America’s presidential election and matters miscellaneous

America’s presidential election of 2024 has come and gone, but the issues surrounding it will continue to impact the world for the next four years, and far beyond. The results have been called in. Winners have emerged, and losers too.

While Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party lost in a big way, Donald Trump, candidate of the Republican Party, won in an even bigger manner. It was a landslide that comes rarely in American elections. Expectedly, the result has stirred a lot of emotions – perhaps in exactly the same measure it roused universal attention during the whirlwind campaigns.

The election, like all previous American elections, captured the attention of the whole world, because when America is involved, the world pays attention. The reason for that attention is simple – America is a global power – a super power – the type the world never saw before. Since 1945, America has bestrode the world like a collosus, with the capacity to influence world events more than any other country on earth.

There were so many issues on the ballot during this election season. But most of these, in the end, could be compressed into one single element – the economy. Of course there are other vital issues that played their own roles, such as immigration, demography, race, gender, perceptions and America’s place in the world. Yet, all these boil down to ‘the living standard’ of the average American, the ability or lack of it, to sustain what would be  regarded as a reasonable standard of living – economic leverage.

And talking about the average American, his persona paints a very unflattering picture. He is someone known to be lazy, insolent, badly educated, racist (irrespective of skin color), ethnocentric, chauvinistic and ignorant (especially about the world around him). To put it in the Nigerian context, Donald Trump promised Americans stomach infrastructure and they fell for it. Big time.

However foreign policy issues also played a role, though not as important or as compelling as those of us outside the United States would have wished.

There are bloody conflicts going on in Ukraine and the Middle East. Some in parts of Africa. And in one way or the other, America is involved in most, if not all. A feeling of fatigue seems to be seeping in amongst American consciousness. The thinking is “we have involved ourselves in too many wars” – more recently, Afghanistan, Iraq, now Ukraine and the Middle East. “perhaps it is time to look inwards and concentrate on the things that directly affect us.”

more than wars and American exertions around the world, the issue of immigration rapidly caught on, and it played a great part in the last election. In line with his message of economic prosperity, Trump told Americans that the influx of immigrants, who kill their pets for food and take away their jobs are the cause of the hardship they face in their daily lives. He promised to tighten the borders of the United States so that people from those “shithole countries” would no longer be allowed to come in and mess up the good lives of Americans.

In fact, he assured them that even those who already sneaked in would be rounded up and sent back home. This was one message that resonated soundly with the ignorance and narcissism of the ordinary American citizen.

And lest we forget, the post-COVID-19 years have not been a good one for incumbents all over the world. In many countries, inflation is wreaking havoc. Unemployment and various forms of economic hardship seem to have spiralled out of control. The result is a high cost of living, general hardship and great burdens on families.

And when hardships come, incumbents are held responsible. They pay the price with their political lives. In the last few years, more than 10 incumbents have lost elections because the citizens blame them for not doing enough to protect their well-being. It happened in Britain, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Croatia, Brazil, South Korea, Peru, Malaysia and Columbia.

The leaders of Germany and France are merely hanging by the skin of their teeth. Even in Africa, where incumbents don’t lose, many have lost. These include Liberia, Ghana and Botswana. In South Africa the ANC has been humbled. The economy is a powerful aphrodisiac. It can make or mar.

Kamala’s campaign expended much energy and resources letting Americans know how bad Donald Trump was. They waxed lyrical on the dangers he posed to American democracy,  their institutions and ways of life; his divisive rhetorics, his lies and made-up stories, his insolence to all and sundry, his obnoxious personal qualities and his corruption in public life as well as personal filth.

The Democrats blazed forth from the heavens the abhorrent personality which candidate Trump represented. Along the line, the Harris campaign forgot to do some things. On the trail, they did not do a great job of convincing the Americans to support their candidate. She failed to convince the American electorates on her capacity to give them the good things of life. Trump was bad, they knew, but he made great promises.

So, in the end, Trump won. But Trump’s victory in the last election was not a surprise to me. Having since recovered from the shock of his victory in 2016, I have come to a better understanding of the Americans. The election result of 2016 altered the perception of America as a leader in the world. It exposed the underbelly, the rot and decay of American society which many never saw before the advent of Trump. Many people see America as civilised, cultured, progressive, sophisticated and well above the frailties that hobble the Third World.

But the election of Donald Trump, a coarse, vulgar, larcenous and amorous brute over the urbane, experienced, tested and educated Hillary Clinton, convinced people that the Ajegunle and Oshodi of the United States have far greater appeal than the glitter and cobbled terraces of Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

From whatever angle you view Mr Trump, one must admit that he is a unique character. He is bullish, assertive and uncouth yet charismatic. He is a demagogue and a white supremacist to the core.

He is not afraid to express his opinions on issues, no matter how deficient or outlandish those opinions are, and no matter how clearly it goes against the run of play. Trump is bombastic, and unencumbered by what people think of him.

But he is not one to be intimidated. He manufactures lies and dresses them up as truth, and no matter what fact finders say, he will stick to his narratives. And what’s more? Those who love him are not fazed. They will still love him.

the months leading up to the election, pollsters, analysts and egg heads of different hues, unanimously predicted a very tight race. “Too close to call” was the language. They predicted that whoever wins will barely make the flip with the narrowest margin either way.

But they were wrong. Totally wrong. Donald Trump not only won, he made a clean sweep of all the so called swing states. He won the popular votes by a wide margin, and practically took both Houses of Congress. With the Republicans in control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, Donald Trump is coming back more powerful and  sure-footed than he was in 2016.

Supreme Court is filled with his conservative appointees, and the prospects of making more appointments in due course are there. This is total control. The irony of fate can be dizzying sometimes. In 1776, the Americans rejected monarchy. In 2024, they elected a monarch. His Majesty, King Trump

While the GOP is luxuriating in the euphoria of their electoral heist, popping champagne and congratulating each other, the Democrats are furiously scratching their heads, wondering how and why things went so disastrously wrong.

But that is the way of democracy, that period of awesomely leveling interlude when men temporarily became equal and the high and mighty subject themselves to the preening authentication of the plebians. A time when the master actually becomes the servant.

To be continued tomorrow.

Professor Egbo is a Resource Person @ NILDS Abuja.
He can be reached via:08037910012, ( WhatsApp only).