Homework Essay

 Write an essay of around 20 pages (double-spaced, 12 pt. font) discussing ONE of the below topics.  As you’ll see, their variety represents the multi-disciplinary nature of our field.  I expect you to draw primarily on our class readings and discussions for this assignment, but you may also draw on relevant professional or personal experience, as well as insights from other classes. 

1.  You have been asked to advise the U.S. government as to the most wise and effective response to the “Arab Spring”.  What do you advise?

2.  What do you think will be the most salient drivers of conflict in the 21st century?  Why so?  What should governments, civil society and international organizations do?

3.  Are all conflicts resolvable?  Why or why not?  Your answer should include some reflections on why this is a key question for scholars and practitioners of our field. 

4.  Discuss in depth one of the assigned readings which has particularly captured you.  Why is this the case?  What was so useful, insightful, frustrating, etc., about this work?

5.  Consider some of the theories we have discussed and been reading about thus far (e.g., structural violence, basic human needs).  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this theory in terms of its ability to actually facilitate resolving a conflict. 

6.  What does it mean when a conflict is indeed resolved? 

7.  Is there a connection between inner peace and social peace?  Explore and discuss. 

8.  Choose a conflict about which you have plenty of experience and/or expertise.  In a well-written essay, analyze the drivers, dynamics and sources of the conflict.  Then lay out, citing theories from our field, how you might go about resolving it.

9.  Ethical considerations are paramount and complex in our field.  Write an essay that analyzes a particular historical conflict intervention and its ethical considerations.  Should the intervention have been undertaken, or implemented differently?  What questions might you raise? 

10.  What do you believe to be driving all of the conflict and even violence associated with the 2016 U.S. election?  How can this be addressed? 

11.  What sort of conflicts do you observe/predict in the context of the current global pandemic?

Choose between 1 or 10. 

   

[Year]

[US 2016 Elections and
Violance]
[CHOICE ESSAY]
FARAJ ALSUBIAE

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 1

10. What do you believe to be driving all of the conflict and even violence associated

with the 2016 U.S. election? How can this be addressed?

Elections, violence and conflict prevention in the US

The electoral violence in the US during the 2016 elections resulted from several

reasons. Some of the main causes of the 2016 US electoral violence include racial

discrimination, lack of virtues and national ethos, lack of tolerance, etc. In this regard,

Donald Trump is currently proposing fundamental changes in many aspects of how the

United States interacts with the rest of the world. He wants to renegotiate trade deals, he

has adopted policies which are decidedly unfriendly to a neighboring country with the

10th largest population in the world and he is proposing new terms on which the United

States will continue to undertake its role as the leader of several alliance systems.

Furthermore, he is also likely to make a major change in U.S. foreign policy, in that many

people fully expect him to view Russia as more of a partner in the world order he

envisions, rather than as an adversary. We see good sides and bad sides to that and think

he will try to leverage the British exit from the EU (if it actually occurs) to foster a

stronger conservative movement there and try to move toward a closer association of the

Anglosphere nations.

The United States has a larger GDP than the entire European Union combined. It

has a 63% larger GDP than the second-largest national economy, that of China. It also

possesses a borderline ridiculous level of military power, relative to the rest of the world.

When a new leader takes over the USA and it is very much not “business as usual,” the

rest of the world has valid reasons for concern. Most of them would have rather had

Hillary Clinton, whose policies they understood. The only major countries of the world

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
avoid ending a sentence with “etc”

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
best to avoid editorializing in an academic paper

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 2

that was glad Trump won were Russia, Belarus, and Israel—Russia, and Israel because of

the Obama administration’s open hostility toward them, and Belarus because they do

whatever the Kremlin says. This paper will, therefore, examine the causes of electoral

violence and conflicts during the 2016 elections and what the US government can do to

prevents such electoral conflicts in the future.

(i) Lack of virtues and national ethos

Robert Westbrook in writing for The Baffler out of MIT put forward the idea that

one of the things seemingly lost in the elections of 2016 was the concept of virtue and its

connection to the public trust. In Virtuous Reality, Mr. Westbrook presents virtue in

several philosophical guises and dissects them and their relationship to present-day

American politics. The article got me thinking and I believe virtue in a candidate for high

public office, as generally defined, that is possessed of integrity, ever concerned with the

public good and willing to sacrifice personally for that good, has taken a backseat to other

characteristics not historically associated with great leaders. Millions of Americans voted

for a man who seems to be the antithesis of a virtuous chief executive.

