- The whole world was waiting with bated breath about the eventual outcome of the most important election and to elect the most powerful leader destined to shape the geopolitical as well as geostrategic direction. Yes, the presidential election to the Oval Office of the United States of America has decisively concluded in favour of the mercurial Republican candidate Donald Trump. Trump becomes the second US president to have been elected a second time non-consecutively after comfortably defeating the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. As the world witnessed over the last few months, the electioneering was not only acrimonious but also interspersed with name-calling, below-the-belt innuendos, and whatnot. That’s all behind it now.
PC: The Hindu
- That the Americans overwhelmingly chose to elect Donald Trump calls for celebrations since democracy has won and the divisions/schisms can do with healing subsequently. Of course, in a two-party democracy, visuals from the two-party HQs as election results wrap up are a study in contrast. When Trump took an early victory lap, enthusiastic supporters at different hangouts looked full of joy, there was colour and music and chants of USA!USA!USA! On the other hand, the Kamala Harris election party dispersed into gloomy silence, expectedly. As understandable as it is, to get locked into this binary is myopic and needlessly stressful. Note that free and fair elections are the work of generations and are still out of reach of half the world. We must be thankful.
- Thankfully, the election this time was free of unwanted skirmishes with voter access and counting proceeding smoothly even as high turnouts were processed skilfully. This is as much a cause for celebration as all that had gone before – the dance of democracy drawing in a broad swathe of citizens instead of passivity and apathy. A true triumph of democratic credentials. Their passion also means that differences are deeply felt. But for all that, after the election, democracies must be open to healing. This is central to their story of origin. This disciplined transition from one party to another that the US and India and Western Europe have long enjoyed, China and Russia have never seen. How people from those countries wish for a democratic form of governance.
PC: The Hindu
- Indubitably, it is elections, and the peaceable acceptance of their results, that enable the vast diversity of countries like the US and India to hold together. This is palpable in the voting queues as well, where people line up to vote for competing parties with a smiling camaraderie. Democracy offers voters to shake it off since they don’t have to remain locked into identity traps but can vote across colour and gender lines. Institution-strong democracies have tonnes of continuity between different governments. Indeed, every US president would seek to advance its economic and geopolitical interests. As for other countries, their greatest ask of the 47th president is ending the West Asia and Ukraine wars. Now that would make the celebrations truly global!
