Nigeria and the United States share a fairly similar system of government, but more than that a sense of division, it has turned out. Amid the 2020 US presidential election has emerged a deep-seated antagonism that has shattered families and ruined friendships in the country.
Division is division, whether in terms of ethnicity, religion or ideological differences. People feel passionate about these things in such a way that the effects are just about the same.
America’s divide is fueled by ideological disparity — the so-called Left and Right philosophies symbolized by the Democratic and Republican Parties respectively.
Consider the 21-year-old boy who disowned his Democrat mother that isn’t backing candidate Joe Biden.
“He specifically told me, ‘You’re no longer my mother because you’re voting for Trump,’” his mother, 41-year-old Mayra Gomez recently told Reuters reporters.
“The damager is done,” Gomez says, sceptical of reconciliation even if President Donald Trump loses.
“In people’s minds, Trump is a monster. It’s sad. There are people not talking to me anymore, and I’m not sure that will change.” She supports Trump for immigration reforms and for his handling of the economy.
The reporters spoke to 10 supporters—half for Biden, the other for Trump—who confessed to relationships “destroyed forever.”
There is 77-year-old Gayle McCormick, who separated from her 81-year-old husband for voting Trump in 2016. Two of her grandchildren, as well as friends and other relatives, no longer speak to her for supporting Hilary Clinton that year. Same year Rosanna Guadagno, a 49-year-old Democratic voter was disowned by her brother because she voted Clinton.
For Sarah Guth, 39, peace reigns with her father only to the extent, they avoid discussing politics. Their grudge started in 2016 when her father voted Trump. “It shows we don’t have anything in common,” she states.
“I discouraged my son from talking to my mom about politics. I’m not letting her influence him politically,” said 47-year-old Jacquelyn Hammond, a Democratic supporter.
While on a drive, her Trump-supporting mother had ordered her out of her car while the two were discussing politics in 2016.
Neighbour against neighbour, husband against wife, friend against friend, children against parents. The emotion is now so deep that many fear violence will follow the declaration of results, especially if Trump loses.
Across the world, including in Nigeria, the Republican-Democratic divide is no less endemic.
“I have found peace by deleting Trump-supporting friends on my list,” a Nigerian friend told me yesterday.
In some Nigerian circles in the US, the hate endures despite efforts to keep it superficial. The general impression is that if Trump loses, America will unite under a Joe Biden presidency. But that is perhaps a misreading of what constitute the fundamental issues.
There is no doubt about Trump’s polarizing influence, driven by his freewheeling politics. The problem, however, is beyond him.
At the centre of these divides are issues in culture: pro-life versus pro-abortion; open borders versus strict immigration; LGBTQ-rights versus the right to dissent; socialism, faith, values, etc. These are no new topics, but they have become more mainstream in the last decade.
The election is a referendum on these issues more than it is a contest between Biden and Trump.
The reason supporters abide with Trump no matter the scandals that have trailed him—from sex to tax to nepotism—is because they consider these issues more important than his morality.
In fact, the more the media amplify his failings, the more his supporters love him for being hated by institutions they already distrust.
American cultural institutions like the media, academia, and Hollywood have many times demonstrated affinity to the Left—and so remain targets of conservative suspicion.
Trump losing power would not change that: in fact, it could worsen relations as Democrats would make efforts in the coming years for stronger liberal representation in, if not overrun of, the Supreme Court. They would, by all means, want to forestall another Trump coming to power. That is fair in politics.
Trump’s emergence merely unlocked pent-up grievances against an emerging cultural and political order. It is not only in the US that these passions are riling up; other western countries are facing the same cultural conflict, and many believe it’s only a matter of time before it becomes fodder for full-blown domestic terrorism. Violence is often the height of a failed debate.
“If Biden wins, I don’t think they will go quietly into the night and accept it,” said Bonnie Coughlin, a 65-year-old Republican who however voted Biden.
In all of this, the point is that human society is incapable of unity in the sense that we would have liked. Where there is no tribal divide, religious polarization will suffice. Where both are expunged, the socioeconomic disparity will set in, otherwise a cultural rift.
In other words, even in homogenous societies, new divisions will always erupt and set people against each other. Such is the unavoidable reality of human civilization.
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