Furthermore, Donald Trump has kind a characterized virtue as something only

suckers are concerned about. However, much more important is the ability to milk a

system, any system, for whatever you can get out of it because it is a fundamental

ingredient for creating success in today’s America. Therefore, the American government

now needs to milk the international system more efficiently to be great again. It is

America first and to hell with everybody else. In this regard, I am all for a reexamination

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
examples? Citations?

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 3

of our role on the world stage, but cannot it be somewhat virtuous rather than completely

exploitative.

Moreover, the loss of virtue as a primary ingredient in a leader has been accepted

by a huge swath of the American body politic. This includes Evangelical Christians, who

I thought considered virtue important. Senator Bernie Sanders is generally regarded as

the most virtuous of the top three candidates, but Americans could not quite go for him,

at least not in the numbers necessary to win the nomination. But young people went to

him. Virtue still apparently means something to them. Does that make them naive? Years

from now I wonder if we will look back on virtue and try to remember why it seemed

important.

Nonetheless, young people did turn out for Senator Sanders, the real

antiestablishment candidate. Not only did they support him in droves, but they also

validated a new approach to campaign financing. In fact, even a collection of small

donations via the internet has been proven to be effective. This is the reason why several

people have been pushing the importance of campaign finance reform for years.

However, it is clear to everyone that some individuals in the US are not about to move on

it, so the internet might be the key. This can be a real game-changer even though not all

the things so many of us want doing cannot be dealt with without campaign finance

reform, it’s all so much talk as long as the big donors call the shots.

(ii) Lack of tolerance by the elite

The elites, leftists, and democrats are as intolerant, as opinionated, as blind to

reality, as ignorant as the people who voted for Trump is accused of. In fact, if I have to

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
are you thinking of anyone or group in particular here?

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
citation?

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 4

believe, this is what is happening right now. These are the people who claimed that the

candidate they were voting for was fostering democracy, liberalism, and tolerance’.

Therefore, so much so that their previous favorite candidate, Obama, had the gumption to

come to India and advise India on her Republic Day about the need for tolerance. Is this

what Obama and Hillary represented as democracy and tolerance?

Moreover, Donald Trump might have called names to illegal immigrants, but the

democrats conveniently forgot that he used those names for illegal immigrants and not

legal immigrants. The illegality of their immigration is conveniently forgotten and what

about the so-called liberal’s views on Donald Trump’s voters who numbered almost as

many as Hillary’s? Just because they had a different political choice, they suddenly

became, or always were, racist, misogynist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, and

deplorable? Do liberals ever believe that they could be wrong while making choices? The

problem with liberals is in a debate, they show a complete lack of basic civil etiquette,

their arguments full of rhetoric and completely lacking in depth and substance.

In addition, while Donald Trump mixed his speeches with talks of reviving the

economy from the $20 trillion debt by cutting down war expenses, bringing back jobs,

and repealing and replacing Obamacare, with attacks on Hillary’s conduct which had a

bearing on public life, Hillary’s attacks on Trump were all ad hominem, and she had

empty rhetoric to show for while talking about her plans for America. When livelihood

and jobs are at stake, people do not give a damn about women’s rights and LGBT issues-

and while that is sad and the Democrats need to deal with it. However, in continuation

with the trend, we can expect the EU to disintegrate, and Merkel to go next election.

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
Try to make your argument with examples and data, not broad generalizations.

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
What does this refer to? Remember to cite!

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
evidence for this?

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
don’t use profanity in an academic paper, Faraj

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 5

The elections and the Indian General Elections in 2014 followed similar scripts.

