Confrontational politics is on the rise, troops are called in to watch the borders and prevent immigrants entering the country. Women are playing a bigger role in the poll campaign, with many more women seeking elections in these polls.
The first mid-term elections in the United States since the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, will give US voters the first chance to make a public statement on the policies of the Trump Presidency, and also show the trend of politics in the country two years after his election, and two years before the next presidential election.
The issue is, will the Republicans be able to keep control of the two legislative chambers of the Congress – The House of Representatives and the Senate. At present the Trump supporting Republicans control both Houses.
Up for election in these mid-term polls are all 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives, and 34 of the 100 seats in the US Senate.
Poll rise
While mid-term elections in the US usually show very low polling, compared to the presidential polls, these polls show a considerable rise in public interest. This is largely due to the interests of the Democrats, who are strongly opposed to the policies and politics of Donald Trump, and also the rise in women’s interest in this campaign.
The women’s interest had a rise during the issue of the swearing of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as Judge of the Supreme Court, with the ‘Me-Too’ movement taking the lead in the opposition to his appointment, after allegations of sexual misconduct by Kavanaugh, many years earlier. The final appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, was a major victory for Donald Trump and the Republicans, and the heated politics at the time saw a marked increase in Republicans, both men and women, being involved in the mid-term polls campaign. This Republican interest has since come down, and the Democrats remain on the rise, with expectations of major gains by Democrats, especially in the House of Representatives.
The campaign is a fight between the Republicans and Democrats, with President Trump playing a very active role to keep his hold over the two Houses of Congress, to proceed with his campaigns against the Obama policies of HealthCare, promote his strongly divisive policies on trade, and proceed with his strongly pro-business policies that have seen success in the past months.
The Democrats seek to take control of the House and Senate to block Trump's ability to implement his programmes. Gaining a majority in the Senate, which is seen as difficult, the Democrats would be able to block Cabinet and Supreme Court appointments. Democrats’ control of the House can possibly initiate an impeachment on President Trump. But proceeding with such a move will not be possible without a two-thirds majority in the Senate, which is unlikely, unless they win all contested seats in the Senate.
The Caravan
Donald Trump is engaged is highly divisive politics in the campaign for the mid-term elections, with strong attacks on the media, repeatedly naming them as ‘fake news’. He is also increasing the ‘nationalist’ rhetoric, leading to increased opposition to minority communities, and leading to rising communal rivalry in the electorate. After his statement at the UN General Assembly that he moves away from Global trends to patriotism, he has since said he is a ‘nationalist’. His current political speeches and trends have led to critics stating that he is promoting ‘White Nationalism’, which is increasingly popular with White semi-urban conservative people, who see it as the core of his slogan to ‘Make America Great Again’, the key call in his Presidential Election campaign.
He is now warning the American voters of a rising threat from immigrants, with what is described as a ‘caravan’ of would be migrants moving from Honduras, San Salvador and Nicaragua and moving through Mexico to the United States. The initial number of these ‘caravan migrants’ who were around 7,000 (including wives and children) have since reduced with Mexico giving asylum to nearly 2,000, and many turning back after Trump’s warning of the use of US troops on the southern border with Mexico.
Trump is increasing both fear and hatred towards the migrants, with emphasis on Latin Americans, in the context of the large number of Latin American voters in the southern states of the US, and the increased numbers of Latin Americans being registered to vote in the coming election. The fear of the ‘caravan’ migrants is increasing with Trump ordering 5,200 US troops to the Mexican border, to add to the Police and other security personnel numbering over 3,000 in the border region. In his anti-immigrant war path Donald Trump now says he will build ‘Tent Cities’ or makeshift prison camps to hold any migrants who enter, and would be held till any possible legal release.
As his divisive politics gather strength, Trump says he seeks to end the long-accepted constitutional guarantee of ‘birth right citizenship’ in the US, to children of non-citizens who are born in the US. This blends with his campaign to clamp down on migrants and immigration – on which the US has been built. Very easy with wrong figures, he says the US is the only country in the world that allows ‘birth right citizenship’, which is incorrect. There are 30 countries that allow it including Canada, Mexico and many South American countries.
As the mid-term polls, gets heated, there was a major tragedy in the US with 11 Jewish Americans being killed in a gun attack by a White American last Saturday, at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. The suspect killer had shown clear anti-Semitic thinking in social media, and wanted to kill Jews.
Many Jewish leaders of Pittsburgh were opposed to the visit to the site of the killing, while the funerals of the dead were still taking place, by President Trump with wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner – the latter couple being Jewish. There were citizens who protested when the visit took place, and Trump blamed these protests on the media.
The mid-term elections in the US take place on November 6. Early voting has already begun. Both sides –Republics and Democrats - are looking forward to higher polling than normal, and analysts believe the swing may be in favour of Democrats, especially for the House of Representatives, and a likely check back to President Trump.
Add new comment