They Want To Teach…Democracy!
R Arun Kumar
EARLY voting for the presidential elections in the US is already on, though officially the election is scheduled for November 8. We are witnessing in the US a bitter and ugly campaign, often with personal insinuations crossing the limits of political decency. Wild accusations, with little concern for facts and truths are hurled at each other by both the Democratic and Republican parties and between the chosen candidates of the two parties – Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Even with more than three weeks for the actual election day, Trump is already on record tweeting that “the election is absolutely being rigged”. After the final presidential debate, he declared that he would keep the country “in suspense” over whether he would accept the outcome of November’s election.

Trump’s refusal to accept the election result, commentators pointed out had never before happened in American history. Clinton immediately took upon the opportunity to criticise him for ‘denigrating’ and ‘talking down’ US democracy. Interestingly, the way both the major parties and candidates are conducting in these elections, democracy seems to be the biggest victim in these elections in the US.