In 2014, Narendra Modi, an outsider to Delhi politics, riding on mass popularity, anti-

incumbency, accused of abandoning his wife and spying on commoner women, touted to

be fundamentalist, anti-minority, chauvinist, and whose PM candidature was contested by

several party seniors, defeated an establishment funded by black money, which had close

to completely ruined India’s economy. In 2016, Donald Trump, a newbie to the White

House, managed to connect to the masses (although Hillary won the popular vote, he did

manage to appeal to an almost equal number of voters), accused of misogyny, touted to

be anti-illegal immigrants, conservative, and whose own party stalwarts supported his

rival, defeated Hillary Clinton, who was backed by the outgoing POTUS, and the Middle

East funding. The 2014 Indian Lok Sabha elections were fought on the issues of

corruption, economic decadency, national security, internal security, and minority and

women rights. The 2016 US Presidential elections were fought on the issues of

corruption, Obama’s failed economic policies and open borders compromising national

security and internal security, minority and LGBTQ and illegal immigrant rights, and

women empowerment (which were going to be achieved had Hillary won the election).

The world owes a big Thank You to the Americans who voted for Donald Trump

because if he does begin to fix what problems America faces, and it does face several, it

means his government will be spending time and money exclusively on addressing those

issues, and not on preaching elsewhere around the world how great modern, Western,

‘American’ values are and how they need to adopt them. Which means the Bush

campaign of destabilizing countries half-way across the world, which was continued by

the Democratic Government of Barack Obama, in connivance with his Secretary of State,

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
use her last name–you’re not on a first name basis

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
sentence structure

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
source?

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 6

Hillary Clinton, will have to stop. That the US and Russia might actually come closer

than forever be in a warm or cool Cold War. Either way, the USA has lost any credibility

for lecturing the world.

(iii)Race-baiting

The election is just accounting, and numbers have no morals. Speaking of having

no morals, some individuals voted for an admitted sexual predator, racist, and

pathological liar. Nonetheless, I am angry at such individuals for legitimizing race-

baiting as a political technique. I am also angry at them for working to undo the hard

work of generations of people who fought for freedom and equality. Moreover, I feel the

same people have done wrong by throwing the nation into a political turmoil the likes of

which it has not seen in our lifetime. I am angry at them for ignoring facts and truth and

knowledge and for falling for such an obvious ploy. Finally, I am also angry with the

media for dignifying this gasbag with free publicity every time he vomited out his hateful

rhetoric. But I am angry at the politicians of the past, too, both Republicans and

Democrats. Our nation’s education was so poor, so ineffective, that people out there

thought that this toxic human being could solve our problems rather than just create more.

In fact, education is not good and it does not poll all that high, so politicians of all parties

ignore it. The result is an electorate that will fall for anything, that will believe what they

want rather than what the facts support.

Consequently, most Americans feel betrayed, on both a political and a personal

level. People whom they had considered rational, intelligent human beings went

completely insane. The political discussion became a personal attack. Racism, bigotry,

misogyny became fashionable somehow as if it were actually something to be proud of. I

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
who does this refer to?

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
I’m not following–what is your specific argument here?

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 7

discovered many of my relatives were ill. They suffered from the Dunning Kruger effect.

I even had flashbacks to the sexual molestation I suffered during childhood when I heard

a hideously smug voice brag about doing what he wanted and grabbing pussy. I have

been passionate about politics since I watched the Kennedy-Nixon debates in 1960 and

never in the decades. I thought our country had made progress. Not nearly as much

progress as I would like, but still, progress. Instead, we are regressing at a furious pace.

Therefore, so many wonderful people being thrown under the bus so a bunch of rich,

white, assholes can make even more money off the rest of us.

In the 2016 elections in the US, every single candidate was not fit for the job. This

was the first election where I felt queasy voting. I am an independent voter. I don’t vote

based on party lines. I vote based on who I feel will be the best leader for the country. I

knew that my vote wouldn’t count in my state. My state is traditionally red. But I still had

the courage to go to the polls and make myself heard. That’s all that I can do. I am not a

wealthy individual that can create commercials, super PACs, and non-profits to shape the

political landscape of the nation. In addition, I am an American that believes 100% that it

is my duty and responsibility to be a civic citizen engaged in the political business of my

country. I cannot become mad, angry, or any other negative emotion about one election

result.

I know that there are many different elections taking place across the USA from

local to county to regional to state to federal.

My local councilman for my municipality is up for re-election in November. His

decisions directly affect my life every day. The President is one person who is a

figurehead for the United States. They speak for us in a united voice. They embody us on

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
How terrible!

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
words missing here?

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 8

the global stage. The goal is for them to help bring all Americans together, keep the USA

prosperous, and continue to build it up for future generations.

