Donald Trump, you’re fired!

The last time both rival candidates running for the highest public office declared themselves victorious was in Afghanistan when Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani held simultaneous ceremonies announcing their presidencies respectively. Something similar is now happening in America. While America may not have successfully rammed democracy down Afghanistan’s throat, it certainly learnt a thing or two from the latter.

In a parallel world, which is more commonly called reality, only one candidate has emerged victorious: Joseph R Biden. Donald Trump, the reality TV star, saw the wall being built except this was not at the border with Mexico but rather the blue wall comprising US states, which were instrumental in helping Biden claim victory.

Trump spent his reality TV career barking “you’re fired” in his quest for higher ratings. Last week, he was on the receiving end of those words when Americans flocked to polling stations like never before and voted against him across the country. I commend the people for such a massive turnout because they braved the pandemic, economic crisis, and racial tensions that became more pronounced during Trump’s presidency. Despite winning Ohio and Florida, Trump lost the presidency.

This was the only job Trump ever had. He had always worked for himself as a businessman. And sadly, as a public servant, he continued to work for himself. In business, he was always on the lookout for cheatery to avoid paying taxes and keep his bank account bulging. In his job, cheatery was the norm too. A saner America came forward and rejected his divisive and racist acts. But this is no happy ending.

Trump has disputed the result and claimed massive ballot fraud caused his defeat. Media punditry in America right now is talking about how such an unprecedented behaviour by a losing president causes harm to the country’s democratic norms. While that is not wrong, the real problem is not that. Trump will eventually go away. What will stay is the highly charged rhetoric he fanned.

The country remains chronically divided. While massive turnout was observed, those were not just Biden voters. The interest in casting one’s ballot increased on both sides and that is a sign of further aggressive polarisation. Trump lost, but his rhetoric has already won. Because while his supporters may not have increased, the support has intensified. While there is ever more rejection of xenophobia, racism and inequality; there is also a sort of rebellion against issues such as Black Lives Matter, Muslim ban, immigration, climate change, and so forth. Most damagingly, there is ever more belief in conspiracy theories.

Trump is crying foul. However, while his lies and disingenuous persona are despicable, his argument is not. The country spent about two years and millions of taxpayer dollars investigating possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia to find out if Russian meddling in the 2016 election was done in connivance with Trump. Nothing substantial came out of that except just a smoking gun and a bunch of men being prosecuted and imprisoned.

Those who argued to investigate the Russian collusion have a weaker leg to stand on than those who today advocate to investigate ballot fraud. Because while the former was foreign and hard to prove since it was more about the manipulation of American minds, the latter is tangible and domestic and can be proven as true or false. Therefore, to declare it ludicrous is more egregious than declaring the Russia collusion a “witch hunt”.

I wish to be wrong about the following possibilities: Biden administration could mean peace in Afghanistan being delayed or killed, more wars around the world, more mollycoddling of India, moves against Pakistan, the return of drone wars, and more. Trump troubled people in America. Biden is going to do that globally.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2020.

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