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14 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 NOVEMBER 2020 NEWS Similarities 1. Both the US and Malta have en- trenched two-party systems Both countries share a long, bipartisan tradition, with small parties largely re- maining absent from representative or- gans. But unlike Malta, the US has a long tradition of cross-party initiatives cutting across partisan lines. In both countries the two big parties have grown into big tent coalitions glued together by the per- sonality of the presidential leader's cha- risma, with the party often taking the role of cheerleader. 2. In their respective echo chambers, people are experiencing reality differ- ently The rise of Trump, his demonisation of adversaries and the threat to demo- cratic norms he represented, has further increasing the dose of vitriol. Similarly in Malta's 2017 election, both parties de- monised each other in a zero-sum game. Within echo chambers in the social me- dia, justified concerns on corruption con- tributed to wild conspiracy theories on one side and a complete whitewash and absolution on the other. Yet even before the advent of social media, spurred by the partisan media, thousands had celebrated the 'partnership' victory in the EU ref- erendum in 2003. 3. Despite a difference in scale, some demographic divides are similar The map emerging from the US election not only confirmed re- gional divides but also a sharp division between urban cen- tres which lean Democrat, and the rural hinterland which leans Republican. This was also matched by an education divide, with college-educated Ameri- cans leaning Democrat and those with a lower education leaning Republican. This was not always the case, with the Demo- crats losing southern states like Texas as they became more socially liberal in the 1970s and the Republicans losing Cali- fornia as they become more conservative in the 1990s. In Malta most regional di- visions are rooted in post-war class divi- sions with working-class districts more oriented towards the PL. But in the past decade Labour has made inroads in rural Malta, with the PN remaining entrenched in more affluent districts where people are also more likely to have a tertiary level of education. Like the US, Malta has its Red vs Blue: How similar is Malta's duopoly to the USA? The American presidential contest was marked by intense polarisation pitting Joe Biden against Donald Trump. But what are the similarities between bipartisan politics in Malta and the USA? asks James Debono What the experts think Demonisation in the age of social media Prof. Carmen Sammut – academic specialising in International relations and media studies Historically, the demise of ideolo- gy coincided with a period when parties gathered greater influ- ence over the media through the adoption of elaborate po- litical communication and news management tactics. In Malta, party-owned media and the power of incumbency reinforce this influence. In the US, this influence is partly audi- ence-driven as in the case of the Dem- ocrat-leaning CNN and the Republi- can-leaning Fox. Social media have become significant agents in the construction of "them" and "us" identities because the two parties are broad churches that comprise sever- al 'tribes'. In such political cultures, the party brand blends with the persona of popular party leaders and electoral sup- port depends on persuasion. Moreover, the party that presents the best narrative is most likely to win. Deification and demonisation are strategies that are frequently employed to an extent that the moderate majority may safely presume they are a core part of the political game. Such tactics rally supporters on the basis of psychological shorts that include stereotypes and the character assassination of oppo- nents. Discerning voters are some- times sucked into these narra- tives even when they may keep a level of distrust in political players and when many maintain a healthy scepticism in their reception and interpretation of media content. It is becoming increasingly difficult to assess the impact of platform power on our perceptions since platforms like Google, Twitter and Facebook operate at a global level. I am not surprised that even the most media competent individ- uals may struggle to filter facts from fake news, hoaxes and outright lies. When it comes to our social media bubbles, it seems that new media are of- ten extensions of old media-politics par- allelisms. Members of virtual communi- ties echo each other to the exclusion of diverse opinions even when new tech- nologies provide us with opportunities to engage and network on public affairs. This reality prevails in a political envi- ronment where user-friendly technolo- gies permit individuals, including media exponents, to bypass editorial gatekeep- ing and upset the system through a re- configuration of agendas and values. Trump and the rise of anti- politics Prof. John Baldachino, academic specialising in art, philosophy, politics and education who works and lives in Wisconsin and New York City We would be mistaken if we simply equate the Republican and Democrat- ic parties as being on the right and the left respectively. These categories tend to be very rel- ative. Just on healthcare, the primaries for the Democratic presidential candidate revealed an array of positions, which show how the Democratic Party amply ab- sorbs the right and the left under one tent. With Donald Trump entering into the fray, the notion of a conservative Republican and a liberal-progressive Democratic Party has been debunked. My argument is that with Trump, most of the GOP was pushed into the sphere of anti-politics, which apart from being popu- list, has a habit of putting politi- cal discourse, and, with it, liberal democracy, out of joint. This also means that the old notion of a repub- "Deification and demonisation are strategies that are frequently employed to an extent that the moderate majority may safely presume they are a core part of the political game"