An Important but Uninteresting Election

Four years. It is an important timeframe in modern world. A standard college curriculum takes four years. All the big sporting events including the Olympics and the World Cups happen every four years. In every four years, we add an extra day to our calendar. Heck, I just learnt that the best event for performance designing, the Prague Quadrennial also happens every four years. And that brings us to another important quadrennial event which surprised the world four years ago by its shocking performance. The American Presidential Election.

I came here around the time of the last US presidential election. Then some people still used to believe that Obama rescued the US from the 2008 Financial Crisis and the Great Recession. I still used to believe that monolithic is the only type of OS kernel; okay, not important! But then we woke up to November 4, 2016.

Donald Trump won the White House. A loosing businessman cum bad TV show host. The country was shocked after realizing its wide division between the coastal cities and the cities deep inside America. As if the US did not have enough problems, it chose to own another one.

Like a domino effect, Boris Johnson became the British Prime Minister, Bolsonaro won the Brazilian Presidency, Modi won the second term in India, and also, Brexit happened. The world became a lot more divided, just like the US. The division was partly because of these leaders, partly because of the decade-old economic policies and its ineffective patches. To add a little bit of salt to the mix, America pulled itself out of the Paris Climate Accord. The world was already going downhill, it just accelerated its pace.

Interestingly, there was a reactive and opposite undercurrent. The young generation of the Bernie Sanders movement started fighting the Elections. They wanted to take control of their future. They were disgusted by their college-debt, by home-loans, and by top-centric economic policies (aka trickle-down economics). Not only they got enthusiastic and organic support, they started winning the Elections. So now, the US has an army of young politicians, who not only wins elections, not only does Facebook Live, but also is on Twitch! I mean, even you and I probably do not know what Twitch is, right?

So here we are after four years: still divided, still with the same economic worries, still in a racist society. Will anything change in this Election? But that may not be the right question. On a lovely snowy day, just on the verge of the Election, the question should be: what will change? And we know the answer: nothing!