Opinion | American democracy won’t collapse, despite a nasty and divisive election
Fear and loathing are widespread among US voters as the polling industry and mainstream media have fallen short
Even so, the country has consistently shown an ability to weather times of tumult and reinvent itself while still holding true to its fundamental values
While the outcome of the US election is not yet decided, three things are clear. The American public is evenly and sharply divided. The information environment in the United States has radically changed, which hampers our ability to effectively analyse political society. Most evidently, we are witnessing a notable moment in the history of American sociopolitical cycles.
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The close outcome of the election following four years of a particularly contentious presidency indicates the depth of division in American society. Hopes of a “blue wave” of mass opposition against US President Donald Trump did not materialise. Trump’s isolationist, populist and “America first” views, abhorred so loudly by so many, are quietly supported by almost as many.
The American electorate is increasingly divided between the haters and the fearful. The Joe Biden vote is based on hatred for Trump and the perception that he represents a conservative, anti-foreign, white-privilege agenda. Biden’s centrist views did not inspire many Democrat voters compared Bernie Sanders’ promises of an egalitarian society, with Biden voters motivated more by opposition to Trump than support for Biden’s moderate, centrist agenda.
The Trump voter turned out because of fear. Workers and the newly middle class are fearful they are being left behind by globalisation, immigrant labour and the offshoring of jobs. Rural outdoor people are fearful that Democrats will limit their access to firearms. Suburbanites are fearful that urban civil unrest will spread to their enclaves. Trump successfully roused those fears and played to them.
This is the second national election, after 2016, where polling was misleading. The credibility of the polling industry and the media that enables it should suffer accordingly. Polling has become nothing more than a domestic information operation rather than an objective, analytical effort to understand voters and voting behaviour.
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2020 US presidential election: protests grow as ballot count drags on in battleground states
2020 US presidential election: protests grow as ballot count drags on in battleground states
The media industry blithely disseminates and amplifies this disinformation under the guise of facts. Trump has demonised “mainstream media”, dog whistling to his supporters about media bias. It is not entirely untrue, with the line between media opinion and analysis becoming blurred to the detriment of once stately mastheads.
