Louise Roberts: Why Australians are so invested in the US election result
A recent poll found 55 per cent of Americans believe Election Day 2020 will be the most anxious day of their lives. And here, some 15,000 km away, we’re experiencing similar symptoms writes Louise Roberts.
Opinion
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The pressure is at maximum in the US. A recent poll found 55 per cent of Americans believe Election Day 2020 will be the most anxious day of their lives.
The dual triggers of the presidential race and COVID-19 means 67 per cent of the research sample “want the year to be over”.
And here, some 15,000 km away, we’re experiencing similar symptoms.
A swath of Australians are anxious, depressed, angry and bewildered at the possibility Donald Trump will win a second term as US president.
Likewise, many will feel an acute personal loss and sense of indignation if he is not re-elected.
Trump appeals to a mood and we’re on the couch, spilling our guts and praying everything is going to be all right, although we have no say in what will happen on Wednesday.
Indeed, some hardcore US observers I know care more about whether The Donald is returned than when they voted in our 2019 Federal election.
They’re deeply invested in an election process happening many hours away. Some of these obsessives have never even been to the US.
It’s largely an emotional stake we have, ahead of a legal or practical one. Why the agony, why the fury?
I asked a psychologist what the prescription is for dealing with election FOMO (fear of missing out) and AATR (anger at the result).
When people getting angry about Trump or the election, the theory is that it indicates something about themselves, their values being compromised or their own political agenda.
Once you figure that out then you can apply that disappointment to your own life on a smaller scale where you actually have some sort of control, Dr Marni Lishman told me.
“It’s important to observe those emotions and feelings. Just feel them – you don’t want to push those emotions down.
“So if someone is upset, angry, distressed or even frustrated at the results then they need to hold space for how they feel, and then perhaps ask themselves why they are feeling like that.”
And it’s not just because their choice is the loser but what this result means for them.
Let’s not forget the bigger picture here too: instead of Biden v Trump, aren’t we really freewheeling around the concept of socialism v capitalism?
Plus survival of the fittest, which is what all elections boil down to.
But for us Down Under trying to deal with COVID life and border restrictions plus extreme concern over the next bushfire season, there is something else to navigate in this particular White House race.
How do you cope if you don’t get what you want when you have no chance of influencing the results anyway?
Millions of Americans don’t vote, of course. A typical turnout is 60 per cent – but that is their choice, as odd and wasteful as that may seem.
COVID means many of those planning to vote have done so by post. For Biden fans, it’s drive-in rallies or nothing.
Each party has spent the entire election saying that America will be ruined if the other side wins.
Democrat Joe Biden says the White House is occupied by “enemies of the state” while Trump devotees put their faith in “Western civilisation’s bodyguard” who will fend off the anti-USA invaders.
Former president Barack Obama, wheeled out by Biden’s campaign on the weekend, said of Trump: “Did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatised?”
When the incumbent commander in chief told one of his many recent rallies “You are so lucky I’m your president” and “I do what’s right for America”, there were roars of exhilaration.
You could argue we’re only seeing differences in campaign technique, but you hear similar theorising on the streets of Parramatta.
Some streets in the US have fallen silent ahead of the vote.
Search US news sites and you’ll see images of retailers and restaurant owners on regular American streets boarding up their stores. They’re anticipating a level of post-election destruction usually associated with hurricanes.
I have friends and business associates who either love (”He’s the anti-Hillary medication we need”) or hate Trump (”With friends like Trump we are better off with no friends”).
Or as a Boston journalist wrote about the perceived curse of another Trump term: “It’s cruel and unusual punishment, which, for any Trump acolytes reading this, is a phrase from a document called the Bill of Rights.
“He, and you, might benefit by brushing up on it, while the rest of us spend the next four years popping antidepressants.”
Another fascinating part of this campaign is placing bets on which celebrity will flounce out of the country if The Donald is Prez ongoing.
Rocker Tommy Lee vows to leave the US if “embarrassing” Trump wins.
“Dude, I swear to God if that happens then I’m coming over to visit the U.K.,“ the 58-year-old Mötley Crüe drummer said in an interview for The Big Issue.
“I’m out of here. I’ll go back to my motherland, go back to go Greece and get a house on one of the islands,“ Lee, born in Athens and raised in California, added.
Bruce Springsteen told an Aussie journalist: “If Trump is re-elected – which he will not, they’re predicting right now he‘s going to lose – but if by some happenstance he should, I’ll see you on the next plane.”
And what will political activist Meghan Markle do – quit the $30 million LA mansion for lockdown life in freshly-painted Frogmore Cottage?
We have no control over many of the things that happen in our lives, not just who is elected in another country.
Lawrence Douglas, a Professor of Law at Amherst College and the author of Will he Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020, told the ABC a narrow win for either candidate or a contested election “plays directly into Trump‘s narrative”
“It permits him to kind of spin his conspiracy theories. It permits him to further muddy the waters,“ he said.
Maybe the election result will be too toxic for the losing side – and their supporters – to bear.
