Trump’s speech had already done enough damage to democratic values and its institutions in the USA. This grossly unsubstantiated attack has not only made the electoral process seem like a joke, but put the entire justice system under immense pressure.
This election begs the question: were the polls and political pundits completely wrong? I must give credit to Trump’s campaign team for wrong footing the pollsters second time in last 4 years. There is a disconnect from the ground reality. Trump’s voter is not a traditional democrat or republican voter. This segment of the American society was never engaged before in the election process. The Republicans and Democrats both were too privileged to associate with that segment, which Trump has done successfully because of his volatile and irrational thought process.
Trump’s 4-year term has gone to prove that almost half the American population favors his way of doing politics - and if that is not alarming, I do not know what is but do hope that my assumption is wrong. In the rest of the world, while some countries regarded Trump’s accusations with a pinch of salt, others were reassured of their belief about Washington’s said hypocrisy regarding human rights. Trump’s attack on the electoral process could damage the social and political fabric of the US for years to come. And at a time when China and Russia’s authoritarian systems are strictly critical of the Western democratic system, this will attract much more criticism than ever anticipated.
With the election results getting narrower by the second, we can certainly anticipate a Democrat win, in which case, Trump ought to stage a graceful acceptance of defeat, else he’ll lose any favor that the Republicans have gained over his term. One is compelled to draw parallel with the US elections of 2000 when Al Gore and Bush were head to head and the results were too close to tell, eventually, the courts intervened. Regardless of the results, what the world saw was an entertaining brawl, a show. And this is what we can expect from the Trump-Biden contest, especially considering Trump’s erratic behavior during the last 3 months. Going forward, any legal petitions without proof by Trump will only serve to further ruin the political fabric of the United States.
The Republican bigwigs and stalwarts should come forward now and advise Trump, ‘Mr. President, it’s all over, hands off’, and save the democratic values from any further damage by his mishandling.
At this point, it appears that this is no longer an election about Pennsylvania or Georgia. This is an election that has exposed the deficiencies of the American democratic system which has attracted global attention and commentary. Although the Democrats are cautiously optimistic today, they are aware that they will have a massive mess to clean up in the years to come.