Glimpses Into The American Mind | Election Diary

This story was published as part of Outlook's 11 November, 2024 magazine issue titled 'Whitewash'. To read more stories from the issue, click here

The Lady from Google

Tokyo’s Haneda international airport is not exactly bustling but quietly active. On a clear day, one can see the majestic Mount Fuji from observation points in the airport but today is dismally cloudy. I get quickly tired of snaking through shops. The lounge is the other option. It is uncomfortable and its penne, the lone dish available for vegetarians, terrible. The food in the flight, on the other hand, is surprisingly good. The person who is sitting across me is an Indian working with Google. She tells me that sanity is slowly returning to her company, but she is not very much sure about the political sanity. “I of course support Kamala Harris, but I sincerely hope her IQ will get unfrozen in the days to come.” “Trump,” she says, “is a monster of terrifying proportions. His victory will mark the beginning of the end of US democracy.” “Kamala’s victory may mark the beginning of the end of the world,” I interject rather provocatively. “Trump is bad, but he is not a war monger. The neocons who control the Democratic Party are. The party’s victory may plunge the world into a Third World War.” She says, “Kamala is not Biden, but yes, the armament industry wants war and these guys are in its pocket.”

The Hispanic Helpers

The helpers who visit our house are all Hispanics. The leader is from Honduras. Two others are from Guatemala. The fourth person is from El Salvador. Only the leader speaks English. They get about $20 (about 1,700 rupees) per hour. It is hard to live in California with this income, as they have to buy the cleaning material themselves. “Who will you vote for?” I ask the leader. “We don’t vote here,” she says. “If you had?” “I would vote for Trump.” She quickly consults her teammates and tells me that they too would vote for him, if they had votes. “The reason is simple. In his case, what we see is what we get. The lady is deep and devious.” I realise that the opinion polls that say that Trump has the support of about 40 per cent of Latinos are not far wrong. “She is a daughter of immigrants. How can she be against immigrants?” I counter. “Indians are very intelligent. She will do what the non-Hispanic Whites want her to do. That will help the Indians.” “Will she be that subservient? She clearly identifies herself as a woman, a Black American and a South Asian American.” She repeats, “Indians are intelligent.”

A Quiet Election

The commotion we associate with elections is missing here. I see a few placards stuck in the ground announcing “Tara Sreekrishnan for State Assembly”, but not a single poster or a placard for either Harris or Trump. I run into a Sikh gentleman in the Indian cash and carry shop. “Who will you vote for?” He smiles and says, “My vote is always for the Lord above.” He walks off without waiting for my response. The young couple I meet next are stridently anti-Trump. “I will not be dead in a ditch with him,” says the woman, her forehead lined with fury. “He is the antithesis of civilisation.” I try the Hispanic response. “In his case, what you see is what you get.” “That is nonsense. He is Trump, the byword for chicanery.”

The Hindutva Gang

Hindutva friends are supremely confident. “Kamala is exactly like Rahul Gandhi. Clueless and mouthing unintelligible shibboleths. Trump is like our Modi. He knows what he is talking about. The US-India friendship will take a new turn under his leadership”. “What about his immigrant policies?” “He has no problem with the legal immigrants. He loves intelligent, law-abiding Indians. His problem is with the crime-suffused Hispanics and drug lords.”

The Stanford Set

My daughter-in-law has just returned from a party with her Stanford classmates and she says, “No Trump for any of us. We don’t like Kamala one bit, but not voting for her may well mean helping Trump to win.” I ask her, “Are there any real issues in this election?” “Well, reproductive freedom is one main issue.” “What about Israel’s war? What about Ukraine? What about China and its fracas with Taiwan? The World is facing a Third World War. Are these not the election issues?” “Not really,” she says.

I suddenly realise that US citizens are the most inward-looking people in the world. It is their governments that scout around the world for opportunities that may demand American weapons. Neither Trump nor Harris is going to make any difference.

P.A. Krishnan is a writer in Tamil and English