In the end, I know that the USA is bigger than one person or one election. I am

focused on the November 2017 elections locally. I am also looking ahead to the elections

that will take place in my state in 2020. We have many different political elections

taking place.

It is bigger than the President of the United States of America. He or she isn’t the

only show in town. Being angry or myopic doesn’t help me. I realize that political

outcomes happen for a reason. The citizens of the USA received the candidate that the

majority of the people wanted to see in the office. He won the electoral votes. In every

election, there are going to be winners and losers. The so-called best candidate doesn’t

always win. There will be upsets. Some candidates won’t be able to articulate their

message to connect with voters. Others will lack the necessary experience to be taken

seriously by voters. Nonetheless, your candidate might not make it to the finish line.

They may not have enough money to withstand attacks. If they are vulnerable in any

way, an intelligent candidate will use that weakness to their advantage. They will turn a

hairline fracture into an amputation so that the other candidate will look completely unfit

for office. Sometimes it backfires, but it mostly works.

(iv)Media misrepresentation

The only thing that I can do is support the current President. I do not have to agree

with all of his words, his tactics, his strategies, or his behaviour. But I will respect the

person in the office and at the same time, I will see who else is fit for the office that I can

support in the future. I focus on the short, medium, and long game. There is one last thing

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
This is confusing. We’re in 2020 now.

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 9

I subscribe to, Vox’s healthcare-specific page, where I keep track of the things that

directly matter in my life.

I do not have the spoons anymore for more, for better and worse. I remain

knowledgeable about world events superficially through Facebook posts that friends post

and send me. I no longer follow any news organizations whatsoever on Facebook, after

the New York Times posted a graphic picture of bodies at one point. I no longer remember

what it was specifically from, but I guess it really does not matter. It intrinsically

illustrates the point, really, that it all runs together. It is not that I do not care about the

world: it is that the news makes me ill and really honestly that is it, I do not get anything

else out of it. Moreover, I felt and feel like I no longer have space for a lot of things in

my life, both because I am just so unwell and because it is a conscious choice. It does not

mean I do not care. It means I know I can do very little.

In some ways being here helps more than anything else. It does not rise to the

level of slack activism, but it does at least give the opportunity to perhaps make a small

bit of difference in this world. I am, after all, an incremental pragmatist in my choices

and in how one addresses reality, even if in my heart of hearts my progressive ideals

yearn to be free. One thing though: people died who did not have to. People are dying

who did not have to. People are going to die who, in a more just universe, would never

have had to face the circumstances they will be facing. For these people, for the

desperation that illness and injury bring in this country: I will not forget that. I post about

Medicaid and Medicare and other programs for the circumstances before us, pieces in the

healthcare puzzle that can be worked with, and hopefully allow people some way to live

as good lives as are possible. Pragmatism and realism are all we have, these days.

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
Facebook does not consider themselves to a a news organization. Scholarship needs to rely on solid, credible sources.

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 10

When Donald Trump first announced his campaign, the manner in which he did

so, descending an escalator in Trump Tower like some Roman tribune, and then

beginning with an attack on the entire country and people of Mexico, left me with the

impression that we had finally entered an era of pure farce. Why farce, because I could

not understand why any so-called “news” organization would be televising that charade. I

mean, really, how could anyone take that seriously, especially from someone as Trump? I

suppose I was revealing my New Yorker’s biases there. We have always mocked and

detested Trump. I would have thought, having disgraced himself with the birther travesty,

that no news organization would possibly take Trump seriously. This was reinforced for

me over and over as the campaign progressed, from challenging John McCain’s status as

a war hero (with no ramifications) to his incoherent ramblings about debt and health care,

to his ignorant attacks on President Obama, and then all of his political opponents. He is

completely demeaned the primary campaign, literally driving American politics to new

lows, that I was sure that he would completely repulse every independent in the United

States. Well, at least the ones that weren’t completely racist xenophobes. Yet that did not

happen. The broadcast media continued to treat him like an ordinary candidate, especially

CNN and Fox News.

The furestrating part was the broadcast media’s condescending to his level,

following all of his campaign rallies and broadcasting them unfiltered, with no checks to

his lies and distortions. CNN created Donald Trump as much as Fox News, but for

different reasons, then compounded their affront to the democratic process by treating

Hillary Clinton as some kind of pariah while glorifying Trump. The more Trump

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 11

revealed his violent, fascist tendencies, the more the broadcast media piled on Hillary

Clinton.

