WASHINGTON: The Americans are sick and tired in both literal and actual terms. Having seen worst candidates running for the presidency in many years, a number of American voters developed hypertension, anxiety and other mental disorders.
That state is reflecting on their physical health as well.
Serap Rada is one of them. Supervising Hubert Humphrey project, at the University of Maryland, she has visible signs of tiredness in her eyes. She never felt like this before.
“I am under severe stress. And this stress is affecting my physical health. I don’t know what’s gonna happen on November 8,” she told Daily Times. Merely a thought of having Republican candidate Donald Trump as president of the United States gives her pangs.
She pointed out another very interesting aspect of the entire political spectrum. “I believe the Americans were not ready to elect a woman, at this juncture, or another Clinton. But on the other hand they have Donald Trump. I think if Jeb Bush was nominated (by the Republican Party) Hilary would not stand a chance,” he said.
Rada was not alone in taking so much pressure in the final days before the historic elections. The American Psychological Association (APA) has found out in a survey that more than half of the America’s adult population was suffering from the “Election Stress Disorder.”
Regardless of party affiliation they felt very or somewhat stressed by the election.
With both Democratic and Republican candidates hurling allegations against each other and facing charges of corruption, misuse of power and harassment the disgust, anxiety and disbelief among the Americans intensified over the last few months.
“It could be how negative the whole campaign is, the discord is particularly heated, we seem to be more polarized. Also, we can work ourselves up over what the future president could do and if we get wrapped up in a lot of what ifs, that can make us really stressed, too,” noted Lynn Bufka, the APA’s associate executive director for policy, last month.
Since both Clinton and Trump evoked stronger emotions than contemporary politicians, that factor elevated the level of stress among the people.
According to the APA, the active social media users were more prone to the mental and physical stress, as the social niceties were slipping away. The language Americans are using these days on the social media platforms seems simply implausible in a negative way.
In a recent article in Washington Post, a freelance writer Libby Copeland, raised some interesting questions. She wrote that the election obsessives could not bear to miss a single tiny detail of this race, as if watching helps exert some measure of control.
Most Americans were caught themselves sneaking election news on their smartphones to check the political polls every 10 minutes.
Copeland observed the election obsessives check Twitter, CNN, Reuters Polling, NBC, the BBC, Politico and RealClearPolitics hourly, in a compulsive loop.
They report having election dreams. They have bathroom speakers in the shower playing the “NPR Politics Podcast” and Vox’s “The Weeds.” They check PredictIt, the political prediction market where traders buy and sell shares on the political future, to see whether everyone is thinking what they’re thinking.
The election obsessives consider it the most important election of their lifetime. They use apocalyptic language no matter which side they belong to.
The Wall Street Journal recently observed that TV shows, books and movies were losing their share of attention
The election fanatics are glues to their screens be it of TV, smartphone, tablet or laptop. They seem to have memorized Red, Blue, Swing or Tossup states. Some of them have the realization that they were going crazy. Yet they have a solace of getting everything back to normal once the election is over.
Indian Community: Ajeet Singh runs a small cellphone shop in downtown Silver Spring. He settled in this rather peaceful corner of Maryland almost 16 years ago. Originally he hails from New Delhi and still speaks Punjabi in his native dialect.
“I have already voted for Trump,” he told Daily Times. In the United States one could vote before the Election Day that is called early voting. Normally, the Democrats have edge over Republicans in early voting. However, recent polls show the number of early voters dwindled compared to the last two elections, which is a sign of worry of Clinton and her aides.
Singh said majority of Indian expatriates have either or are going to vote for Mr Trump. “You know we have a large Indian diaspora in New Jersey. My cousins live there too. They all are voting for Trump,” he said.
The Republican candidates reached out of the Indian voters in the final leg of his campaign. He also described India as a great country. The Indian community also arranged a big fundraiser for him.
Probably, Trump attracted a large number of Indians owing to his beliefs about Islam and Muslims. They might also think that Trump if elected would bode well for India against Pakistan.