American Hara-Kiri: Chronicle of a Democracy’s Death Foretold

To keep my election anxiety in check, I went to see the guitar virtuoso David Gilmour at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. I turned off my cell phone feeling hopeful about how the night would end.

Guy Pratt, the bass guitarist, stepped up to the microphone and requested the audience to put away their phones and watch the concert with their eyes on stage and not their four-inch screens where they are accustomed to seeing the world these days.

As the spotlight came on highlighting David Gilmour, the stadium roared. Unity with a common purpose was in the air. As the music soared, my eyes closed, and my feet left the ground. I had escaped, but my freedom was short-lived.

A man sitting next to me pulled out his phone and the electoral college meter on his screen was hard to escape. My anxiety kicked in as the numbers didn’t look good. I told myself, that only the predictable states were being called so there was nothing to worry about.

The show ended around 11 o’clock. My friend and I went to get a bite to eat. Things were already beginning to look dismal. We stared at each other’s faces while we ate and went our way. I decided to go home and straight to bed.

When I got home, my wife had the TV tuned to CNN. I avoided the screen. Sleep was disturbed as I knew the inevitable was coming. At 7 AM, my wife woke up and said, “It’s over”.

We both lay there staring into space for a while. I went through the stages of grief quickly. My dog reminded me that there is more to life. I had invested too much of my energy and time into this circus of shenanigans, and it had become all too consuming, and only I was to blame for my anxiety.

I called my friend and mentor who is much older than I and asked if he could recall a moment in his life where he felt such despondency. He said the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when they thought the world was going to end. I found his statement ominous and disturbing.

For those of us who live on the coast in our silos, where we dream of an America where convicted felons should not hold high office, we were in for a rude awakening. We have been brainwashed to an extreme by a “boogeyman complex” by the media we consume. We were under a spell and hoped that what the last four years had revealed about “the man” for the rest of America to see, was enough to find some common ground. Boy, oh boy, how delusional we were.

The first time around in 2016, I thought it was an aberration. I thought a disease had taken hold spawned by the relentless right-wing media propaganda machine of disinformation, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and hatred. The insurrection all but confirmed this belief. In 2024 it was clear, it had metastasized.

The four years of relentless denialism about the 2020 elections, devoid of facts, delivered the goods. A silver lining, a second insurrection was canceled/postponed.

This election is not about what America voted against, but what it voted for.

Call it liberal or whatever label that suits those who disparage basic human values, this election overtly supports guns, a warmer climate with potent hurricanes and droughts, higher tariffs, and trade wars, suppression of workers’ rights and inflation of corporate profits, subjugation of women, abandoning allies and embracing tyrants, demonizing and persecution of undocumented immigrants, racism, sexism and antisemitism, the negation of science and scientific research, defunding of arts and education, a festering Gaza and a rewriting history minus the parts that upset the majority.

Even recent citizens who have seen hardship but have no sense of history, have been infected by the hatred and fear of identity politics. They claim they had more money in their pockets in the four years before Biden. Illegal immigration is the cause of their hardship, they believe.

The post-mortem on how we got here has begun in full swing. The usual pundits fill the endless airwaves and screen space with explanations as to what the Democrats did wrong and what the Republicans did right and why the man increased his appeal even as a convicted felon. Biden should have withdrawn earlier making room for a primary. Harris wasn’t progressive and didn’t differentiate herself enough. The New Yorker will probably publish a ten-page article, delving into every nuance of what happened and why it was inevitable. Which only the “elites” will read. The right-wing media will gloat about all the lies they have spewed which did the trick. Ratings will rise for CNN, Fox News, Newsmax, and the rest, as their favorite megalomaniac will be front and center for another four years. So on and so forth.

It’s the economy, economy, economy, stupid. People are hurting in the wealthiest country on the planet.

But we are not exactly experiencing a great depression as Germany did in the 1930s, are we?

Sure, milk and eggs are expensive. One cannot buy all the stuff one does not need on Amazon like one used to. One can’t afford a second car or a second vacation. Wages have not kept up with rising prices. Homeownership is out of reach. Gas is expensive. And the list goes on as Americans burn more energy per capita than anyone on the planet.

In a world ridden with economic headwinds thanks to COVID and wars started by despots, decline is nothing new. Leaders all around the world, left, right or center, have been booted out of power as a result of economic pressures.

So if this is the reason America chose a man with little sense of anything, then they deserve what is to come​.

Misogyny runs deep in America. Two overqualified female candidates have now succumbed to the appeal of a man who has treated women with disdain and disgust. This truly says something about who we are as a people.

