IT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS: THE RESOUNDING VICTORY OF TRUMPWORLD

AMERICA is as divided as ever after the US presidential election

December 2024. “Squad Games 2” is another hit on Netflix, glorifying the most violent of dystopian battle royale reality shows. The Middle East is still on fire. Vladimir Putin continues to inflict death and destruction on Ukraine, aided by North Korea. And America, as in the United States of America, is in thrall to a one-time president who has won re-election for a second term.

We continue to be in the winter of despair as the world inevitably is sleepwalking into a new era of darkness. An age for which we are all responsible. As free world citizens, we all had and continue to have a choice – and we can make our opinions heard, not through political violence but through political discourse. The end of the world as we knew it was not inevitable. On November 5th 2024, over 150 million Americans made their choice, and Donald Trump was re-elected president.

Division, hatred and anger fuelled the political debate in the US and encouraged extremism disguised as simple “common sense solutions.” This resulted only in more fear and undermined the fundamental foundations of the American society. In addition, a constant stream of unchecked lies and malevolent propaganda tipped the scales in favour of the candidate who will go down in history, amongst other things, as the person who has uttered the most lies in a political campaign ever. Donald Trump’s unqualified victory is not the end of the world, but it is the end of the world as we know it. A new world is emerging and is fraught with dangers.

As before, rather than wringing our hands in despair, we must recognise that the path towards a spring of hope depends on us recognising these specific dangers ahead in the context of a second Trump presidency that will be more chaotic, more extreme and more dangerous than the first one. We cannot afford to submit to the natural despair of losing the battle for democracy in 2024, and it is all the more important for us to answer the call to arms to win the war of ideas of darkness over light, hope over fear, and freedom over subjugation.

We have lost the battle for democracy in the US. Let us not lose the war for democracy in the world.