I was shocked when he won the general election. It’s been clear for decades that

the Republican Party is now a completely anti-democratic shell of its former self, playing

on the fears of disenfranchised people while it continually pushes legislation that

continues to disenfranchise them — all for the benefits of a small economic elite (which,

coincidentally, includes most members of Congress). Trump is the logical conclusion of

this descent into the abyss they began digging for themselves once Bill Clinton defeated

George H. W. Bush. Now he represents the blowback that they cannot control. Hopefully,

the Republic survives until his indictment. Then when we defeat Mike Pence in 2020 we

can start rebuilding the country.

On the other hand, many of us were angry at Hillary Clinton. She must be the

sorriest campaigner in the world. Last Fall I was living in Central MN and I saw

absolutely no Hillary yard signs. I saw 2 Trump signs within a half-mile of my house. It

was not just me who was bothered. In the New York Times on Saturday, there was an

article about Iowa in which a Democratic official complains that Hillary’s campaign was

not giving out yard signs. She assumed much of the Midwest was a given. She won

Minnesota, but it can be claimed that she lost the election in the Midwest. This also made

me angry at CNN, Fox, and the TV networks for giving so much free time to Donald

Trump. Trump’s campaign got more air time than it should have and in a real sense for

someone like Trump, all publicity is good publicity.

Moreover, we were angry at the GOP. I voted Republican until age 29. The GOP

used to be proud of being the Establishment party. It was the party of the local banker,

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
Again, I am quite confused. This reads like it was written long ago. Mike Pence is not the candidate (he’s the VP running mate, of course).

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 12

the party of your medical doctor. It became the party of responsibility and common sense.

It wasn’t an ideological party, and no successful governing party can be completely

ideological. Jefferson’s administration purchased land from France. That isn’t mentioned

in the Constitution, at least not directly. Theodore Roosevelt and his cronies did a bit of

imperialism to build the Panama Canal, something not at all in the Constitution, yet

something needed for the US and the Americas. The Civil Rights Bills were passed

because the GOP was not ideological. The modern South could not have succeeded in a

home of international business if Jim Crow was still in effect. In addition, I was angry at

a GOP who could allow such a bad candidate to be their representative. I didn’t vote for

Mitt Romney, but nobody can call him the kind of bad person Trump is. We were

dissatisfied with the conservative Christians who can vote for a man like Trump and the

Catholic Church that had abandoned its support of social programs and become an ally of

the GOP. I was raised in a Catholic family. My outlook comes from that experience. How

in the world could the US church support such a nasty person, someone who is the

antithesis of the Catholic idea of a good man; however, I was sure there were other

people I should be angry at but this is enough. After reading Ernest W. Adams’s answer,

I also got angry at people who were happy with the Electoral College and its role in this

debacle. If we were going to have a weighted vote system, let us find a rational way to

weigh votes. The fact that we have two Dakotas and their electoral votes was something

we needed to visit. We should not give so much political power to the results of accidents

made more than a century ago.

The kind of conflict and violence observed during the 2016 US elections have

made everyone to be angry about every election. Watching most of the country blindly

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 13

support one of two horrible candidates is just sickening, deflating, and demoralizing.

Also, watching the endless promotion of the lesser of two evils by the party lemmings,

controlled by groupthink, tends to give one a bleak outlook on the future.

Being angry isn’t very productive though. The only productive thing I can do is to

point out that most of the country participated in this madness in hopes that eventually

enough of people will self-reflect and change. Until I had personal self-reflection and

change, I was a part of a broken system. If I can change, others can too. It is that hope

that keeps me going. Hope that the progressives will abandon their course of divisiveness

and return to liberal beliefs. Hope that the conservatives will become more accepting and

less oppressive with mandated morality. Hope that people recognize that perpetuating a

two-party system is an endless cycle of repeating the same things over and over again and

expecting different results. A hope that people seek to understand the damage that they

do with the force that they want to impose on others, so while we will be angry about the

last election, we will still be hopeful about the next one. It may be a false hope because

people do not change easily, but it’s enough to hope to keep me. This is why we are

angry with many of my fellow countrymen for voting for an ignorant unqualified

narcissistic sexual predator.

