Americans are angry. And fear of violence around the elections – NRK Urix – Foreign News and Documentaries

On one side of the street, Trump supporters stand with American flags and shout their tribute to the president: Four New Years!

On the other hand, those who raise banners with Black Lives Matter and shout that the president is a racist.

They cannot stay on both sides of the road, but they protect themselves close to each other. No one with a mask, not even in these times of covidity. And without dialogue. I’m just trying to drown your opponents. It is pushed and shoved and I see many who want to use their fists.

Parts of downtown in ruins

I am in Kenosha. A small town in the state of Wisconsin. The so-called tip status, which Trump won with a small majority in 2016. Now there is a political battle for the majority here again. But it’s a local event that has literally set the city on fire.

Here, black Jacob Blake was shot four times by police during an arrest. He was paralyzed from the waist down. The city erupted in protests and riots. Some of the protesters smashed cars and shop windows and set buildings ablaze. A Trump supporter was supposed to confront the protesters and ended up shooting and killing two of them.

Some parts of the city center are now in ruins. Virtually all stores and businesses have covered their windows and doors with chipboard. And in the streets, people argue loudly. There is no peace in America.

FBI warns against militias

Summer has overheated. Protests against the murders of black George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in much of the country.

I have traveled and seen how private armed groups are gaining more and more support. In Michigan, they planned to kidnap the governor, kill cops, and topple the state government.

The FBI warns that right-wing militias pose an imminent “violent extremist threat.” And that the level of conflict in the United States will increase in the future ahead of the November 3 elections.

The smile is gone, the people turn away

I don’t recognize the American society that I became a part of three and a half years ago. People have stopped greeting each other. Nobody speaks in the elevator, as they always did before. Where there are no protests, the streets are almost empty. Before, I experienced America as the easiest country in the world to get people to speak into a microphone and a camera. And I have interviewed people and reported from almost everyone in my long career as a journalist. Now it is not so easy here in the United States.

Many do not want to talk. The smile and kindness are gone. People turn around when you pass them. Of course it has to do with the pandemic. Nozzles hide smiles and rules of distance make people skeptical of strangers.

Turning off a chat with a colleague in a bar is not so easy. Or sit too far away. Or the bar is just closed.

Hundreds of thousands died

In San Francisco, I saw a completely different city than the one I had visited so many times before. There is no bustling life with tourists. No tram fun down the steep streets. Almost no people in the center. For the most part, only homeless and mental patients lived on the streets. Shops and bars had decorated the facades with depressing particle board and signs that said they were “temporarily closed.” As many have had to do in recent weeks.

The virus has shown a strong boom this fall. To date, more than 8 million have been infected and more than 220,000 have died. America’s leading infection control physician Anthony Fauci says the death toll could reach 400,000 by the New Year. Like many Americans who died in World War II. More than one per. thousand inhabitants.

“Don’t follow the president”

It can be avoided, says Fauci. If the United States changes its address and not follow the example of the country’s leader. After being sick with the crown, Trump says he now feels healthier than in many years. And organize mass gatherings full of people without masks. Just the kind that keeps the pandemic alive and makes it more powerful.

Like in Wisconsin. There they have another problem besides the racist police and the riots. The pandemic is progressing so fast that hospitals are being blown up and a large field hospital has had to be built in a park.

Nozzles are politics

Americans are angry. On Trump’s treatment of the pandemic. About the Democrats, who many believe will take their weapons away. About governors closing schools and communities. In those who do not want to use a mask.

Even the spokesperson has become a political marker in America. Most Democrats use it. I have seen several of them who have protected their nose and mouth even when they are alone, inside their own car.

Many Republicans refuse to use it. When we interviewed people in areas where the majority are Trump supporters, we also didn’t dare to wear a bandage. It would have been to mark the political opposition, and few would have spoken to us.

Fewer and fewer people trust their elected leaders in Washington DC In 1964, 77 percent of Americans trusted the government. Now it’s only 17 percent.

Russians are destroying democracy

In this chaos, foreign actors have also stirred the pot. The worst is Russia. The Mueller report indicated that they were very involved in the 2016 elections. There they chose their candidate: Donald Trump. Now US intelligence services have again determined that the Russians are influencing. This time also on the side of Trump. And more sophisticated than four years ago.

The Russians are behind a number of fake influencer accounts on social media. What’s worse is that they have initiated a comprehensive hack of the county townships and municipalities and their online voting systems. More companies selling such software.

The FBI fears that, in the worst case, they could destroy polling stations and hijack electronically cast votes.

In any case, the Russians have already achieved their overarching goal over the past four or five years: to weaken American democracy. They have managed to make people confront each other. Make them hate their fellow citizens. And to raise doubts about whether the elections will be correct and fair.

Fear that the voice will not be spoken

Americans are not just angry. They are also scared. For each other due to covid. For this reason, many do not dare to go to the polls, but prefer to send the ballot by mail or leave it in a ballot box that the electoral authorities have enabled.

Voters also fear that their vote will not be counted. In many of the states, attempts are now being made to limit the ability to count all votes. Democrats go to court to extend the number of days after actual election day that a submitted mail ballot will be accepted. Republicans go to the Court of Appeals if Democrats succeed in the expansion. These trials are now pending in the United States and many of them will not have concluded before Election Day.

Referendum on Trump

People are so afraid of their voices that many have chosen to challenge their fear of covid. They don’t risk voting by mail and they stand at polling stations. There are already record ranks of eligible voters where polling stations have been opened. Many have waited up to 11 hours in line to do their civic duty. Authorities believe there will be record backing. Which may not be so difficult in a country where it is common for just over half of those eligible to vote to run in presidential elections.

Voting now is a good sign for democracy. But it may be a bad sign for Donald Trump. A Republican pollster recently said the election would be a referendum on the president. And that at the moment does not look very good.

People are arming. Democrats too

Trump has responded with a statement that the only reason he can lose is if there is cheating. He will not say whether he will leave the White House in order and in peace if he loses. As have all previous presidents.

Therefore, not only the FBI, but also large sectors of the population fear that there may be political violence in connection with the elections. Or maybe especially afterwards.

The result is that more and more people are arming and buying ammunition. Democrats too. That you feel threatened and can protect yourself. Most gun stores are sold for bullets and gunpowder.

Member of the government against Trump

A friend of mine has been a Republican all his life. For the past four years, he has been a member of the Trump administration. Now he is completely desperate and says that the president is unstable and disturbed.

– This is no longer possible, believe. He is willing to leave his government post. Regardless of whether Trump was four new years old, he would resign.

He no longer recognizes his old party. Now he hopes the Democrats win big and take over. Both the presidency and the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

– It will be the only way that the people of the party can realize the seriousness and we can begin to build the Republican Party anew. From scratch and with new values. With a responsible economic policy, with social responsibility and compassion.

Values ​​that the party has lost with Trump.

Values ​​that are disappearing in America.