Dear Editor,

A MAJORITY of Americans will go to the polls today to vote for a presidential candidate of their choice, who will lead them for the next four years. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a normal routine every four years; but this time around, the stakes are as high as the sky, perpetuated by devious and divisive campaign tactics from both sides of the political aisle.

In all the years I have lived in the USA, I have never seen such high levels of anxiety, such high levels of ambiguity, and such high levels of disappointment and despair among Americans so associated with the general election season. For some Americans, the election polling stations have become metaphorically a damp and dangerous zone, to be avoided; rather than a datum for expressing political prerogatives.

How this can happen in one of the safest but not necessarily soundest democracies in the world is a question that can be easily answered by an average American. The answer is dirty politics and the predilection for power, predicated upon the agenda of inclusion and exclusion.

I will not belabour the obvious regarding what have been said about the USA election, particularly with regard to prejudicial and prelapsarian views in the age of information technology. I am sure Guyanese are very familiar with the dynamics of the US election. What I would like to share is that the definition of an immigrant in the US during this election, and perhaps beyond, has changed to mean something new and nauseatingly worrying. The word immigrant initially meant anyone who had entered the US from somewhere else, and someone who was not born in the USA. Now the word immigrant means a non-white person, and all the negative trappings that come with this label.

Certainly, one presidential hopeful has not addressed the eastern European immigrant problems in the US.

I believe that this US election season has provided an opportunity for the formation of a political party driven by immigrant/resident/citizenship sentiments. For too long, immigrants turned citizens in the US have been comfortable with their own insular development and their partial participation in politics. The time has come to step beyond this comfort zone.

While this might right now be a far-fetched thought to be entertained further, I do hope the losing candidate concedes. My bet is on Hilary Clinton to win, but this is a limited choice really.

Regards,
LOMARSH ROOPNARINE