By: Azhar Azam
For years, the US has been on a wild goose chase, searching and neutralizing external threats to its national security through endless overseas military aggression. In the meantime, the country continued to divide on social issues, race, gender and economy.
Donald Trump’s deeply flawed domestic and foreign policies, willful promotion of hatred and grandiloquent tone and diatribes towards his political opponents quietly mined further divisions and pushed American society toward radicalization and political bigotry.
In a lead-up to the first US presidential debate, Trump questioned Biden’s mental and physical health and labeled his counterpart as a “dumb guy.” His despicable moral empathy urged him to lampoon the rival Democrat nominee a senile aging man and “Sleepy Joe,” ignoring his own slow and halting descent down a ramp.
His vilification widened splits in American society as during his term, an increasingly stark disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, international engagement and a range of other issues had intensified from just politics and policies to differences on core American values or concerns that other’s win would lead to “lasting harm” to the US.
After the former WWE star failed to upset Biden psychologically, influence voters and leap forward in a messy environment – he provoked his supporters to invade the Capitol Hill and pose risks to the US national security, normally attributed to transnational terrorist groups the US administrations claimed were located elsewhere the world.
Siege of the Congress was a little reflection of what Trump has sowed in the last four years and Jacob Chansley – Arizonian QAnon conspiracy theorist, famously photographed wearing horns with former Vice President Mike Pence in the chamber of the US Senate – is only one of Trump’s new hostile breed who was involved in a “violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States government.”
Even though the top federal prosecutor in Arizona overseeing the far-reaching probe retreated from his team’s initial ominous assessment that the Trump-backed horde of rioters intended “to capture and assassinate elected officials” – Biden, upon assuming office, must order an inquiry to identify shortcomings in the US homeland security and why law enforcement agencies could not prevent this shocking episode from happening.
With the raid describing an overwhelming influence and extensive reach of QAnon activists to the US Congress during Trump’s presidency, the Biden administration also needs to take steps to immediately stop and gradually reverse this nasty trend from profounder penetration and polarization of American society, which may spark civil unrest in the US.
The QAnon movement views Trump as its hero and believes he is waging a secret war against elite- Satan-worshiping pedophiles in government, business and media, speculating their fight will culminate in the arrest and execution of prominent people including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. He hasn’t concealed his support for the QAnon activists and extolled them as “people who love our country.”
No clique of rioters should be allowed to propagate, let alone impose, its ultra-conservative thoughts on other people that undermine the security of the state and punch chinks in social fabric. Trump’s fanatic notion as well as pandemic-hit US economic and public health devastation is the reason why Americans shifted their confidence from him to Biden.
It is crucial for Biden to commit himself for the cause given the bizarre theory is strengthening its roots in the US and nearly half of American had heard of QAnon, doubling the number in just six months. The most appalling finding was that despite a majority of the people surveyed rejecting the theory, 41% of Republicans said it was good, something good or very good for the country.
Biden, in his first speech after winning the presidential election, promised to bridge the bitter divisions by unifying red and blue states, discarding harsh rhetoric and lowering the temperature. The new president would be down the right path nevertheless he needs to prudently extend his iron-clad willingness of broadening the scope of harmony to hardcore elements in Republicans.
At home, domestic Trump’s indecision to integrate the diverse American communities for vested interests combined with a failed coronavirus strategy has laid bare risks to the US security and social and economic stability. On the other hand, his blunt criticism of China, European Union (EU) and other states and multilateral organizations has alienated the country internationally.
Other than routing pandemic and stimulating the national economy, Biden should deploy his diplomatic and political acumen to tackle the violent culture taking root in the American society and mend ties with the only growing economy in the world, China. Although reengagement with Beijing would require plenty of guts from him, it still remains the way to help the US rid of these multipolar crises.
*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared at "The Mail & Guardian ":