Opinion | America in a dilemma in November

By Philip Yeung, university teacher

PKY480@gmail.com

This is a year of anxiety. With only three weeks to the November election, Harris's wafer-thin lead over Trump evaporates. In several key swing states, that lead is non-existent. The nightmare of a deranged extremist returning to the White House looms.

Harris might have enjoyed a bump in the polls post-debate. But Trump, like a python that refuses to die, is rearing his ugly head again. This time, he is boosted by two issues that eat away at the Harris support: the war in the Middle East and immigration. Both are highly inflammatory and feed the protest vote.

Harris is tiptoeing on the tightrope between being pro-Israel and preventing the widening of the war. This waffling may cost her the election. Her fate and future may be decided by Netanyahu. It is suicidal for Harris to disregard the swelling anger among the young college students and aggrieved Muslims. They are hellbent on correcting a festering injustice, to stop a crime against humanity and human decency.

Trump is no less a Netanyahu enabler. But he is benefiting from the sense of outrage against an administration unable and unwilling to curb the bloodthirsty appetite of a warmonger. The indiscriminate killings in Gaza and Lebanon stoke the anti-Israeli rage among Palestinian sympathizers. There is an overwhelming feeling that the US is guilty of complicity in the genocide in Gaza. You see it on daily display in the hostile press questions that leave the State Department spokesman squirming, red-faced and tongue-tied. This feeling may be the X-factor that will mushroom into a critical protest vote against the incumbent democrats.

For the first time, the world sees the UN Secretary-General banned by Israel as a persona non grata for speaking out against atrocities in Gaza while an arrest warrant hangs over the head of the Israeli monster leader. For Netanyahu, it is wars, wars, and non-stop wars. Numb to the cruelties of civilians, he needs the wars for his very political survival. A candidate that does not condemn Netanyahu outright gets no votes from horrified protestors. But Harris is fearful of antagonizing the powerful Jewish lobby. As part of the incumbency, she is trapped in a "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" dilemma. Israel hangs around her neck like an albatross. Instead of taking a stand, she is pussyfooting.

Trump, the non-incumbent, doesn't have to do anything. He can simply let the anti-Israeli anger do the job to bar Harris's entry into the White House. Netanyahu has cost the US its moral authority to preach to the world. Forget the nonsense about trumped-up charges in Xinjiang. Who wants to be lectured by a country whose leader belongs simultaneously to the jail house and the mad house, and nowhere near the White House? Democracy is a farce. Demagoguery is in vogue. And Trump, the demagogue, is laughing all the way to the ballot box.

Another hot-button issue that may seal her fate is immigration. The US is in the death grip of a powerful xenophobic anti-immigration wave. The fact that Harris is a black woman may be a bridge too far. America is in the uncharted territory of voting a woman of color into power. Will Harris be the first black woman to become US president? My gut feelings tell me that she is not. She doesn't smell like a history-maker. To quote the words of Obama about Hillary Clinton, Harris "doesn't have the new car smell" either. Far from flawless, she comes with her own baggage. Besides, as an extremist, Trump attracts 40% iron-clad votes--fanatical support from hardcore red-necks and the dangerous far-right. November 3 is not a day for any of us to sleep easy. A second Trump presidency is bad for our stomachs and our sanity. America is on the verge of becoming the world's laughingstock. Except the consequences are no laughing matter. This time, the lunatics look ready to run the asylum.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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