Upcoming US elections | Business Times

Own correspondent

 

The United States will hold its 60th presidential election on November 5, 2024. Voter polls have shown that the main fight could be between the current President, Democrat Joe Biden, and the former President, Republican Donald Trump (2017-2021).

At the same time on August 3, 2023, Donald Trump appeared in federal court in Washington where he was charged with conspiracy to violate rights conspiracy to defraud the government and obstruction of an official investigation. He faces up to five years in prison on each of the first two counts, and up to 20 years on the last.

Trump stood by his convictions, which increased his popularity among Republicans and helped make him a front-runner in his party’s race for the presidential nomination.

 

Trump’s conviction on any of the charges would not prevent him from taking office if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

Meanwhile Biden, 80, already the oldest US president ever will have to convince voters he has the strength to last another four years in office amid concerns about his age and low approval ratings.

 

Domestically Biden has pushed through massive economic stimulus packages and infrastructure spending to boost U.S. industrial output. Although that did not receive much recognition from voters. During the current US President’s tenure, inflation, including rising gasoline prices remained a persistent problem eventually leading the Federal Reserve (the country’s central bank) to introduce a series of extended interest rate hikes.

Biden’s approach to immigration policy has also come under criticism from Republicans and Democrats as the number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border reached record levels during his administration.

 

Despite the relative calm, illegal migration still remains in the top five problems in the United States, according to citizens. In first place was dissatisfaction with the work of the authorities (18%), in second place was the economic situation in the country (14%) and third place was taken by inflation and a high standard of living (9%). The fourth position was taken by migration (8%), and the still unresolved arms issue (7%) closed the top five.

Immigration policy has been seriously undermined by political polarization. Migrants became instruments of partisan struggle and faced extreme xenophobia and mistreatment.

 

There is a growing sense of fear among Americans as voters particularly minorities worry about security at polling places. 63% of those surveyed said they were “very concerned” about things like violence, harassment and intimidation at their polling station.

Political polarization especially the polarization of the two-party system has been one of the most striking features of American society over the past three decades. The growing ideological divide and divisions between the Democratic and Republican parties have widened the divide in the country and left American politics stalled. Political polarization and social divisions have made it difficult to achieve democratic consensus and electoral farce and post-election chaos have become a feature of American politics.

Political donations have turned American elections into a rich man’s game the alienation of the two-party system has turned into polarized politics, and American democracy is losing its foundation of public support.

The United States founded on colonialism, racist slavery and inequalities in labor, ownership and distribution has become increasingly mired in recent years in a quagmire of systemic failures, governance deficits, racial divisions, and social unrest due to the interaction between a polarized model of economic distribution, a social model dominated by racial conflict and a political model controlled by capitalist interest groups.

Strict laws prevented nearly 16 percent from voting of the black population of Mississippi who have reached the required age. The region has one of the highest proportions of blacks in the country, but none has been elected to state-level office in more than a century.

Under conditions of liberal hegemony the United States tends to constantly provoke wars which intensifies conflicts and creates instability in the international system. The United States has pursued power politics in the international community, provoked “proxy wars,” indiscriminately imposed unilateral sanctions, gravely violated the rights of immigrants refused to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, destroyed global peace and development and created obstacles to progress in human rights.

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