America’s political chaos and race to the White House

The writing is on the wall for Trump haters. US Presidential hopeful Donald Trump soundly trounced his last remaining opponent on the Republican Party platform to solidify his position as the singular nominee of his party to run for president in the general elections to be held later this year.

Lone candidate Nikki Haley who had her eyes set on the presidency in the hope of grabbing votes from those disjointed by Trump’s alarmist and often controversial speeches, dropped out following Super Tuesday where many of the more populous states cast their votes for delegates.

Haley often tried to distinguish herself from Trump as the better alternative candidate who would be capable of reeling in moderate and independent voters in a general election against Biden. “I win moderates and independents which he does not. That is why he lost in 2018. That is why he lost in 2020.....that is why in every poll you see he loses to Joe Biden, and I win,” Haley said during an interview with Fox News. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who had earlier exited the field saw it much differently, calling her platform “a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism.”

Even her home state of South Carolina deserted her and served Nikki Haley her fourth straight loss in 2024, which also included a highly embarrassing and politically dooming loss to “none of these candidates” in the Nevada primary, where Trump was not competing and there were no delegates at stake.

Knight in shining armour

In the final days before her exit, Haley who had once been appointed by then-president Donald Trump as the US ambassador to the UN sharpened her attacks on her ex-boss, questioning his mental fitness and lumping him together with President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, as one of two “grumpy old men.”

Haley, following her exit, had yet to endorse him as her party’s nominee. However, after Trump won big on Super Tuesday, members of the Republican Party quickly consolidated around the former president and endorsed him, including past opponents in the race Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who campaigned with Trump on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.

With octogenarian Joe Biden as the likely Democratic Party nominee, and Donald Trump soon to reach that milestone, some in the US are worried to the point of wondering where their country is headed. They cite numerous gaffes committed by Biden during his Presidency, pointing out that these mental blackouts have been on the rise lately. Others quickly point to several instances of Donald Trump, who had always in the past appeared to be a tenacious vocalist, showing signs of losing his train of thought in some recent appearances.

Unlike the last elections, there are signs that many in the upcoming elections would exercise their right not to cast any ballots for either politician as a sign of their dissatisfaction.

It leads me to wonder as to where the astute and wise leadership of the past that had once propelled the United States as a leader among nations had disappeared. Where are the Roosevelts’, the Eisenhowers, the Reagans that once championed America’s cause? Where has the honesty and transparency that Jimmy Carter brought into his government gone?

Mary, an American who was forced to move from her Californian home because of rising taxes and is now nestled in a small town in Arkansas, bluntly puts it as a failure of the entire political system which has spawned fraudulent men posing as politicians.

“Face it. We are no better today than four years ago and likely will be worse off four years from now. Political corruption is at an all-time high, and the only apparent reason one would want to get into politics is to see how much they can stand to get personal gain out of their posts. And that is the bottom line. The wants and needs of the people come last.”

Unless a knight in shining armour suddenly materialises on the American political horizon and takes rein of the country, the future remains fraught with trepidations.

Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi sociopolitical commentator