Najam Describes American Political Divide In Dawn Op-Ed
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a Dawn op-ed describing the United States presidential election and country’s growing political divide.
In the article, titled “The Angst of American,” Najam explains how the U.S. is in the midst of intensifying angst and that, despite President-elect Biden’s electoral win, it is President Trump and Trumpism that owned the election. He explains that, in an election that was best characterized as ‘Trump vs Trump,” people who voted for Biden were more interested in outing Trump. This means “Donald Trump dictated the voting choice of nearly all Americans.”
Najam goes on to describe the turmoil of the Democratic and Republican parties – cementing a deeper ideological divide among both – the growing political chasm among Americans, and the many crises the continue to plague the country. Donald Trump exploited the divides and differences between Americans, and as Najam concluded “Biden’s burden is to carry and care for America’s angst.”
An excerpt:
It is gallant of Joe Biden to insist that he wants to heal the wounds and bring the country together. But if America spoke on November 3, it seems to have spoken to remind the world that there is no ‘one America’; there are at least two diametrically different Americas. And, right now, those two Americas seem to have no interest in speaking to each other. That, more than all other, is the legacy of Donald J. Trump.
The full article can be read on Dawn‘s website.
Adil Najam is a global public policy expert who also served as the Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. He is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human development. Read more about him here.