The US will vote at the mid-term elections November 6, to elect members to each of the 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats in the Congress. The election is being seen as an opportunity for Americans to set right whatever is currently wrong with the World’s biggest economy. Among all the wrongs that are being seen with the current dispensation in power in the US, the President himself holds pride of place. Donald J Trump has had a fun ride right from the time he occupied the high seat in Washington DC which probably could be termed the highest seat in the free world. But if the equations change at the coming election, he will have rough weather heading his way. Politics in the US has taken ugly turns in recent times with one Trump supporter sending bombs by post to 14 detractors of the president. In another incident a white supremacist murdered 11 worshippers at a synagogue. It is reported to be the worst anti-semitic crime in the history of America. One of the chief obstacles before the government today is national politics. Trump believes it has been preventing action on realtime issues facing the country, including immigration. The US President has blamed the Democrats for being weak on border security. He has called attention to what he claims are “horrors taking place on the border” and urged Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, to work with the White House on a solution. He has accused the Democrats of promoting an open border that brings immigrants into the country virtually unchecked.
The US under Trump has been increasingly protectionist and is engaged in adversarial relations with nations around the world. It has opened multiple fronts, be it of a trade war with China, or the standoff with North Korea or reimposition of sanctions on Iran. While the US hegemony may have worked in the past without significant effort, the rest of the world today is resisting. With America, which is itself a nation of immigrants, refusing to share its wealth with the less fortunate, there is anger brewing not just within the US but also around the world.
Although Trump cannot be blamed entirely for his stand on immigrants, or for matters of trade deficit with countries such as China, the fact is that it is a situation of America’s own making. The US has always tried to protect its own interests by weakening nations from the inside as well as outside using multiple means. In a vastly more developed world, the US cannot run its writ at will as it used to. It has a trust deficit with the rest of the world and interactions need to happen today not as between a superpower and minions but as a peer to peer.
Internally the US needs a lot of fixing to do. Its institutions have lost their credibility and people are no longer willing to believe what they are being told by the mainstream media. The Supreme Court is perceived to be partisan and the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the court has eroded the image of the judiciary even further.
As some Americans look to bring about change within and in their country’s interactions with the world, it is time for the rest of the world to be better equipped to emerge from the superpower’s shadow. Amid all this din the heightened crescendo of Donald J Trump could be indicative either way. One, he is so certain of his popularity that he is giving out a clarion call to his supporters to go out and vote in his favour, or he is now so shaky that his only refuge is shouting loudest.