There are many ways to look at the unfolding completed an Historical American election — which Joe Biden finally “win.” we, at Multimedia Studio put altogether in quotes, of course, because he’s win the vote because every vote counts — There was a big QM??? but will he win the election, or will Trump’s machinations carry the day? That’s an open question, until Trump concedes. The question that’s worth asking now, though, is the one that our European, Canadian, and Asian audiences have barraged us. So hard and so far that by now I’m hoarse from answering the question, “How was it so close?! What’s wrong with Americans?”
Americans have a point.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll have plenty of time to explore other aspects of the election. But for now, we already know one thing. It was close. It was so close that Biden barely eked out his probable win. And that makes absolutely no sense to the rest of the world.
How did Trump get half the vote…after the horrors of the last four years, whether bans, camps, cages, kids in them, raids, purges, Gestapos disappearing people in the streets, rank incompetence, escalating authoritarianism, open fascism, or mass death from Covid? What the hell? Are Americans…idiots? At least half of them? How can anyone vote for a President after all that?
It never should have been close. Not even remotely. It should have been a blow out. It would have been in any remotely sane or reasonable society. But it wasn’t. It was barely a victory at all. And that is mind-boggling, to most of the rest of the world.
Now, a certain kind of American will already dispute this, on two counts. First, that “it wasn’t close!” There are many ways to look at the unfolding American election — which Joe Biden is probably “win.” Multimedia Media Studio #tag in quotes, of course, because he’s going to win the vote — but will he win the election, or will Trump’s machinations carry the day? That’s an open question, until Trump concedes. The question that’s worth asking now, though, is the one with our European, Canadian, and Asian audiences have barraged us. So hard and so far that by now I’m hoarse from answering the question, “How was it so close?! What’s wrong with the Americans?”
They have a point.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll have plenty of time to explore other aspects of the election. But for now, we already know one thing. It was close. This election will have been won on razor-thin margins. It was so close that Biden barely eked out his probable win. And that makes absolutely no sense to the rest of the world.
How did Trump get half the vote…after the horrors of the last four years, whether bans, camps, cages, kids in them, raids, purges, Gestapos disappearing people in the streets, rank incompetence, escalating authoritarianism, open fascism, or mass death from Covid? What the hell? Are Americans…idiots? At least half of them? How can anyone vote for a President after all that?
It never should have been close. Not even remotely. It should have been a blow out. It would have been in any remotely sane or reasonable society. But it wasn’t. It was barely a victory at all. And that is mind-boggling, to most of the rest of the world. Now, a certain kind of American will already dispute this, on two counts. First, that “it wasn’t close!” That is undeniably close — it’s just a fact. A certain kind of American, especially the white liberal, feels the need to cheer lead their way out of messes with positive thinking — but that only leads them to deny factual reality. This election was close. Very, very close.
The second count of objection will probably be: “But so what! We won!! Woo-hoo!!” That’s true. But what the world has that America doesn’t — especially America’s liberals — is a high enough bar to produce a functioning society. Americans’ low, low bar — “we won, never mind the margin!!” — is precisely why their country is an endless mess, and they never really solve their problems. It doesn’t do be so unquestioning and uncritical — especially when it comes to the most crucial election in modern times.
What our European, Canadian, Asian friends audience by “how the **** was it so close?!” Is something like this. How did roughly half of America still vote for Trump? The GOP? Haven’t they learned anything? How does half a nation still back fascists, supremacists, abusers of power, incompetents, and fools? What on earth? Yes, Republican voters live in bubbles of disinformation. Yes, gerrymandering and voter suppression were as rampant as ever. But the Dem knew about those — they are not a surprise, or shouldn’t have been. Those, one hopes, were taken into account in the Dem strategy leading up to this election, and taken into account by pollsters when predicting the Biden landslide that never was. Why??
As much as ardent backers of the Dem want to avoid this uncomfortable question, it must be asked. This election never should have been this close.margins within 2 or 3% are pretty close, and many of the margins deciding this election are within 1%. That is undeniably close — it’s just a fact. A certain kind of American, especially the white liberal, feels the need to cheer lead their way out of messes with positive thinking — but that only leads them to deny factual reality. This election was close. Very, very close.
The second count of objection will probably be: “But so what! We won!! Woo-hoo!!” That’s true. But what the world has that America doesn’t — especially America’s liberals — is a high enough bar to produce a functioning society. Americans’ low, low bar — “we won, never mind the margin!!” — is precisely why their country is an endless mess, and they never really solve their problems. It doesn’t do be so unquestioning and uncritical — especially when it comes to the most crucial election in modern times.
What my European, Canadian, Asian friends mean by “how the **** was it so close?!” Is something like this. How did roughly half of America still vote for Trump? The GOP? Haven’t they learned anything? How does half a nation still back fascists, supremacists, abusers of power, incompetents, and fools? What on earth? Yes, Republican voters live in bubbles of disinformation. Yes, gerrymandering and voter suppression were as rampant as ever. But the Dem knew about those — they are not a surprise, or shouldn’t have been. Those, one hopes, were taken into account in the Dem strategy leading up to this election, and taken into account by pollsters when predicting the Biden landslide that never was. Why??
