Whenever I get into an Uber, I usually have a script of ice-breaker questions that I ask to any willing driver. I use the questions to see if the ride will be a silent one so that none of us has any expectations to speak during the trip.
Around October of 2020, I got into a cab and started off with the usual questions. While we were talking, his mask caught my eye. It was endorsing one of the frontrunners for the next Kenyan election, a person that didn’t have a great track record with corruption.
After my round of quickfire icebreakers, I found an opportunity to pop the question–not will you marry me, but why that candidate?
At first, he tried to tell me the usual manifesto promises: adding more jobs for hustlers, improving the economy, handing out wheelbarrows. I told him that the person that they were endorsing had been in government for 10 years and it was doubtful that they would change.
Eventually, he opened up and told me that he didn’t actually like the politician; he supported them because he had a deep-seated hatred for the current president. He told me that he was going to vote for the candidate that would make the current president mad. It was his way of protesting, getting revenge and getting back for all the promises that had gone unfulfilled.
End of Act 1.
The US presidential elections were happening around the same time and Comedy Central had a segment where one of their reporters, Jordan Klepper, would go to Republican rallies to talk to the supporters. It was interesting to watch when Jordan would debunk someone’s beliefs using facts and the person found out that their facts were all wrong. Realizing that they had been beaten, they would admit that they didn’t really care about facts, and they would keep on believing what Trump was saying. He could do no wrong in their eyes and it was the Democrats were spreading lies.
I thought back to my conversation with the Uber driver and realized that politics/voting is not always a game of logic but one of feelings. The hatred of the other side takes center stage and makes people forget all the hardships that the ruling leaders made them go through.
Kenya is having an election next year and I won’t be surprised to see hate turn some of the oppressed into believers of a cause they know is wrong and will disappoint in the future. Who knew that a mask would have the answer to human behavior during elections? 😊