SOHAIL: 2024 election will be clouded by mistrust from American people
Column: Nohman's Nuances
Nobody wants a rerun, but a rerun is what the American people are seemingly doomed to endure this next election cycle.
Despite the fact that the majority of voters of both political parties in the U.S. are hesitant to see a rematch between either candidate, that is the exact decision that the people will have to make come November 2024. With incumbent President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former President Donald J. Trump leading nationwide polls for their respective parties.
The stage has been set for another year where the presidential candidacy permeates into every other conversation in American households, and the sentiment of "support the party leader no matter what" begins to take root.
But there are a myriad of new factors for the American people to consider, including Trump's criminal indictment, the fearful air surrounding mail-in ballots, record-breaking online fear-mongering and, of course, the January 6 riots at the capital. These, among others, have precipitated the polarization and rancor between each party and its voters. That is why you are not ready for the 2024 presidential election.
It does not bode well that the last time the two frontrunners faced off against each other, the U.S. Capitol housed an insurrection. A routine certification of Biden's electoral majority turned violent as Trump voters, fueled by the former president's rhetoric regarding a "stolen election," stormed the chamber of the Senate, leaving five dead.
Trump's refusal to accept election results and the wide acceptance of baseless claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election set a dangerous precedent. If this trend continues, the 2024 election will be marked by widespread mistrust in the electoral process, leading to chaos and instability unlike anything seen before.
Despite the fact that there were online records indicating months of planning and provocation moments before the event, there is widespread skepticism as to what truly caused rioters to storm the Capitol.
Lawmakers and activists argue that Trump violated section 3 of the 14th Amendment by directly inciting the rioters and supporting insurrectionist fervor, which means he should not be allowed to run in 2024. Whether this argument has any official legal merit is yet to be argued, but some states, such as Colorado, have already taken steps to remove his name from the ballot entirely.
The majority of Republican voters agree that Trump should not be prosecuted, with some believing it to be a jab at his eligibility for the position by corrupt politicians known as the "deep state." This essentially maintains Trump's innocence in his "army" of supporters online, who find solace in hate forums masquerading as bastions of free speech.
During the last election, "free speech" media websites X, formerly known as Twitter, Parler, Gab and TheDonald.win were hotbeds of racist, antisemitic and election-fraud rhetoric. With posts that "urge all Trump supporters and lovers of freedom to protest," as they "can not let this nation fall to the hands of foreign puppets," it is no surprise that swaths of Trump supporters flocked to the Capitol to overturn the election.
Unfortunately, it seems we have not learned from our mistakes. The congregation of Trump supporters on now-banned Parler have migrated to Trump's own social media application, Truth Social. Users of TheDonald.win migrated to the similar webpage Patriots.win, and the belief of a stolen election is still largely proliferated on both sites.
The U.S. seems to be reaching another breaking point in polarization, where neither side can even tolerate the existence of beliefs they do not hold themselves.
Many Republicans are entering the next election under the belief it will be rigged in favor of Biden and will justify their actions thereafter under the notion that they "knew it from the start." While Democrats are fearful of the growing transphobia and culture wars waged on children's classrooms by front-running Republicans. It seems as though both parties are raring to protest the victory of the other.
But if there is anything that I am confident of, it is that the next election will dispel more trust in the electoral system than any prior election, and we are not ready for the consequences that will result.
Nohman Sohail is a sophomore in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in economics and political science. His column, "Nohman's Nuances," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
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