Why a divided America is bad news for the world

Historically, America has been a feared and a divided society. Divisions by race, class, faith, immigration status, and even zip codes are not new and are not going to end for the foreseeable future. Xenophobia, racism, intolerance never left the psyche of a huge chunk of the American population. The election of Donald Trump, however, emboldened people to move from being closet racists to being openly racist. An angry population, of predominantly white men and women and especially those who felt alienated and abandoned, voted against Hillary Clinton and helped catapult Trump from being a TV celebrity to the Oval Office. What followed was the making of a chronically divided America.

President-elect Joe Biden experiences an unprecedented march to the White House, where his predecessor has not conceded and has refused to even attend the oath-taking ceremony. There are even risks to Biden’s life, not from Al Qaeda or ISIS, but from the very American citizens whose life and liberty he would work hard to protect. Amidst all this noise, there is a serious cause for concern for the world because the fight against this division could very well be the fight against world peace.

Besides fighting the pandemic, the task ahead for Biden is to unite the nation. To that end, the traditional class of presidents, to which Biden belongs, has always resorted to a foreign war. A foreign enemy and a threat from the outside targeting America has always worked in rallying the American people around the flag. No other thing creates peace like a war does, except the peace is only in America. When it is daytime in America, many parts of the world go dark. It is not only due to the solar system but the political system as well.

A divided America was too busy to meddle in foreign affairs and invade countries. An America desperate for unity would shift that conflict out of the United States to the outside world. I remember the first time I had arrived in America in 2009. Malls were busy, restaurants packed, life was peaceful. I was awestruck because I had just come from Pakistan where suicide bombings were a routine. In Pakistan, shopping centres and even police stations had erected barricades to discourage parking and bomb attacks. People asked for forgiveness from family and friends every day before leaving for work because they were not sure if they would return alive.

People flocking to the malls without worrying about a bomb blast was a luxury to me. A friend said something that I will never forget — that America was at war but there is peace here. Pakistan was not at war, yet there was no peace there.

I am afraid that situation is going to return. Not that the world is one harmonious place to live in, but America might shift its gaze to the outside world and realise that there has been a break in invasions and wars. And with a badly divided country that is invading its own legislature, it is about time to shift that anger elsewhere and get back into the good old business of invading countries instead. The shining city upon a hill shines when it is dark elsewhere.

Global alliances would be shuffled. The conflict between various states would increase due to the clash of interests. Nationalism would be replaced by national security. The divided state of America right now could become the state of a world that needs unity more than ever against common threats such as nuclear war and climate change.

In the near future, if a video surfaces on YouTube or elsewhere where some turbaned man or someone whose face is covered, declares a rejuvenated jihad against America while holding a knife to the throat of a white-skinned American, I promise you; we are all in trouble.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2021.

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