Of all the things you chose to go after Trump on, that’s what you picked? Trump

is a narcissist, Hillary is a psychopath, and he may be unqualified, but that makes him

substantially less dangerous than somebody who has the experience to put forth an awful

agenda. We are also angry that once again the Electoral College has screwed us by giving

us a bozo who did not win the popular vote. We really want elections to go to the popular

vote and not to hear again that Russia blatantly interfered with the election and apparently

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 14

will be allowed to get away with it. Countries like Russia have always tried to influence

the US elections, especially when it comes to superpowers (Coupé & Obrizan, 2016). It

makes sense to try and get a candidate elected that will help put forth an agenda that you

want. That clearly did not go over all that well for the Russians. The Americans are angry

that the voting districts are horribly gerrymandered to minimize the effect of the black

and poor vote. Both sides gerrymander a shitload for obvious reasons. The US electorate

are also angry that parts of the Voting Rights Act have been struck down, allowing some

of the old segregationist states to start implementing mechanisms to discourage black and

poor voters (De Juan & Pierskalla, 2016). Alabama now prohibits anyone from voting

who has outstanding court fines, legal fees, or victim restitution bills to pay. Nonetheless,

anger does serve a useful purpose, as long as you recognize that fear lies at the root of

anger but it is useful only as far as it jolts us out of the paralysis of fear and into action.

Therefore, after the initial paroxysm of anger, I asked myself what I fear and then I asked

what I, as both an individual and in conjunction with my fellow citizens, could do about

it.

In reaction to express dissatisfaction towards all the election malpractices in the

country, the Americans have always protested. I participated in the Women’s March on

the day after the election. Besides sending a strong public signal to our elected leaders of

the citizens’ will, protests are also a way for the protestors to galvanize the energy they

need to take action. They show you that you’re not alone, that there are millions of others

who are pumped and ready to go. Protests are catharsis. They’re like the pep rally before

the game. We have also followed the steps outlined by Michael Moore. I especially like

the idea of creating blue regions of resistance (Gebrewold, 2016). This requires liberals to

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
Florida as well

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 15

admit that maybe there is something to this whole local government thing, after all.

Donate to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, public television, and public radio.

Consequently, there has always been a drive to support and work for a constitutional

amendment to overturn Citizens United, and do not vote for candidates that accept money

from PACs. It’s time to get the money the fuck out of politics.

Moreover, Americans now prefer a vote for third parties. One of the greatest

threats to our democracy is the entrenched two-party system. It was a Democratic

president who lacked political courage and cost America its manufacturing sector. That,

among other factors, led to the rise of Donald Trump. If, by refusing to vote for the

Democratic Party, we wind up with another Trump, then so be it. We the citizens need to

have the courage to accept and enforce these natural consequences to the Democratic

Party for its lack of courage (Ishiyama, Gomez & Stewart, 2016). We need to send the

message, as many times as it takes, that we will not support you until you support us. Not

even if it means another four years of resisting Trumpism. Because if we can’t accept that

sacrifice, we will forever remain stuck with a two-party system that serves big donors,

not ordinary citizens.

Other people support the campaigns of opponents of Republican candidates and

incumbents in red states. Contribute financially. Make phone calls on their behalf. Travel

to their districts and mobilize women and minorities to get to the polls. On the other

hand, others boycott industries based in the districts of Republican elected officials. This

requires tremendous self-denial, yet it’s one of many strategies that led to the end of

British rule in India. By refusing to buy British-made textiles, and breaking the law to

make their own salt, Indian citizens cost the British dearly. If we’re willing to make the

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
Once again, this is not acceptable in an academic paper.

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
Now THIS is an example of a bit which focuses on systemic drivers and tangible issues. Too much of this reads like a screed. I certainly understand your anger, but the assignment was not to provide an opinion about Trump, Obama or Clinton. It was to provide an academic explaination or theory as to the escalation of conflict we saw in 2016.

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
What’s your evidence for this? Most of the votes actually still go to the GOP or Dems.