Being educated and informed is being elitist in the eyes of voters who support an agenda that promises to burn everything down.

Not the billionaires and millionaires but the college-educated citizens who espouse “wokism” are the problem. The students who protest when they see injustice, the women who say hands off my body, the transgendered people who seek happiness, and the gay couples who want what is rightfully theirs are the elite of today.

Their identities are too liberal for many in America to reconcile. As it threatens the macho “white” identity which is falsely characterized as endangered. Even though the transgendered are a minuscule section of the population, we are told to be fearful of them as they might infect the rest of us.

But what this election proves is the opposite. Hate and fear have infected far more people than love for the dispossessed and marginalized. Even recent citizens who have seen hardship but have no sense of history, have been infected by the hatred and fear of identity politics. They claim they had more money in their pockets in the four years before Biden. Illegal immigration is the cause of their hardship, they believe. All the while supporting undocumented immigrants in their families, churches, and communities.

But elections are won on immediate perceptions and gut feelings and not information and logic. The words of a con artist are far more potent and simple to grasp than of a college-educated, experienced, qualified “elite” presenting a plan and a promise to work with the world.

Many say the man has charisma. He has built a brand people can identify with. In the far reaches of America and in Hispanic communities, his message is simple and direct. He is able to communicate better than the opponents as there is no mask there. What you see is what you get. The question then becomes, is this what you want? And what does that say about you as a voter if this is what you want and that is all you see and like?

Others say, many are apolitical and the algorithms do the job for them. In places where democrats have taken sections for granted, he can make promises they can relate to and trust.

In other instances, they are just rooting for their team because their parents and grandparents did. Leaving the cult is not an option.

There are those who think this mandate is the mandate of the common man/woman. They have chosen to anoint a man who espouses no values, religious or otherwise, but is a savior incarnate, a protector of their interests. They hope to rid America of all economic and social evil and vagrant migrants and turn it into a promised land, a utopia, where exceptionalism and good family values will be rewarded with high wages, irrespective of whether you are a farmer, barber, plumber, engineer, broker or a billionaire. The Ramaswamies, Gabbards, Vances, Musks, Kennedys, et al have all made a Faustian bargain to see this through. The contradictions are jaw-dropping but nonetheless true.

America is a land of deep contradiction, and this election is yet another reflection of that, where brutality is rewarded in the name of democracy.

As a democratically elected despot once said “If you win you don’t have to explain”, I guess there is no reason to explain why America made this choice. America loves winners and winning. This was a message that was repeated like a mantra by a loser who now won and that is all many care about at the end of the day.

The irony is that the real winners will not be the people who voted him into power, but those who bankrolled his propaganda machine and aided and abetted his ascendency. All those who once called him a buffoon, from Rogan to Rubio, are the real winners of this election.

A week before I attended the concert at Madison Square Garden, a gathering of a very different nature had taken place in that stadium. Closing arguments were filled with racist bile, anger, and vitriol by MAGA members, entertainers, and faithful followers of the great leader. The gathering harkened back to a meeting that took place at this very location in 1939 when 20,000 Americans attended a Nazi rally. While this might sound jarring today, it was perfectly acceptable then, even though there were many protesters outside. America had not entered the war, and no one knew what was to come.

In this campaign, the word “fascist” has often been used to describe what has been said. The policies proposed and words uttered certainly had fascist overtones. Everything from “immigrants eating cats and dogs” to “childless cat ladies” to “children go out of your house as boys and come back as girls”, fear was at the core of the messaging. The fake image of American carnage in 2016 was amplified and distorted even more in 2024.

When a leader has the executive, senate, house and judiciary at his beck and call, it is not outlandish to imagine what could come next, given what has been spoken.

Hara-Kiri is a ceremonial suicide formerly practiced in Japan by members of the warrior class. The Samurai believed that Hara-Kiri was a fitting way to die as it allowed them to maintain their honor. It came from a place of knowing and sacrifice.

Knowing what we know, at least what has been advertised, I feel America has committed Hara-Kiri by electing someone we know is not fit to lead in any shape or form and has openly expressed tyrannical aspirations. The difference is, it has been done without honor, self-awareness, or self-respect.

The millions who have supported him can think what they may, but the writing is on the wall.

The hope is that the guardrails will hold and all alarmist predictions will not come to pass.

Once again our future is in the hands of those who we hope will put their country first and not their fealty.

---

Anand Kamalakar is a Brooklyn-based documentary film director, producer and editor. His latest film “OSBORNE” will premiere on PBS nationwide next year.