Biden’s Victory is Likely to Fracture America

News:

After a long wait, Biden was eventually declared President of America much to the consternation of Trump. Trump quipped that Biden had stolen the election. While senior Republicans distanced themselves from Trump’s efforts to remain in office, Biden promised “to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify.” [1] Will Biden’s message of unity and healing fall on deaf ears?

Comment:

Speaking at his campaign headquarters, Biden spoke to his crowd of supporters and said, “To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans.” [2] He added, “This is the time to heal in America.” Biden also pledged to “work with all my heart for the confidence of the whole people. To win the confidence of all people.” [3]

When Biden’s lofty words are measured against the Republican base—that turned out in huge numbers to vote for their demagogue Trump—healing the American nation appears like a fading memory. Trump supporters eschew science based facts concerning Covid-19, subscribe to white supremacist values, view black lives matter as a law and order problem and fondly believe in conspiracy theories. Almost 50% of the Republican base believe in QAnon, where Trump is a savior like figure to root out a secret satanic child-sex trafficking ring run by Democratic politicians and celebrities. [4]

But the overarching driving force behind Republican voters is the desire to safeguard deep-seated Christian values against the onslaught of liberal values championed by Democrats. Christian Evangelists constitute 20% of the US electorate and carry significant weight in the mid-Western states as well as swing states. Exit polls showed that 75% of white Evangelicals voted for Trump this year, compared with 81% four years ago. By and large Evangelicals buoyed by Trump’s recent Supreme Court appointment have stuck by him. [5] This deep chasm between conservatives and liberals is not new, and since the 1980s it has become so pronounced that Democrats and Republicans can no longer work together in Washington—the politics is broken along ideological fault-lines.

In a post-Trump America, Covid-19 is bound to further accelerate the divide between conservatives and liberals, as inequality continues to permeate all aspects of American society. The economic inequality alone will force many liberal states like California and those on the East Coast to question whether their tax contributions to the federal government will embolden debt ridden Republican states to claim supremacy of conservative values over liberal ones.

Against this background it is difficult to see how a Biden victory will heal the nation. Biden, like his predecessors, will work to ensure the supremacy of liberalism both at home and abroad, and this is likely to set in motion a violent clash between conservatives and liberals—one which could potentially lead to the permanent fracturing of American politics and society. No doubt, this will lead to a contraction of America’s primacy around the world, and provide opportunities to other great powers to take advantage of America’s domestic circumstances.

If such a trend continues, America’s support for despots in the Muslim world will wane, thereby emboldening those working for the re-establishment of Khilafah (Caliphate) to redouble their efforts to launch the Islamic state. Yet many in the Muslim world not only fail to see the implications of Biden’s victory, but also remain defeated to any prospect of Islamic ascendency.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Abdul Majeed Bhatti