More than half a month after the U.S. election polling ended, the election chaos continued. Democratic presidential candidate Biden declared “winning” early, but Republican presidential candidate and current President Trump refused to admit defeat on the grounds of fraud in the vote. Biden has begun to “lock down officials”, and Trump is busy firing officials in key positions.
The competition off the court was equally fierce.
Supporters on both sides continued to march and demonstrate, and for a time formed a confrontation near the White House. The scene was hot and hostile to the enemy. Two months later, no one knows whether the President of the United States can successfully and smoothly complete the transfer of power!
This is a very rare scene in the history of the U.S. election.
On the surface, it seems to be an escalation of partisanship and closely related to the ” maverick” style of individual American politicians, but in depth analysis, it highlights the huge rifts in American society.
Economic injustice is an important reason for the current division of the United States. Under the action of various factors such as hollowing out the real economy and unreasonable income distribution, in recent years, the polarization between rich and poor in American society has become more and more serious. The Gini coefficient has increased from 0.386 in 1968 to 0.486 in 2018, the top 1%. The population owns 40% of the country’s wealth.
In contrast, the middle-class income growth is weak, the sense of deprivation of industrial workers is becoming stronger, the trend of class solidification is obvious, the “American Dream” is moving away from ordinary Americans, and the American elite and grassroots classes are gradually forming two completely different sets of world outlooks and values.
The last two U.S. elections increasingly reflect the intractable differences and contradictions between these classes.
The greater hidden worry is the confrontation between different ethnic groups and cultures. As a country of immigration, the United States has always claimed to be a “melting pot”, advocating multiculturalism and pursuing “oneness”.
However, the white group has always been the mainstream of society. Under the influence of long-term multiculturalism, new immigrants, ethnic minorities, single-parent families and other different groups all demand “equal rights” and enjoy special policies in employment, education and other aspects.
Many affirmative rights policies originally intended to equalize opportunity and oppose racial discrimination have become racial preferential treatment that discriminate against “strong groups” in the eyes of many whites, which increasingly cause dissatisfaction among the white group and evolve into “white supremacy”ism, causing ethnic opposition.
The “Black Lives Are Life” movement that has swept the United States this year is a prominent manifestation of this phenomenon.
After four years in power, Trump not only failed to take effective measures to bridge the rift, but also catered to his own voters to accelerate this divisive trend. His series of anti-globalization policies have not only hit the existing global industrial supply chain pattern, made the United States a “global public enemy”, but also greatly intensified the internal interests of the United States.
The conflict with values has further deepened and complicated social contradictions, especially the terrible action of the U.S. government in the response to the epidemic, which has become the “catalyst” of this unprecedented division.
In this election, Biden received more than 79 million votes, and Trump also had more than 73 million votes, a new high in the U.S. election. This also means that the opposition of the groups they represent behind them has also reached a new high, which will seriously damage the national identity of the United States, thus further exacerbating social tearing and political polarization.
How to reverse this severe and complex situation and truly eliminate the virus of confrontation and hatred in the body of American society, at present, There is not a single dose of effective “vaccine”.
“Whoever wins the election, America can’t go back.” The American media’s evaluation of the election is quite a bit of a finishing touch.
