The divided States of America

Donald Trump was last night officially confirmed as the Republican Party nominee to take on Democrat Hilary Clinton in November's race to become the 45th President of the United States.

In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio Trump declared himself the ‘law and order candidate’ and that “Nobody knows the system better than me”.

What many critics-on both sides of the political divide and many other commentators are asking is whether the bitter battle that has already begun, and the subsequent election of a US Commander-in-Chief will in fact unite or further divide an already polarised America.

The country has been experiencing a higher than usual scrutiny of its social problems in this election year from domestic and international media: police racism and violent assaults; immigration and racial profiling; domestic terrorism and homophobia have all dominated headlines and debates.

Race has been the number one topic and all these social problems have had fatal consequences, for the lives of public officials and members of the public alike. This in turn has brought another polarising issue – that of guns – to the fore, as many of deaths including 599 killings this year by the police have been of Native Americans, Hispanics and African Americans.

There can be little doubt that issues of interior affairs will be a constant over the three month election campaign: terrorism, racism, homophobia, immigration, national security, guns, policing, and civil rights.

The two major candidates differing perspectives on these issues will obviously determine the outcome on the 2nd November election, and possibly only by a slim margin of votes. What is certain is that these issues will continue to haunt them over their presidential term, and that healing a bitterly divided America may take a lot more than that.

Ashok Viswanathan