A Significant Election

If Trump doesn’t accept defeat or alleges that there is cheating, it will exacerbate the possibility of postelection problems.

Eight days away from one of the most important elections of our time, there is much that appears to indicate President Donald Trump will fail in his reelection attempt, and this will also have an impact on his country’s future.

Whether or not Trump accepts defeat will heavily depend on what happens after Nov. 3.

The election is a referendum on the incumbent president, a figure who seems to contradict the values that the United States has claimed to defend and promote for decades.

First and foremost, it’s a choice in which personality and policy matter.

For many, President Trump is dishonest, and his response to matters like racial unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic reflects a lack of character and integrity, while others value his position against abortion and religious freedom and in favor of law and order.

The fact is, that on the same desk where a president once had a sign that emphasized his commitment to governing (the sign read: “The buck stops here” and meant the responsibility is mine) there sits another president doesn’t seem to accept responsibility, always blames others and who won’t change his ways as a matter of principal.

Yet at the same time, he’s a man who has managed to maintain a deep connection with his voter base, 40% of the U.S. electorate, and has cultivated a feeling of exceptionalism, which according to this principle is betrayed by a system and politicians who, in a system that projects political power and promotes the economy, have forgotten their roots and forsaken their constituents.

That some of them seem, for now, inclined toward violence, and whose reasoning is based on the worst manifestations of nationalism, in other words racism and xenophobia, makes one fear the reaction of their undisputed leader.

If Trump doesn’t accept defeat or alleges cheating in the election—whether real or imagined— the possibility of postelection problems has been exacerbated.

The election is, in any event, a choice between two ideas for the future: one that seems to propose a return to a simpler time, where there were no doubts about American hegemony and its link to a particular ethnic group; and another that offers to rebuild the image of a benevolent hegemon, defender of democratic values and justice within and outside its borders.

The first seeks a single path, an autonomous U.S. capable of imposing its will through force; the second proposes a negotiation, while also taking advantage of America’s size.

The relative difference might not be much, but at the end of the day, style and goals matter. As the saying goes, in politics as in poetry, form is substance and truth. There is a difference between being pressured to provide economic advantage, and helping, in a more or less voluntary way, to fulfill goals within the environment.

From the outside, the choice seems obvious, but Americans are extremely divided and their immediate future may be subject to the personality of an egocentric politician.