By: Shahzeb Khan
Throughout the past year, America has been going through one historic upheaval after another. The coalescing of different crises in America is making each crisis worse. Latest developments indicate the path US is heading down is getting ever more tumultuous.
The COVID-19 outbreak, with its death toll now at two hundred thousand, is not abating. More than 40,000 Americans are getting infected each day. Some Midwest states are becoming new hotspots. The national response remains bitterly polarized, largely over whether to shut down social interactions or allow them to continue.
The virus is playing havoc with human lives, but drastic measures to fight it have been creating enormous social and economic disruption which likely contributed to the massive scale of the unrest resulting from George Floyd’s death. While unrest has declined since, a new case of police brutality caught on camera against an African-American has occurred and the details are shocking. Officers were called to an apparent domestic incident in Wisconsin on August 23 and tried to apprehend Jacob Blake. Blake ignored their commands and went to his car, where three of his children were, and opened the door when a cop grabbed him from behind and then shot him in the back seven times. Blake was taken to hospital and is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down.
This led to widespread protests and rioting in various cities, especially in Kenosha, where Blake was shot. Kenosha was placed under curfew, but protests and riots have been raging on, alongside patrols by armed militias supported by police. One of these militia-members, 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse, shot three demonstrators with an assault rifle in an apparent scuffle, killing two, and then walked to a squadron of police cars with his hands up, but the police did not respond. He was later arrested at his home.
The recent events in Kenosha are a potent recipe for further civil discord in America. What the public has been seeing is an unarmed black man at the scene of a minor incident trying to get into his car with his children and police shooting him in the back seven times while a white man carrying an AR-15 shoots three protestors, killing two of them, and walks towards police but cops let him go by. This gives the clear impression that law enforcement is hostile to the black community and favors white people even after America has been brought to the breaking point over racial injustice due to George Floyd’s killing. While Blake’s shooting has not suddenly ignited all of America like a tinderbox as Floyd’s death did, it will probably make anger and unrest continue to rise and boil over for a long time, as people have gotten the message that their intense protesting over the last three months has not changed anything.
Meanwhile, the weather over the western United States has been heating up just as intensely. A widespread heat-wave, with Death Valley experiencing what is probably Earth’s highest-recorded temperature (130 Fahrenheit), resulted in destructive wildfires raging across California which are so vast that 2020 is already California’s second-most active fire season on record. And this is before the usual height of fire season, October and November. Extensive rainfall is not due until November (if it does come – last winter was extremely dry). With extremely dry and hot conditions prevailing across the western US, the current wildfires are probably just the beginning.
The nation just experienced Hurricane Laura, the most powerful hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana since 1856. Arriving on 27 August as nearly a category 5 storm, it has incurred losses of 9 billion dollars and left hundreds of thousands along America’s Gulf Coast without power or water. An extreme heat-wave worsens the aftermath. Though Laura caused much less damage than expected, that this season’s first major Atlantic hurricane is this powerful is a harbinger of things to come. The 2020 hurricane season has already been hyperactive, with numerous named storms breaking records for early occurrence. Now that the season has entered its main phase, Laura indicates that it’s moved onto producing powerful storms. It is possible that the rest of the year will see a record-breaking slew of major hurricanes, all likely to strike America; i.e., America could suffer multiple hurricanes as dangerous as 2005’s Katrina.
Their consequences could be worse than Katrina’s. In 2005, the government’s response was meager because its preoccupation with fighting terrorism meant that less was done to maintain natural disaster preparedness. Now, America is very much preoccupied with, and muzzled by, the pandemic while its economy is in tatters. Katrina’s impact also caused a major outbreak of looting and disorder in affected areas. Now, due to America’s current breakdown of civil stability, a severe hurricane is more likely to result in crime, violence, and unrest and an aggressive police response, which could have a knock-on effect.
The political ramifications of such hurricanes and all other disasters already afflicting USA, are extraordinary. Shortly after winning a second term, President Bush had to deal with Hurricane Katrina and it produced such a huge political fall-out. President Trump has continuously been having Katrinas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner during run for re-election. Furthermore, it is an immensely important election even before the barrage of crises that came out of the blue and took center stage with impacts so serious that there is even doubt the election will be held legitimately – or at all.
The Republican National Convention, in which Trump gave a record-breaking 70-minute long speech after being nominated, recently concluded. Trump gained ground over Biden in the polls afterwards, suggesting a close election. Trump framed the electoral race as being between two staunchly opposite and irreconcilable agendas. He is probably right. However, instead of long-standing issues, recent developments preoccupy everyone, including politicians involved in the race, but what political stake -holders do might not have the purest intentions.
Trump’s handling of everything is as lambasted as Bush’s handling of Katrina. His most recent move is to announce that emergency use of convalescent plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 was authorized, just before the RNC began and just after suggesting the treatment was being suppressed to hurt his election chances. Most experts are cautious about the treatment as its effectiveness is not thoroughly confirmed yet. Many think this is a political move by Trump to bolster support. There are also fears that Trump will try to hasten the production of a vaccine in time for the November 3 election. This impression could make the public shun vaccination.
Current election race only worsens America’s multiple crises. The crises will shape the election but the election will also shape the national response to crises, with political factions exploiting the situation to meet their goal of winning. They may even rig the election by methods such as suppressing voting. What is happening now is essentially a monumental test of American democracy.
America endured numerous challenges throughout its history but stood out for having successfully overcome most of them. The question now is whether it will resolve the current crises and persevere. The world is watching America intently.
Shahzeb Khan, author and illustrator of allegorical story “the Tiny King and the Evil Sorcerer,” has been commended by President Barack Obama for his outstanding achievement in environmental stewardship. He works as director at Pakistan’s People Led Disaster Management, vlogs at YouTube channel called Disaster Management: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3_vsqGckhCgB7WjdIGMoew.
Zeenia Satti 