US ELECTION

Contrasting tales of two ‘Watch Parties’ capping up Donald Trump’s night of glory

Miami, Florida: A middle-aged Black man outside a Miami polling station during the last hours of voting was averse to airing his opinion on the US presidential polls in front of the camera.

After chatting with his friends and fellow voters from Guatemala and El Salvador, he moved aside, ensuring that no one heard, and proclaimed, “Kamala Harris for 2024,” voicing his preferences unequivocally. He also shouted, “Don't air my video, but make my voice heard.”

After darkness descended and the camera returned to the bag, Onmanorama asked him about the probable winner. The answer was an uneasy voice: Trump.

He said Hispanics and Blacks backed Trump this time. This was the first time in the last few days we heard a voter correctly predicting the likely winner. No one else dared to do so.

The man, a cleaning worker, belongs to the financially backward class. His prediction turned out to be true soon. Just a few hours into counting, it was clear that the former US president would be the 47th President of The United States (POTUS).

Miami was all decked up earlier to celebrate Donald Trump’s larger-than-life comeback story. Florida, in which Miami falls, had sided with Trump when he won in 2016 and lost in 2020.

Versailles Restaurant in Miami prides itself on being the world’s best Cuban restaurant. The "watch party" hosted by the Republican Party at Versailles unravelled another slice of American electoral politics, with festoons and cheers adding to the ambience. Men who wore Red – the colour associated with the Republicans – honked their cars in joy. They were mostly dressed up as Trump lookalikes. By 8 itself, the boisterous crowd had every reason to cheer. By that time, it was clear that Florida stood by Republicans not only in Presidential polls but also in local elections for the House of Representatives.

Not only in electoral thinking but also on issues of weed and abortion, Florida unravelled its majoritarian Republican mindset.

Florida vetoed a move to overturn abortion and laws that prevent those aged 21 and above from using weed with the vote.

A bearded young man with a Republican cap and Donald Trump’s picture had much to say on this unusual turnaround in US history. He landed in the US from Cuba at the age of 10 and is an avowed critic of Communism’s last vestige. For him, Kamala Harris, the Obamas and the Clintons were all communists.

They will try to steal the presidential poll, he claimed. “But this time, we won’t let that happen. The only person capable of being the US president is Trump. And God has sent him to cleanse America,” the young man claimed jubilantly.

When asked why people across communities, including blacks and Hispanics, were backing Trump this time, a man with roots in the Caribbean said: “People wanted change.”

He says change will take time, but it will happen. The woman who came along with him has no doubts that Trump will “Make America Great Again.”

Nearby, at the Leon Medical Centre’s Hall, the Republican ‘Watch Party’ was a bit more formal in nature.

Party apparatchiks and sympathisers were keenly watching the poll outcome on a giant screen. They were mostly elders with a sprinkling of young people who were into merry-making with selfies with Trump’s cutout. The boisterousness in the previous gathering was missing, though. Some elders there mumbled in Spanish, a pointer to their Hispanic roots.

At another corner of Miami, at Bay 13, a restaurant, the Democrats were also holding a “watch party”. The mood there was sombre, as expected, as results started pouring in, and defeat was inevitable. As they realised that some Democratic strongholds had also fallen in the polls to the House of Representatives, they began to desert the Watch Party and head home. This was not a night to relish for them. “This is totally unexpected,” a Democratic sympathiser said. He said he still expected good news from other regions of the United States. Only that the “Good News” was overwhelmingly for the Republican camp.