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 16

sacrifices, we can bankrupt the industries that bankroll Republican campaigns. Hopefully,

work to return “lower-skilled” jobs that pay a living wage back to the United States. This

would eliminate one of the most legitimate grievances of Trump supporters. Politicians

claim that these jobs are gone for good, but are not Americans supposed to be visionaries

or are it really impossible to implement a gradual, long-range plan to bring overseas jobs

back to the United States; but a plan that spreads the pain over years or decades and does

not collapse our economy (Kongkirati, 2016). Nonetheless, even if that is impossible, is it

inconceivable to create new jobs that pay a living wage in emerging industries, and then

protect them? What about re-investing in our crumbling infrastructure? Can we help

young people see that trades are a high-paying alternative to professional careers with

exceptional job security, and make trade schools and apprenticeships a viable alternative

to college? Can American citizens stop filling landfills with plastic junk that our

descendants five thousand years from now will regard as artifacts of a foolish civilization

and can we invest instead in fewer, higher-quality, more expensive products that actually

last, as we did in the past? And thereby still spend the same amount of money, on

average, on American-made goods and services? So yes, we are angry, but we are trying

to do something with that anger. And if it’s something I have no control over, I let it go.

Because staying angry about something over which I have no control fixes anything. It

only hurts me and the people I care about.

Finally, I was extremely angry the morning after, but that was mostly because

getting angry about it was all I could do to get myself to function again instead of just

lying in bed in shock all day. What has not changed from the night of the election is my

opinion of Trump and those who voted for him. Trump is easily the worst president in

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 17

recent history according to some people, and he told us he would be. Almost 63 million

Americans decided that a man who openly brags about committing sexual assault and

who lies every time he speaks would be a better president than Hillary Clinton

(Lauritzen, 2016). Almost 107 million saw no need to vote at all. So we elected an idiot

who promised to pull out of trade agreements, who lied more than any other candidate,

who called for protesters at his rallies to be beaten, who spent 8 years questioning

President Obama’s eligibility to be president and then denied doing so, who promised to

ban trans people from serving in the military, who promised to allow bigotry as long as

bigots claim their religion demands it, who promised to ban Muslims from entering the

country, and who calls climate change a Chinese hoax. There are more reasons that

Trump is a disgusting excuse for a president, but if I tried to list all of them I’d probably

never finish. How anyone can think that such a repugnant candidate was better than

Clinton I can’t imagine. The Trump supporters I know said they liked his “honesty”,

which is a bizarre reason to vote for someone who constantly lies. But at this point, I am

no longer mad because I am doing what I can to get Democrats elected to Congress and

local offices and I will do what I can to get a Democrat in the White House in four years.

This long after the election anger is simply a waste of energy. The only visceral reaction

to the election that I still feel is that I no longer feel any sense of pride in my country.

The approaches US government must use to prevent conflicts and violence during

elections

It is said that competition for scarce resources is the root of all conflict. Therefore,

removing the need for that competition would seem to be the answer to US poll conflicts

(Ramcharan, 2016). We can and must do something about that. There are too many bush

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
another example of this reading as if it was written in 2016–what explains this?

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
indeed–this is a great observation to build on for a more substantive, scholarly analysis

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 18

knives killing people, but there is a deeper truth I expect. Nonetheless, conflict is

sometimes important since a person with no struggle does not fully develop. Striving and

succeeding, striving, and failing. This is what the two sides of one critical coin seem. A

muscle with nothing to do will atrophy. And somewhat randomly, our early work on

hydroponic meat (as it were) has shown that simply growing muscle cells aren’t good

enough. It needs to come from a working muscle group to result in something we can

find tasty.

In developed countries, we are heading for our own demise due to our success.

Our lives are too easy and each generation is becoming more expectant, less able to deal

with shock. The answer is right there though: we sit upon the shoulders of all of those

who have come before and their struggles. But we know that the absence of struggle

results in withering and the loss of the visceral understanding that underpins all real

lessons and the growth that results. If you’ve never gone hungry you can’t fully

appreciate supermarkets. If you have never tried to sleep when cold and wet, you cannot

appreciate a roof and a warm bed. If you have never experienced a dictatorship, you

cannot fully appreciate democracy. Our own chance for future growth is therefore quite

simple: everyone must experience a real but curated version of the struggles and insights

that got us to this point. Otherwise, this current era will end in yet devolution into

savagery at some point, even with our best efforts, it way well anyway and that curated

education will entail real risk and no one of us can experience it all. Some of us will not

survive. But a sustainable system will apportion real experiences and a minimum

standard of general stuff across continental and global cohorts.

