Frida Stranne on the unrest after the presidential elections

These include ballot papers that are declared invalid and many people are unable to use their vote due to complicated rules. Problems with votes that are not counted because they were completed incorrectly, were in the wrong envelope or did not have time to be counted in the allotted time, have decided several times results in districts where it has been very even. It also turns out, when one looks more closely at the problem, that it is more often the minority votes that are annulled, and that in the constituencies where these votes could change the outcome to the detriment of those in power.

A cornerstone of a democracy is that the people trust the system. But ahead of next week’s US elections, polls show that a record number of Americans, especially Republican voters, don’t think the election will go well. Mix that sentiment with the already infected political situation, the bottomless dislike of Republicans and Democrats with each other, and fear of what the world will be like if your candidate is eliminated.

For many, the threat is purely existential where “everything” is perceived as lost if the wrong president wins power over the next four years. Then add almost non-existent confidence among Republicans to the media once the election result is interpreted.

So the big question is no longer IF there will be anxiety, but how to reduce the tensions that will arise and prevent them from becoming a serious problem. With the tense situation that prevails, there are all the conditions for the protests to grow, regardless of the outcome of the elections. The consequence can be a risk of confrontations in which, in the worst case, people are killed.

For several years I have been following the growing areas of conflict and what they are doing to American society. The tensions are logical in terms of a system characterized by growing inequality, less hope for the future, and contempt for politicians. The difference today from previous periods of division is that when there used to be disagreement on individual issues, today there is almost nothing that unites them. Trust in the glue that holds Americans together has weakened. People have begun to look inward, to their own group, not to the common. The combination of polarization and deep inequality is a tinderbox. Furthermore, what has become particularly visible this year, the United States has never managed to address its deep-seated racism. In the 2020 election year, there was a terrible pandemic with a subsequent economic crisis, at the same time that blacks grew weary of the police violence that constantly hits them hard.

The dissatisfaction and discomfort have remained there and have sunk beneath the surface for a long time. Donald trump he is not guilty of it. Throughout his presidency, however, he has seriously fueled all the tensions that have built up in recent decades, which is causing growing concern. Combined with a media logic that promotes impulse and conspiracies, something that is now described as the perfect storm has been created. Trump deserves criticism for how things got worse during his presidency. But criticism should also be directed at politicians who go back to the past, who focused on big donors, lobbyists, and Wall Street interests and forgot about those who ended up outside.

Now as much as possible is being written about the risk of clashes in connection with the elections. But the risks of minor riots that can break out here and there don’t just exist around Election Day or the following weeks. It is true that all journalists in the world will be ready right there to portray possible riots. But an escalation of the conflict can also be delayed with increasing violence. So it’s impossible to breathe a sigh of relief if nothing dramatic happened when the next president is sworn in in January. And regardless of which of the two candidates wins, the polarization is so advanced that it has become a piano playing itself, a snowball that has started rolling downhill. With four more years with Donald Trump in the White House, there is no reason to believe that polarization will worsen. But we also talk very little about it Joe bidenWhether or not he has the best ambitions, he has a political agenda that fuels the division. The rhetoric used by presidential candidates and the political goals that have been formulated in recent times leave little room for compromise. If Trump loses, he is likely to fuel the opposition in new ways outside the White House as well. And poverty, injustice, fear. They remain like glue under people’s feet.

Trump fans in conflict with the opposition camp