America’s political tribalism has divided the nation

Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Worlds apart, and little room for compromise.

The threat to liberal democracy in the US has deepened with the two conventions — Donald Trump, in a speech of extraordinary power, renewed his pledge to make America great again, while Joe Biden pledged to restore the soul of America from the darkness of inequality and racism.

Meanwhile on display in the streets is a violent tribalism unmatched since the 1960s, and probably worse in its polarisation, raising the prospect that neither candidate, Trump nor Biden, pitching to their cultural loyalists, possesses the personal magnanimity or political ability to heal the nation.

Both candidates declared an inflection point for the country. Biden called it “a life-changing election” where a Trump victory would “forever” alter the character of America. He brands this “one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced” and identifies no fewer than four “historic crises” — the pandemic, economic depression, racism and climate change. Trump called it the “most important election” in the nation’s history, the issue being faith in American greatness and exceptionalism, with voters facing a choice between incompatible visions.

Hyperbole is integral to presidential contests, yet this political chasm is historically deep. The contest is about policy but far transcends policy. It is about what sort of country the US is and aspires to become.

Former president Barack Obama told the Democratic National Convention that American democracy was at stake with the Trump administration showing “it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes to win”.

Compromise is forlorn

Each side sees defeat of the other as the non-negotiable condition for saving the American Dream. This is the battle cry of their loyalists. Compromise is a forlorn cause. Neither side is likely to accept defeat with resignation.

Biden said the contest was about the American “soul”. He promised to enshrine “hope over fear”, to “rebuild together”, to restore jobs, to wipe away “the stain of racism” and to replace privilege with fairness. Biden wants a referendum on Trump’s failures and immorality. But his pledge “to heal, to reform, to unite” is undermined by the radical shift to the left in the Democrat firmament that Biden’s candidature is partly designed to disguise.

Trump, in his convention speech, swung a rhetorical axe through Biden’s defence mechanisms. “This election will decide whether we will defend the American way of life, or whether we allow a radical movement to completely dismantle and destroy it,” he said.

“At the Democrat National Convention, Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic and social injustice. So tonight, I ask you a very simple question: How can the Democrat Party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country?

“In the left’s backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just and exceptional nation on earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins. Joe Biden is not the saviour of America’s soul — he is the destroyer of America’s jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness.”

Trump unleashed

Trump is a poor governor but a dangerous campaigner. Now he is unleashed. Nobody watching Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention could doubt how formidable he looks and the power of the emotional pitch he makes. Trump will energise his base — the only question is whether it still possesses sufficient bandwidth. Lies and narcissism are part of the American greatness mythology Trump has constructed that half the country extols or sympathises with to some degree.

How could it not given the gaping hole in Democrat convention? The Democrats and Biden declined to make any credible denunciation of the violence in the streets. Journalist and commentator Andrew Sullivan, having recently resigned from New York Magazine, identified the trap for the Democrats: “I’m a supporter of the motives of the good folks involved with the Black Lives Matter movement. But I’m equally repelled by the insistent attempt by BLM and its ideological founders to malign and dismiss the huge progress we’ve made, to re-describe the American experiment in freedom as one utterly defined by racism and to call the most tolerant country on the planet with unprecedented demographic diversity, a form of ‘white supremacy’.

“I’m tired of hearing Kamala Harris say, as she did yesterday: ‘The reality is that the life of a black person in America has never been treated as fully human.’

Rioting, lawlessness

“But here’s one thing I have absolutely no conflict about. Rioting and lawlessness is evil. And any civil authority that permits, condones or dismisses violence, looting and mayhem in the streets disqualifies itself from any legitimacy. This comes first. Disorder always and everywhere begets more disorder.”

Attacking the left activists in control of The New York Times, along with their ideological backers, Sullivan said: “They saw restoring order within the prism of their own critical race ideology which stipulates that the police are enforcers of white supremacy and not the enforcers of the rule of law in a liberal society.

“It was a sign that the establishment left were willing to tolerate disorder and chaos if they were directed toward the ideologically correct lens.”

Trump’s retort to the Democrats was predictable: “Make no mistake, if you give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will defund police departments all across America. No one will be safe in Biden’s America.”

Herein lies the deeper crisis. Once your opponents are seen as the enemy, you feel entitled to break norms to vanquish them. Once you see politics as a contest between good people and bad people, compromise is impossible; winners seek total victory and losers refuse to accept defeat.

Trump’s original appeal in 2016 was his promise to smash the Washington establishment and the existing political order because, he said, it was corrupt, had sold out the industrial workers, appeased China and betrayed the American Dream. That led to his hijack of the Republican Party.

Trump’s assumption was that reform from within wouldn’t work — the system must be dismantled. This had the potential to unite a broad coalition against Trump, assisted by his lack of governing discipline and chaotic administration.

Biden’s dilemma

But another story erupted. Trump populism provoked progressive populism in retaliation with its demands for racial identity and minority rights. Institution after institution succumbed to progressive ideology with The New York Times as intellectual spearhead. The argument was that America must be re-made from the left given its history of racism, sexism, slavery, patriarchy, climate cowardice, exploitation and economic inequality.

Hence Biden’s dilemma — he poses as a candidate of unity while behind him are the progressive legions seeking radical change. Trump is a hot but threatening politician, exuding a primitive albeit vicious power. Biden, by contrast, is a cool politician, a decent man but, compared with Trump, he looks weak, even fragile. The coming weeks will tell.

The dilemma of the age is that broadbased liberalism that kept rival parties on the same foundation is being torn apart. This election is a civil war over what constitutes virtue. Regardless of who wins, it is difficult to discern any settlement.

Sullivan said: “Trump will never concede and if he is somehow forced to, he will mount a campaign from the outside to de-legitimise the incoming president, backed by street gangs and propaganda outfits. If Biden wins, we may have one last chance for the centre to hold — and what few hopes I have rest on this. But Biden, let’s face it, is weak and a party man to his core and has surrendered to the far left at almost every single turn.”

Let’s hope somehow, some way, a better outcome is possible.