naked stream-of-consciousness word salad on the other did little to convince the average American. Have worked. Voters about the nobility and grandeur of the White House.
Both Trump and Harris have demonstrated a complete inability to learn from the past. While Trump got pretty bored with a civilized, non-theatrical campaign in the 2024 campaign in just a few months and unleashed his 2020 MAGA-man energy, Harris made no changes on her agenda on foreign policy issues despite public criticism from her fellow Democrats. Refused to make improvements. , This election has been the most comprehensive evidence of what many analysts inside the US, as well as outside, have seen but largely avoided: both Democrats and Republicans building their election campaigns around the mistakes of the other side. Build around. Not doing anything about yourself at all.
Kamala, the saner one
Isn’t it ridiculous that the Harris campaign presented her as the only alternative to Trump? The fact that Democrat power has become a burden and not a support for Harris should alert us that a new president’s arrival in the White House will likely be an extension of all the mistakes seen in this campaign. And what about the process of candidate selection for both parties? By declaring Trump as its candidate for the third time, the Republican Party demonstrated a lack of imagination at a time when President Biden’s popularity was continuously declining. The Democrats switched their nominee from Biden to Harris with almost zero discussion at their convention. Working-class voters, who were indifferent to Biden, remained indifferent to him throughout the campaign.
But the US presidential election is not just about American voters. What happens on Capitol Hill reverberates around the world. When Barack Obama won his first term, the symbolism of this victory was evident from Indians young and old celebrating at the India Gate in New Delhi. Presidents come and go, but their path to the Capitol paves the way for ideologies, opinions, and geopolitical influences around the world.
nobody knows anything
From creating trade controls to funding wars, the decisions POTUS makes matter a lot to America and the rest of the world. Both Trump and Harris turned serious policy issues into jokes during the campaign by focusing solely on each other’s personalities. We still don’t know what Trump’s plans are for the Middle East or the Russia-Ukraine war. Or China. Or Sudan or Bangladesh, for that matter. We only know that Harris is “committed to peace,” but her party’s ongoing actions suggest otherwise.
At this point, it is futile to assess what a Trump or Harris victory might mean for India or the larger global South. There are no guiding principles for initiating any such investigation. Any scenario study would only yield misleading conclusions because, simply put, neither Trump nor Harris have stuck to the party line or even their own stated beliefs. Trump’s transactionalism and Harris’s arrogance are enough to deflate any speculation.
The US presidential election was once a lesson in how democracy reinforces itself. In 2024 it has become something else.
A glorified version of wrestling with Hulk Hogan’s shirt.
(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based writer and academic.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
