The US might have a bigger problem than its own president.
In roughly fifty days eligible voters in the US are going to choose between two very different candidates. One of them stands out as being calm, even called “Sleepy Joe” by his opponent, the other one could well be the most controversial person of the twenty first century. It is Joe Biden, 77-year old democratic candidate, versus Donald Trump, 74-year old republican candidate.
The stakes have never been as high as this year – that is what everyone gets to hear about the presidential elections 2020. However, this exaggeration could apply to one specific desire that runs through the American society, from liberal California to conservative Texas, from a broker in Manhattan to a farmer in Kansas: unity among all Americans. According to a survey by Pew, 81 percent of all Americans agreed to the statement: “The USA is more divided than ever.”
Who is to blame here? 78 percent say politicians have torn Americans apart, 65 percent think that they owe this condition to president Trump. The most interesting two numbers out of the entire survey are 40 and 50. 40 percent of republican voters and 50 percent of democratic voters actually consider voting for the opposite party if the party’s candidate aim is to unite the USA.
In the last few weeks, the main topics people have been talking about have been the Black Lives Matter movement and Covid-19. Opinions on those topics pretty much reflect the gigantic rift. Only 37 percent of Republicans see coronavirus as a threat, almost 40 percent less than on the Democrats’ side. At least both political spectra agree on racism being a problem for the entire nation, 76 percent of all Americans and 71 percent of the white population.
None of these problems can be solved by the future president without the support of his citizens. Unity could be a president’s most valuable resource from now on. Perhaps, 244 years after the founding fathers gave the United States of America a name, today’s Americans could finally find out the meaning of it.
Sebastian Hidalgo Vasquez, Mehmet Karatas, Georg Lohse and Silvan Amann, Q12
Picture by Tibor Janosi Mozes auf Pixabay