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
I am not certain what this referes too.

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
this seems to be a metaphor?

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
what sort of stuff? I’m confused….

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 19

Moreover, it must surely begin by building trust between the two sides (Sondel,

Baggett & Dunn, 2018). Art and cultural exchange are useful tools for this, but primarily

there needs to be talk and this will help each side empathize with the other. From there

the two sides can negotiate about what needs to change to maintain the trust and

discourage further conflict. This could mean the establishment of new institutions or the

reform of dysfunctional ones (Sondel, Baggett & Dunn, 2018). It might involve different

histories being honored in the culture and constitution. It could even mean reparations or

new legislation that makes amends for the wrong done in the past, although care would

have to be taken that this does not breed it is own kind of resentment. In fact, such

projects take, literally, generations. They are difficult to pull off and unlikely to be

successful over the term of office of any politician. They, therefore, require a genuine

sincerity in the desire to resolve the conflict, inspirational leadership, and patience.

However, if the mutual trust does not exist, or one or both sides do not

acknowledge the other’s legitimacy, then the conflict can be postponed through

begrudging concessions or fudged political settlements (Von Borzyskowski & Wahman,

2019). But this will not ‘solve’ the problem, just defer it and if there is a power imbalance

between the two sides then of course the disagreement can be solved by the use of force.

But again, that just postpones the conflict: the resentment of the subjugated people will

remain and there will never be true peace. Therefore, the US government can use several

approaches to avert violence during elections, and some of these approaches would

include providing security of persons equally to both sides. Security before the law and in

treatment by law enforcers is a necessary step. Another likely requirement is to provide

economic equality of opportunity to both sides. At a minimum, sufficient economic

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
here we go!

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 20

means must be present to eliminate undue hardship. Almost all cases of conflict triggered

by violence are by some form of scarcity.

Moreover, there is also a need to embrace dialog that starts with and between the

mothers on both sides is a good place to begin discussions (once economic and security

are dealt with). Women have greater maturity and more common ground than men and

are more likely to resolve conflict with dialog and to come up with insights negotiating

which men will never reveal. Acceptance of a common proposal for dealing with past

actions is also critical, including crimes and war crimes. Often including some level of

amnesty, perhaps a truth and reconciliation commission. Finally, sometimes allowing a

degree of autonomy will prove useful to both sides, reducing a burden on the majority

side, and enabling a sense of agency on the minority side even though these are just a few

ideas that spring to mind. I am sure others will come up with some good ones as well.

References

Cheryl Duckworth
10600000008471254
interesting, in what sense?

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 21

Coupé, T., & Obrizan, M. (2016). Violence and political outcomes in Ukraine—Evidence

from Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Journal of Comparative Economics, 44(1), 201-

212.

De Juan, A., & Pierskalla, J. H. (2016). Civil war violence and political trust: Microlevel

evidence from Nepal. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 33(1), 67-88.

Gebrewold, B. (2016). Anatomy of violence: Understanding the systems of conflict and

violence in Africa. Routledge.

Ishiyama, J., Gomez, A. P., & Stewart, B. (2016). Does conflict lead to ethnic

particularism? Electoral violence and ethnicity in Kenya 2005–2008. Nationalism

and Ethnic Politics, 22(3), 300-321.

Kongkirati, P. (2016). Thailand’s failed 2014 election: The anti-election movement,

violence and democratic breakdown. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 46(3), 467-

485.

Lauritzen, S. M. (2016). Educational change following conflict: Challenges related to the

implementation of a peace education programme in Kenya. Journal of

Educational Change, 17(3), 319-336.

Ramcharan, R. (2016). Internal political conflict in Southeast Asia: The root causes of

conflict during transitions to democracy. Geopolitics, History, and International

Relations, 8(2), 192-213.

Sondel, B., Baggett, H. C., & Dunn, A. H. (2018). “For millions of people, this is real

trauma”: A pedagogy of political trauma in the wake of the 2016 US Presidential

election. Teaching and Teacher Education, 70, 175-185.

ELECTIONS, VIOLENCE AND CONFLICT PREVENTION IN US 22

Von Borzyskowski, I., & Wahman, M. (2019). Systematic measurement error in election

violence data: Causes and consequences. British Journal of Political Science, 1-

23.