Pandemic, dire economy, unrest upend US presidential race
08 June, 2020
Three concurrent crises scarring america -- a deadly health pandemic, monetary despair and widespread social unrest -- have reframed this year's presidential contest and prompted national reflection over racial inequality in America.
May be the country on the cusp of a transformation, or will systemic inequalities exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis persist, allowing alienation and marginalization to fester?
In weeks, the unprecedented strain is among the most center point of the ferocious White House campaign between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, two politicians approaching the disasters with completely different strategies.
It's been several generations since the country has experienced such a sharp and rapid confluence of major emergencies, a national low point that philosopher Cornell West has branded "America's moment of reckoning."
Nearly 110,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, and tens of millions are jobless because of pandemic-prompted lockdowns.
As well, unrest has gripped a large number of US cities where protesters demand justice over the killing by Minneapolis police of unarmed black man George Floyd.
Repeated episodes of police brutality caught on camera, even as most demonstrations have been peaceful, have further laid bare the country's deep social wounds.
"It's a fairly bad moment," said Daniel Gillion, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and writer of "The Loud Minority."
The crises, he told AFP, have already been "horrific" for African Americans, who traditionally have poorer healthcare outcomes, have simply a fraction of family members wealth of whites, and so are more likely to face police brutality.
"I can't think about a (modern-day) period where blacks have observed such strife, such pain, such hardship," Gillion said.
Among COVID-19 victims, a disproportionate number are persons of color.
While Trump on Friday touted a surprise drop in the entire jobless rate from 14.7 percent in April to 13.3 percent in May, black unemployment actually rose, to 16.8 percent.
The injustice that erupted into ugly view when a white officer pressed his knee onto Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes may be the latest manifestation of a systemic racism which has persisted for generations.
"There's been a knee on the neck of black America since slavery was abolished," 30-year-old Minneapolis protester Kayla Peterson said from behind a pandemic nose and mouth mask. "We've hardly ever really been free."
Law and order
Trump could have delivered an Oval Office address to the country this week to smoothens tensions. Instead he has exploited discord and launched a "law and order" crusade.
Trump has walled off the White House from protesters and launched fiery accusations that do little to calm the storm.
"The problem," he tweeted Thursday about recent controversial tactics deployed in Washington, "may be the arsonists, looters, criminals, and anarchists, wanting to destroy it (and our Country)!"
Trump's provocative walk from the White House to a local church for a image opportunity minutes following the area was forcibly cleared of protesters contained clear signals to conservative and evangelical voters in his base: security and faith remain paramount.
While Trump has trafficked in division, his November election rival has blasted him as "dangerously unfit" to lead.
Biden, 77, was largely absent for two months, hunkered down in his Delaware home as the pandemic played out and Trump used his bully pulpit to push to re-open the united states.
But the veteran Democrat is eyeing an opening by embracing a note of conciliation and reform -- a thing that could unite the moderate and liberal factions of the Democratic Party and draw independents appalled by Trump's strongman style.
"It is long past time we made the promise of the nation real for our people," Biden tweeted Friday.
'Teflon man'?
Experts say that regardless of the recent chaos, Trump does have a way to victory.
"If the president has the capacity to speak about race in a meaningful way, and if he's in a position to ride the recovery in health and in the financial crisis, he's going to appear to be the Teflon man," Gillion said. "Nothing will stick to him."
Trump however has seen his poll numbers erode, particularly among two groups essential to his re-election: elderly voters and evangelical Christians.
And his failure to tackle the pandemic early and his threat to unleash the military on protesters is repelling female voters.
White women "are upset with Trump's handling of the pandemic" and his insufficient leadership, said Nadia Brown, associate professor of political science and African-American studies at Purdue University.
"Women are also watching the protests and they are having empathy" with demonstrators.
The persistent inequalities, snapshots of a shattered economy and how leaders respond "will definitely be on your brain of voters in five months," Brown added.
It doesn't mean Biden romps to victory, either.
"A cat has nine lives," Brown said, "but Trump has 12."
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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