Never has the presidential election race been so heated and so antagonistic that it has awakened the people to new reality of how American politics has changed. The war of attrition between the two candidates has been nerve-wrecking and morale-destroying not just for Americans but for civil-minded people around the world. It’s undeniable that Trump has been anything but “presidential” in his outlook, manners and performance.
Truth to tell, I am weary of the campaigns by Hillary and Trump. I am also happy that it will end. If Hillary wins, the reaction from Trump could be earth-shaking. Just a couple of weeks ago, Hillary was having a good lead in many polls and now the lead has been narrowed. Though she is a few points ahead, expect in the poll by ABC, the Hillary camp isn’t gung-ho on wrapping up the race. To sum up in the immortal words of the American baseball legend, Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
Political pundits have called it most divisive presidential race. As usual, Americans are divided on the Right and Left. But now there’s a deep fissure in American society. Many clear-thinking Americans cannot make up their mind as to who to vote, for them Hillary is what Trump alleges to be a “crooked” person, while Trump is an scrupulous businessman, bully, bigot and racist. He went so further that even the Republican establishment wanted to pull the financial plug. Only Trump’s sobering down and shedding his arrogant behaviour before the third debate helped him to earn the Republican party support. His last-ditch effort was to bring his wife, Melania, on the campaign trail and make her deliver a speech. She painted a good picture of him and, in an interview earlier, said she had forgiven him for his misdemeanours, and she hoped the electorate would do likewise. She even said that she would be an advocate for women’s rights.
Whether her presence on the campaign trail in the last weekend made a big impact is unknown. However, the women in his core group of supporters have put behind his behaviour and his attacks on women, including calling Hillary a “nasty woman”, and vowed to vote for him. It is another matter if he could win the vote of the undecided women, especially in black and ethnic communities. His attacks on Mexicans and Muslims are not easy to be forgotten or forgiven. Besides, his coziness to the Russian president Vladimir Putin could also be a negative point.
A seasoned politician and former First Lady, Hillary Clinton’s got a big boost when she got an endorsement from her close rival Bernie Sanders. She then had to contend with the loud-mouthed Trump and she did well in the first two debates. Trump was on his best behaviour in the third and sort of fared better. He was probably reined in by the Republican establishment and his close aides to reply to questions instead of hitting out in all directions.
Hillary Clinton started off slowly and admitted she isn’t a “natural” campaigner. But she changed gears and slowly but surely began to show herself in good light and as a well-prepared speaker. She argued with great persuasion and returned Trump’s charges with characteristic calmness and carefully-worded statements. Trump did everything to throw at her and, though some of the muck may have stuck, he couldn’t derail her smooth-moving campaign. There was a big contrast to the way in both the candidates conducted their campaigns. While Hillary was nonchalant for most of the time, Trump was egregious and bombastic.
As the campaigns hit the last few weeks, Trump’s “groping” of women and his business deals and tax-evasion came front and centre. The more than ten women who came out to accuse Trump of unfair treatment, and his employment immigrant labour and cheap Chinese steel in his construction business caused enough damage to his campaign. The thought of such a man becoming US president seemed to have frightened many independent-thinking Americans. Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent of Canada’s Toronto Star, reported that Trump made 34 false-claims while Hillary told four in the first presidential debate.
The elections for the president has been mockingly called “The Sex Election”, because sex has played such a large part of the campaigns on both sides. If it’s Trump’s dalliances, views or “groping” of women that came straight out, the Trump camp has said that Trump’s sins are less than Hillary’s husband, Bill Clinton, the ex-president who was impeached by Congress in 1998 for sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky for sexual encounters in the White House. The Trump camp also brought out Gennifer Flowers, the woman who is alleged to have had an affair with Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas, into focus but didn’t follow through in getting her at one of the debates
No doubt, the sex scandals of Bill hurt Hillary’s campaign, but they weren’t so damaging as the leaks of the emails that Hillary destroyed from an private server she was using when she was secretary of state. The newest link in this email affair was that the FBI was looking into newly-found emails on the device of Anthony Weiner, the ex-husband of Huma Abedin, who was an aide of Hillary when she held the secretary’s post. It seems this has created a rift in the FBI.
The sorry spectacle of the US presidential elections has even forced the venerable The Economist to say in the Oct. 29 issue “Liberty moves north”, implying that Canada is an example to the world. It gladdens my heart that my adopted country has triumphed over its southern neighbour in securing top spot.
One thought that such jingoism and scare-mongering happens in the largest democracy in the world — India. We know how elections are conducted in India and how sex scandals and scams are routine fodder for the media and the people. We also know of election rigging, with “booth-capturing” as the high-point. The Goan political landscape is also getting messy with too many parties going after the loaves of political office. The sideshow of Churchill Alemao, Babush Monserrate and Mickky Pacheco has just begun, and should be interesting in the days ahead. Right now, Goan politics is in shambles.
(Eugene Correia is a senior journalist)
