The (Deeply) Divided States of America

In 2016, the Democrats blamed their unexpected loss on poor voter turnout. They blamed it on how the election day is not a national holiday, and mobilized forces to increase voter turnout through mail-in ballot. They hoped for a blue wave, for a landslide victory, especially after seeing how President Trump has made a clown out of himself and his country, time and time again. 

And yet, the blue wave was nowhere to be seen. The prophesied landslide became a drawn out, arduous waiting game. Names are called, mud is slung, and battle rallies can already be heard. 

Even on my social media, which comprises mainly of Vietnamese who will likely never be able to vote on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, the difference in opinions is both stark and divisive. It is both amusing and saddening to see Vietnamese netizens engage in virtual screaming matches over the planet’s Number 1 popularity contest, America’s presidential election. 

Supporting Trump is no longer a favorite pastimes of wannabe pundits. It has evolved to become the Cult of Trump. 

Trump was the dark horse of 2016. Back then, he was supported, at first by denizens of 4chan: Edgy twenty-something shut-ins who fancied a great mockery of American politics by electing an airheaded ex-TV star into office, and later by the disenfranchised, disillusioned masses of struggling or laid-off blue collars. 

You know the type: working men and women who are oftentimes white, live in small towns, adhere to traditional values, and whose already meager livelihood are increasingly threatened by the everchanging times. Men and women who saw no differences whether a Rep or a Dem is seated in that comfy chair in the White House. Why does that matter if tomorrow their mining company were to be sold and liquidated, and they were to be fired without so much of a safety net to cling to, possibly thrown out onto the street? 

To them, politics is a luxury that they do not have the time for. Such is the miracle of consumer capitalism: It works you to near-death, then throws you just enough bread to survive until the next day. Then, physically and mentally exhausted, you come home — a home that you borrowed money from the bank to afford, and throw yourself atop the sofa, across the latest model flat screen TV and next to a microwaved TV dinner. As you shove your ready-made meal down the hatch, you consume your ready-made entertainment, too: Inane but quick-paced shows designed to shorten your attention span, portraying a lifestyle so luxurious that you can only wish you were in their place. And wish you did — you willingly turn a blind eye to your miserable reality, opting instead to indulge in the fantastical escapism the entertainment industry so readily provides. Panem et circenses. 

But something changed in 2016. Donald Trump took the stage, and declared that America was in an existential crisis like never before. The crowd cheered for him, for a crisis was exactly what they were going through. It was an identity crisis: New faces — black and brown and yellow, bearded and bald and turbaned — keep showing up in their neighborhood, subsuming their once monoethnic community. It was an economic crisis: Job was hard and money was tight, and somehow it seems as if those new faces were stealing their job. It was a cultural crisis: Suddenly there were Muslims and Buddhists and Wiccans, gays and lesbians and bisexuals; and they were told to accept and tolerate them all, unconditionally. 

So they kept on cheering for him. Donald Trump is not your run-of-the-mill politician: He is well-spoken, but he does not mince words. Nor does he speak the type of diplomatic jargon that is somehow both empty and superfluous. He is brash, direct, and confrontational — and they loved him for that. Build the wall, he said, and they cheered. Drain the swamp, he said, and they cheered again. Fake news! Down with the deep state! America first! Make America great again! To them, he was unprecedented: The first politician who dared speak the unspeakable. Political correctness be damned. Nuances be damned. To them, he was the voice of the voiceless, the man of the people. A true populist and ultra-nationalist who talks the talk and walks the walk, too. 

And so, the racist and the xenophobic were empowered. The white supremacists whose view was too controversial before, now feel safe to speak their mind in public. Donald Trump has widened the Overton window in mainstream media. “Fake news” and “deep state” are now acceptable words that can be serious discussed on television. Breitbart and InfoWar suddenly became reputable sources of information. Donald Trump has become more than a president: He is now the symbol of resistance against the established system. 

And so conceived the Cult of Trump. 

As Trump and his devout followers ramped up their antics, the Democrats also became more radical. At first, it was disbelief and confusion: How could this great country elected such a fool into office? Then came the blame game. 

Reddit.com, once a bastion of Trump supporters, banned subreddits (sub-forums) and users who support Trump in waves. Flooding its front page nowadays are either posts that mock and ridicule each and every smallest moves of Trump and his cohorts, or praises and advocacy for AOC (Alexanderia Ocasia-Cortez), Bernie Sanders (before the Dem nomination), and Joe Biden. 

Redditors (users of Reddit.com) adopted an us-versus-them stance. Either you are with us, or you are against us. Moderates who show even the smallest agreement with Trump are called “enlightened centrists” and ridiculed accordingly. Blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities must vote against Trump, lest they risk being labeled “traitors.” Whites who vote for Trump are called unintelligent sub-humans and other colorful remarks. It does not matter whether you agree with Biden or not, you must vote for him simply because he is the only choice other than Trump. 

It gets tiring. And it showed on the third of November. 

Despite every thing Trump has done, despite all of the Democrats’ best efforts, the election hitherto (6th of November as of the time of writing) has yet to be decided. Half the country stands with Trump — a half too many. But why? There must be a good reason, and that reason is this: The Democrats has not proven to be a good alternative. 

All the Dem has done for the hoi polloi was empty promises. All they have said were alienating words — libel and slander. They failed to show sympathy for the plight of the common man. Their only redeeming quality was “not Trump”, and for many, it was not enough. Joe Biden talked of healing the country to his followers — but words can be fleeting. He did not quell his increasingly radical base. He did not ease the nervous WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). He could not appeal to many minorities, Vietnamese American included, even in deep blue states like California and New York. Hell, even the silver bullet that was COVID-19 did not ensure him a decisive victory. 

Joe Biden was not the man for the Herculean task of uniting Americans. 

The United States of America has always prided itself in its diversity. Immigrants, who used to be greeted by the words “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” upon laying their eyes on the Statue of Liberty, were the driving force behind its enormous success. Differences were respected and seen as strength, not weakness. But that is the case no longer. 

Now, all nuances are lost. People are either Democrats or Republicans, and they are expected to vote accordingly. Partisan politics is the norm. Identity politics is the norm. Thanks to the power of algorithm provided by Facebook and Google, people are now forever trapped inside their own bubble. Truth is now whatever they believe in. Whatever their biases, the information fed to them through the media they consume only serves to reinforce, not challenge their world view. 

Propagandas are rampant. 

If the Republic was hung in perilous balance before, it is now teetering on the verge of collapse. It is useful now to remember the death of the Republic of Rome in ages past: All it took was a populist commander to march his troop across the Rubicon, and then the Senate was no more. 

Donald Trump has shown that he is capable of casting the proverbial die. His supporters, half in jest but half in earnest, call for violence and war. The Democrats are a corrupted, cheating bunch, they said. Fight the deep state, take back America — that is their dangerous message. Not the most comforting message to hear, considering that Trump supporters are often also gun rights and state rights activists. 

Now we anxiously wait for the suspenseful climax, as the fragile Republic fractures and cracks.