The Electoral College is expected to ratify Joe Biden’s election to the U.S. presidency on Monday. However, this is unlikely to end the sordid episode initiated by President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the result that has polarised the nation even further while eroding its democratic ethos. Mr. Trump’s legal team and his Republican supporters filed close to 60 petitions demanding that results in the battleground States be declared null and void. Each of these petitions was thrown out but that did not deter Mr. Trump from continuing to fantasise that he had won the election but was deprived of victory as a result of fraud.
Matters came to a head last Friday after the Supreme Court summarily dismissed a petition by the Texas Attorney General supported by 17 other Republican States asking for an emergency order to invalidate the ballots of millions of voters in four battleground States — Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Following the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision Mr. Trump tweeted: “The Supreme Court really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage!”
Reaction from some of his supporters, encouraged by his defiant posture, was more extreme. For the first time since the Civil War there was a call that bordered on secession. The chairman of the Texas Republican Party declared, “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.” What is equally worrisome is the attitude of the Republican leadership, including the large majority of Republican Senators and members of the House, most of whom have gone along with Mr. Trump’s self-delusional stance despite clear evidence, including from Mr. Trump’s Justice Department, to the contrary.
A perilous game
This an extremely perilous game as it panders to the basest instincts of Mr. Trump’s far-right supporters, many of them white supremacists, who have been out on the streets protesting against the “stolen election”. Some cities, such as Washington, D.C., and Olympia, Washington, have witnessed violence generated by these elements. What is more dangerous is the perception among a large majority of Republican voters that Mr. Biden’s victory was fraudulent. Surveys show that around 40% of Americans believe this baseless conspiracy. This is likely to encourage Republican Senators to put every possible obstacle in the path of Mr. Biden’s legislative agenda as well as hold up ratification of his cabinet nominees.
Fear of the white population
There are many reasons for this stark division among the American people. President Trump’s nihilistic rhetoric is one. But Mr. Trump’s claims have only accentuated a division whose main cause has little to do with economics or political ideology and much to do with race. It reflects the insecurity of the white population. Whites constituted about 73% of the total in 2017. But if one excludes the Hispanic whites, most of whom identify as Latinos rather than whites, this ratio falls to 60.7% of the population. It is expected to fall below 50% by 2045 as a result of immigration and low birth rates. The anti-immigration attitude of many Republicans is a product of this fear of whites becoming a numerical minority, a feeling that Mr. Trump shares as depicted by his virulent anti-immigrant attitude.
The election of President Barack Obama and now Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has increased the apprehension that white Americans are being deprived of their patrimony. The support for Mr. Trump’s fabricated claims is largely a product of the anxiety that the U.S. is changing ‘colour’. In this sense it is a rerun of the scenario preceding the Civil War of the 1860s. One of the main drivers of that was the emancipation of black slaves that was seen as threatening white privilege. One fervently hopes history will not repeat itself either as tragedy or as farce.
Mohammed Ayoob is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Michigan State University
