The Irony That Is American Democracy

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

Thinking about America makes me ponder the first word of the country’s official name: “United”. Various American states that were not united at one point and fought over the right to keep slaves: that is American democracy for those who have only known the US through Hollywood films, fancy Ivy League colleges and pop culture. But wait, that’s just the beginning.

A few days ago, someone commented while talking about the American election, “Just imagine, the issue of right to abortion is not even discussed in this election properly.” I smiled. I am an immigrant in this country with no voting rights. For me, It is a shame that the political conversation is about whether voters should elect someone (Donald Trump), who instigated a mob of rioters to storm the Capitol Hill building to support Trump’s attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. But then American politics is a big circus.

I know the word “circus” sounds a bit harsh for a country that lectures others on democracy and democratic values, but we seem to forget that officially in the US, women were allowed to vote only after 1920 following the 19th constitutional amendment. In the first US election held in 1789 and in the ones up to 1920, only men had the right to vote. Today, just 25 per cent elected members of the US Senate are women and in the US House of Representatives, 29 per cent are women. Kamala Harris is the first woman to occupy the seat of the vice president—after a hundred years of women getting the right to vote. Remember this is the country where a sitting president sexually exploited a young intern and lied during his impeachment and was acquitted. Bill Clinton later accepted that his relationship with the intern was not appropriate. This is a country where exploiting women seems to be okay if you have power. Remember the Jeffrey Epstein saga of sexual exploitation and the many allegations of groping and non-consensual sex against Trump that went to court, but does anyone really care?

Talking about morality and promises, how can we forget that the first Black president of America was elected on the slogan of HOPE and ended up bombing Syria and watching over an illegal operation by the US forces in Pakistan that was celebrated the world over.

The US is one of those countries where segregation was legal till 1964. Sixty years ago, the Black population of the country was not allowed to eat with the Whites. They didn’t have permission to occupy the front seats in buses. It took years of protests and the assassination of a president to pass the Civil Rights Amendment that ended segregation. Do not forget that Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King was assassinated. That’s American democracy for you! Since I have invoked the spectre of assassination, it is interesting to note that in a country obsessed with war and security, four of its sitting presidents—Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy in 1963—were assassinated. There was an attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life while he was in office in 1981, that he survived. Isn’t it ironical that a country whose name is associated with many major wars in the 20th century was not able to protect four of its own presidents?

Anyone in this country has a right to own a gun and shoot a person who enters their premises. This results in the killing of many innocents. Media reports say 327 people get shot in the US daily, out of which 117 die. In 2024, there have been 385 mass shootings in the country so far, according to a BBC report. On an average there are 120 guns for every 100 residents in the US. Do presidential candidates talk about ending gun violence in their campaigns? They do bring up guns, explaining that they too own guns and firearms, before going on to speak of gun violence and the need to stop it. That’s a strange way to go about it!

The electoral battle between Harris and Trump is tight. Harris, who bagged a lead soon after the announcement, has now lost that edge. Trump is catching up and it is said that many young White voters see their manhood in danger if Harris becomes the president. Did Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Germans, Britishers ever feel that their manhood is threatened because the head of state is a woman? All these countries had women leaders, but Americans seem to live in their own bubble. This might feel like a distorted reality to others, but if we look at the data, it won’t be surprising why people in the US support Trump. According to the census 57.8 per cent of the US population is White, out of which 70 per cent has registered to vote. The majority of the White population lives in rural America and has no interest in international politics or the global symbolism of the US elections.

The metaphor of America as a melting pot is flawed. We rarely see that the melting pot is full of white sauce and immigrant populations are like the spice in the sauce. America was never a land of immigrants. It was always the country of White immigrants. Chinese immigrants have been discriminated against earlier in US history and the majority of the Indians coming to the US on an H1B visa know that it takes years to get a Green Card.

Recently, we were having a dinner in a Chinese restaurant. Our host was a woman—liberal, progressive, staunch Democrat with opinions. The manager of the restaurant was a friendly Vietnamese woman, who liked to talk to her customers. The small chat turned political, and I kept my mouth shut as I cannot vote. Our host said that no one should vote for Trump, but the manager said nothing. When food was served, the manager looked at me and said, “We have two bad options, and I do not know which one to choose.” This is the dilemma of the ordinary American voter. Both the candidates offering no clear vision of doing anything that benefits the masses. Healthcare in the US is in tatters, but is any candidate willing to upset the health insurance lobby? Barack Obama brought in affordable healthcare, but accessing it is a nightmare. Everyone knows that the private healthcare system is a money-making machine, but no one says anything against it because the average American’s dream is to make enough money, so they don’t bother about anything else, especially healthcare.

Higher education is so expensive that for an average American, going to college means taking a huge loan that they will end up repaying for half their lives. Obama was paying his student loans four years before he became president.

America for me is the dollar. The American election is about dollars. The only difference between Harris and Trump is this. Old money is supporting Harris and Trump has the backing of new czars such as Elon Musk. It would be crude but not off the mark if we see Elon Musk as the Adani of America, who is supporting a candidate liberals and old money hate. Old money in the case of America is simply the military-industrial complex-owning businessmen, who want to keep their dollars coming, and they do not care what wars are created if they are not being waged on American soil. It could be Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea or Iran...Technically, in the last 100 years the only time US has experienced a war scenario on its own soil was in 2001 when the Twin Towers were attacked in New York. America has always fought/financed the wars on other geographical locations. It is significant because financing a war means profiting from the war.

It is no surprise that the recent student protests in campuses all over the US demanded that universities pull out of the investment they have made in weapons-manufacturing companies such as Boeing and others. Did universities accept these demands? Of course not. Universities run on that money. It happens only in America that from the babel of university towers, one can criticise the capitalistic system knowing fully well that these universities are run by that same capitalistic means. This double standard is America. This moral void is America. If we see the country through this lens, it will not be a surprise that in the election, abortion, gun violence, wars or healthcare are not the deciding issues.

(Views expressed are personal)

Jey Sushil is a writer & translator who currently lives in the United States

(This appeared in the print as 'Dollar Democracy')