Why not? Let’s count the reasons.
First, there’s Covid. America has the world’s worst Covid outcomes, by a long way. That is 100% due to Trump — his administration has left America the only nation on earth without a Covid strategy. And so you’d expect those hit hardest by Covid to have backed anyone but Trump. And yet precisely the opposite was true, at least among whites — places hit hardest by Covid voted more for Trump.
What on earth? How bizarre is that? What does such a choice even say?
Then there’s the matter of “the economy.” The economy didn’t do better under Trump. The American economy is just as broken as it has been for decades now. Real incomes are still cratering. People’s savings are still nonexistent. The dream died long ago. The idea of upward mobility is a distant memory — America is now a society of the downwardly mobile. And yet none of that seemed to swing the electorate much in Democrats’ favour.
Then there’s the matter of social structure — a society’s class system. America is reverting to being a kind of caste society. The middle class is still imploding, the working class is still cratering, America is still becoming a society of one giant underclass, beneath a tiny elite of super rich and their lieutenants — half of Americans work what is euphemistically called “low wage service jobs.” Given all that, you’d think the Dems would have made inroads with the working class. But they didn’t. Trump’s share of the white working class appears to have been as high as it was in 2016, if not higher.
There’s the matter of the social contract, too. America doesn’t have one. At least not in modern terms. What it has is the absence of one. If you’re European, Canadian, even Asian, you get healthcare, retirement, a pension, maybe childcare, income, and so forth, as basic rights of citizenship. Americans get nothing. Except the right, of course, to carry guns and wave Bibles around. America doesn’t have a modern social contract — which is the key reason America is now an impoverished society: people have to pay monopolists eye-watering sums for things that should be basic human rights. That is why the average American dies with $62,000 of debt. Those are numbers that should predict a revolution. Instead, Biden seems to have almost no marginal or switching votes for the sake of social reform. What the *?
These are serious and crucial matters. The economy. Social structure. The social contract. And Covid. The election was in large part a referendum on these things.
And before the election, many, if not most, thought that there would be a Biden landslide and it was.
That wasn’t just pollsters, by the way. Let me add one more wrinkle to all the above.
Why else should the election not have been close?
When they’re asked, Americans say that they want a decent, functioning, modern society. Political Pundits will repeat this line endlessly — hoping against hope for change. Something between 60 to 70% of Americans, when asked, say they want levels of inequality like Scandinavia, functioning healthcare, affordable education, good retirement and pensions.
Do you see the glaring, gaping, terrible contradiction yet?
They don’t vote for it. They never have. America has never produced a solid majority in the direction of actually creating a modern, functioning society. Even though that’s what the majority of Americans, when they’re asked, say they want, over and over and over again. Instead, they vote against it, over and over and over again. This election hasn’t broken that pattern. The majority of Americans backed Biden, it’s true. But not an overwhelming majority. Not nearly the same number that profess to want a modern, functioning society. Biden didn’t win 2/3 of the vote. He barely won at all. Again, we’re left with the conclusion: this election should never have been so close. Why do Americans say one thing — and then vote for another? The answer tends to break down along racial lines. White Americans — who are the vast majority of the country, around 80% or so — say they want the public goods of a modern society. But when it comes time to actually vote for such things, they have never once done it in modern history. This election didn’t break that pattern, either. In fact, weirdly, strangely, fatally, it seems to have reinforced it. Trump’s share of white voters seems to have gone up.
Why do white voters say they want a modern society — but never, ever vote for it? It’s slavery and segregation’s poisonous legacy. “I won’t pay for those dirty, filthy people’s healthcare, education, retirement. Why, their grandparents were my grandpappy’s slaves!” White Americans have never once backed a functioning social contract — never — and in this election they still didn’t. The ugly truth is that if American whites had their way, America would be, right now, a fascist authoritarian theocracy, Trump soaring to an easy victory. Minorities saved America from total collapse. Will they get any credit from the usual white pundits? Probably not — the narrative is already that “minorities voted more for Trump!”
Sure — but the truer fact is that minorities are all that prevented white America’s overwhelming endorsement of Trumpism from collapsing American democracy totally.
Now, white liberals do not want to admit this dangerous and depressing truth about America. That its white majority is still badly regressive, even abusive, towards the rest of society. It does not want to live in a modern society. That is why, when I raise questions like this, white liberals get angry at me. They do not understand they are very much in the minority in their social group, and that is why America is still so backwards. They will get angry on us, predictably, when I say this to them. It’s absolutely jaw-dropping to the entire rest of the world that half of America still voted for Trump, after all the nightmarish horrors of the last four years. What about the fascism, the racism, the hate? The kids in the camps? The incompetence? The stupidity and lies? The mass death? What on earth? How did it end up a marginal election?
The answers to AMERICAN from Indian Multimedia Studio, though, are as obvious as they are crystal clear. America, they say, is a “divided not united country as a Nation.” What they won’t say is that what divides it are the same old demons. Hate, racism, fascism, brutality, violence, stupidity, and ignorance. And until white American begin understanding just how badly their group is riven by such afflictions — what progress can America really make - being a Super Power????
#yusufbhandarkar +917977231537 Email : multimediastudio9.net www.multimediastudio.net
