Trump, the ‘Ugandaness’ of US elections and pain of democracy

The predicted thunderstorm on November 5 petered into a scattered shower as Trump strode like a colossus to become the 47th President, leaving the Democrats in disarray.

Trump became only the second man in US history, coming from a four-year sabbatical to win the presidency, after failing from his first term. 

The pioneer was Grover Cleveland (Dem) who was elected the 22nd President in 1884 before losing to Benjamin Harrison (Rep) who became the 23rd President in 1888. Cleveland then bounced back in 1892 to defeat Harrison and become the 24th.In Ugandan history Cleveland and Trump are like Apollo Milton Obote who got himself in the top job twice in 1962. 

Then in 1980 after a hiatus of nine years from 1971.The US election of 2024 was always going to be somewhat phenomenal. Trump’s other firsts are notorious. He is the first President to be impeached, not once but twice in a single term. He was the first former president to be convicted on 34 felony counts and has several pending criminal cases against him. These include the chaotic January 6, 2021 attempt to over turn the 2020 election when the current and 46th President, Joe Biden, defeated him. His supporters thought the prosecution was persecution.

Here you are reminded of a Kizza Besigye who in 2001 went into the election with a rape and treason trial in progress. Though innocent, the then Attorney General Kiddu Makubuya opined that he was too tainted with illegalities to stand. At his campaign rally in Butler Pennsylvania on July 13, he survived an assassination attempt within an earshot (no pun intended.)  

Many of his detractors ridiculously claimed that he had stage managed it to garner sympathy votes. In Uganda when security agents beat up Opposition politicians (which is very often) leaving them in wheel chairs and on hospital beds or leaning on crutches they are often met with the same mean ‘sympathy vote’ accusation. This comes from the fact that human beings with all their failings will easily spot the speck in the neighbour’s eye.

Just as is the case with several politicians, to many people, the boisterous Trump is not a democrat of any description. This is to the extent that even if you stretched the definition and accommodated him with several liberal criteria of compensation, he would still not make the grade. He speaks plainly and is not immune to abusing and demeaning his opponents. His opinion is the ultimate one and anyone who does not think like him gets the stick. He has been accused of sexism and misogyny. 

Also, with racism as he vows to deport undocumented immigrants whom he labels with derogatory epithets. But democracy has a somewhat uncanny way of serving surprises and unpalatable outcomes. That the sanguine American people overwhelmingly voted for Trump, has left many people feeling bitter and in disbelief. It is compounded by the fact that Trump won over many minorities; Latinos, Blacks and women who it was thought would naturally gravitate towards Kamala Harris. 

In Uganda it reminds us of the 2021 election. Almost the entire Buganda region overwhelmingly voted for Afro Reggae singer, Hon Robert Kyagulanyi, a.k.a Bobi Wine, and his little known acolytes. This made his months old NUP party the leading Opposition party ahead of seasoned politicians and much older political organisations. He had been dismissed as a novice, lumpen and drug addict from the filthy ghettos of Kamwokya. The other distinct factor in US 2024 was the role of Main Stream Media in the time of social media. 

Like Uganda’s government media, the bias for the establishment candidate was visible and quite misleading with its propaganda. Anything Trump said was misinterpreted out of proportion though, it could be countered on social media which too is swamped with views -many of which are good while others are baseless. For instance, the threat to deport undocumented immigrants was re-written to include the documented ones who even have a right to vote. 

According to the Voice of America between January and June this year almost 1.39 million people from 177 countries travelled through Mexico trying to reach the US without entry papers. That is the justification, whether it is right or wrong, of Trump building a wall on the border between the US and Mexico. It is not just the ramblings of a lunatic. But democracy being what it is, analysts now say that the reason many Latinos and Blacks voted for Trump was selfish. They envisage a situation where the job market gets swamped if more of their kind are allowed in, leading to scarcity of work and a drop in wages.

All that said, looking from a Uganda point of view, US elections with all their flaws, offer hope. That a person can stand and is not primitively barred from campaigning by the establishment even if they don’t like them. They instead endeavour to protect them the way the Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was made to resign following the attempted assassination of Trump.

Secondly because the system is largely free and fair you rarely have complaints about the outcomes, Trump’s in 2021 or Al Gore’s in 2001, notwithstanding. It is not common for the President’s people to run away with the ballot boxes or chase the opponent’s representatives and change the tally sheets. One can fall and pick themselves up to try their luck in the subsequent elections with optimism.

Thirdly that unlike Uganda, the voter in the US is usually calculative; hinging on issues that the candidate stands for. For instance the Democrats standing on reproductive rights of abortion -that unfortunately only 11 percent of women voters found relevant, etc. It gives the voter a point on which they may gauge and hold the candidate accountable. 

I noticed that many Ugandans especially those who supported Kamala Harris seemed like they were oblivious of what she stood for. A pastor who is vocal against abortion and gay rights because ‘it is against our African culture,’ prayed that she won. The Ugandan thing of individual merit (and groceries) not definitive policy, informs our choices.

X:@nsengoba