Wrong Track
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
The post-pandemic verdict is out. 71% of Americans think America is heading in the wrong direction. This was disclosed through an NBC News poll on October 31. It is a startling statistic.
The same poll found that overall approval of Biden’s job performance is at an all-time low of 42%. The pandemic has brought to the forefront the underlying malaise. When the moment arose to showcase leadership, it is leadership that has been missing in action.
The needle in the US has not moved on gun terror, which stalks the land through random mass shootings. Why? Lack of political will. Across America violent crime has surged during the pandemic. There has been a general decline of civility and national cohesion, alongside fraying of family ties and erosion of discipline.
On the world stage, US leadership has faltered. The incompetent handling of the pandemic by health czars and their mixed messaging spread confusion, leading to vaccine hesitancy.
Bad behavior has been contagious. Brawling and fights on airplanes are happening all too often. According to the FAA, this year there have nearly 5,000 such incidents (Lori Aratani, “’One of the worst displays of unruly behavior’ in the skies,” Washington Post, October 29, 2021.) A major increase is also occurring of students engaging in violent behavior in school (NBC Nightly News, October 31.)
The trauma of lockdown, social isolation, online rumor-mongering and false information has exacerbated hate and fear. Donald Trump’s blunt Muslim-baiting has had a wider impact, and made segments of society steeped in despair and frustration particularly vulnerable to cues from the helm blaming others for their woes.
Noteworthy was it to watch the just-released documentary, “The Informant: Fear and Faith in the Heartland,” produced by ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos. It depicts how hate and fear has entrenched itself in the American Midwest. A mass casualty attack was planned by right-wing white supremacists against a Somalian neighborhood in Garden City, Kansas, in the heart of the Midwest. It persuasively presents how the xenophobic rhetoric of Trump fueled white rage and radicalized militia groups, who were pushed to convert resentment into kinetic action à la the Oklahoma bombing of April 19, 1995. This time, the targets were Muslims for just being Muslim. The point was made that while the national focus was on Muslim militancy, beneath the radar, rise of white supremacist extremism went unchecked. And now, according to the FBI, it constitutes the single biggest domestic terror threat. Many of these radicalized groups get their news from YouTube and the Internet. Fortunately, for America, the plotting of mass murder of Somali Muslims was thwarted by vigilant federal law enforcement.
Hate groups are not just confined to America. Their message has trolled and splattered across the globe. The Christchurch, New Zealand, massacre at two mosques on March 15, 2019, was inspired by the mass atrocity in and near Oslo, Norway, on July 22, 2011, by Anders Breivik, as well as by hateful messages from the “Dark Web” embedded in America.
Does it matter? Yes. Juxtapose the aforementioned with hate emanating from Hindutva circles in India, not from the fringe, but from the very top of policymakers.
Hatred, once unleashed, can be self-consuming and catastrophic, with no winners. That was the abiding lesson of World War II of which this generation has a hazy notion. Meanwhile, amidst all this commotion, and under the watch of the feckless Biden presidency, the Democrats have lost the Governor’s race to the Republicans in pivotal Virginia, foretelling broader implications.
