US election preview

By Jesse C. Nelson

Two months ago, an article appeared on the front page of The Korea Times bearing the title “Three leaders at a crossroads.” It was about the unlikelihood of a summit between South Korea, North Korea, and the U.S. This article had photos of Moon, Kim Jong-un, and Trump.

Below their photos was a short description of their apparent motives or issues. Under Trump, it read, “Low Chance of Reelection.” At the time I asked myself, which of the two is true here? Is this glaring bias or a gross misread of the upcoming U.S. election? Why would a front page article appear claiming such a thing?

By this time, it was quite clear that the American public at large had grown tired of the destruction of communities caused by Black Lives Matter and Antifa. These two well-organized and well-funded partner organizations, originally utilized by Democrats, had surely by this date grown into monsters too big to be contained by their one-time Democrat handlers.

Support for BLM and Antifa was low at that time, and continues to decline to this day, especially when one sees most of the BLM radicals as being white, not black. This has the black communities, whose neighborhoods are being destroyed, becoming ever more wary of BLM and Antifa.

Then there is the Democrat presidential candidate himself. He does not garner anywhere near the support as Hillary Clinton did, and her support was reserved at best in 2016. Progressive Bernie Sanders followers feeling doubly cheated have no interest in the incessant gaffe machine that is the insider, Biden.

Lingering allegations of inappropriate touching to sexual assault, a son who is mired in scandal, and a candidate who by July 27 was well into his basement-hiding routine should have been red flag enough to nix a Low Chance of Reelection label for Trump. Biden is the oldest candidate to run for the presidency.

Trump is close in age. But compare side-by-side any speeches by the two during the summer, and there is no question of which mind is sharp and which is foggy. There is also no indication that Trump has lost the base that voted him into office.

On the contrary, he has made inroads with black and Hispanic voters. No such increase can be measured with Biden compared to what Clinton had in 2016. If “Low Chance of Reelection” was based on polls, we all know how well polls fared for Clinton. Likewise we know that polls are primarily used to compel both parties to spend money on advertising down to the 11th hour, even if a landslide is in the cards for a candidate.

Back on July 27th, my suggestion would've been to change the Trump descriptor from Low Chance of Reelection to Reelection Jeopardized. Now, as we face the likelihood of four more years of Donald Trump as the president, my hope is that his coverage will be handled with clearer unbiased forethought.

The author (razoripress@yahoo.com), currently teaching at Dongseo University, is also a freelance writer and avid traveler, who has visited 104 countries to date.