How The 2020 Elections Exposed The ‘True Colors’ Of The United States
Did democracy actually manage to obtain the desired outcome?
During the months-long presidential campaign, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has repeatedly told the US voters that “We are in a battle for the soul of America”.
“It is time to remember who we are,” Biden urged his fellow Americans to treat each other with dignity and fight the widespread abuse of power spearheaded by the ‘incumbent President’, Donald J. Trump.
If you have followed the Democratic Party’s campaign all these months and the mainstream US media since 2016, you must have come across how most of the US regrets giving Donald Trump the opportunity to tarnish the US’ image in front of the world and standing for causes which the US has traditionally stood against.
In late July, when opinion polls clearly indicated that Trump had lost ground to Joe Biden, owing primarily to his administration’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump’s fortunes have not improved. In fact, the battle began to go downhill for the Republican candidate.
There have been cries from all mainstream corners that Trump was redefining the concept of being an American for the worst.
So, the easiest and most effective strategy for Joe Biden to fight this election against Donald Trump was to appear as a person who is the complete opposite of the incumbent resident of the White House.
In the months-long campaign before the election day, Joe Biden did so, quite efficiently. He used words such as “dignity” and “decency” many times in his speeches and social media posts in a bid to create a starkly opposite persona than that of Donald Trump.
Theoretically speaking, Joe Biden succeeded. As of writing this article, according to Bloomberg, Joe Biden needs only six more electoral votes (if Arizona is sealed as blue that many mainstream media like the CNN, NYT, and Washington Post are still not counting for Biden) to win this election, which many believe that he will eventually end up winning with Nevada’s six electoral votes.
Many political analysts even believe that tens of thousands of mail-in ballots which are now being counted in the battleground states like Georgia, and Pennsylvania may also end up being in Biden’s pocket giving him a larger margin.
Now, whether Joe wins around 300 electoral votes or secures a razor-edge 270–267 winning margin, the storm in the teacups over Biden winning a record number of US popular votes may evade spotlight from a dark fact about this historic election: Donald Trump — even after all he did, all he stood for, all he is as a person — bagged around 70 million votes in 2020!
Even after four years of the proven track record that Trump is a leaning-authoritarian, a pathological liar, a nihilist persona with uncanny disregard for science, a misogynist, a corrupted president who abuses power for the benefits of himself and his family, around seven million US citizens voted him against Joe Biden, who has been preaching “decency” and “dignity”.
In most states except for the solid reds and the solid blues, the fights in between these two candidates have been nail-biting, too hard to count until the last of the votes are counted.
Even if we want to give these Trump voters benefit of the doubt for 2016, in the face of his dangerous lies for four years, these voters cannot deserve the benefits of doubt this time.
Instead, they have proven that all the values and ideologies the US media and the center-right politicians have been claiming as the values of the United States for decades — decency, dignity, and democracy, for example, to begin with — are myths and painted.
At the core, the US voters indeed have no problem electing a corrupted, authoritarian, misogynist, and nihilist person as their president, while the center-right politicians, the likes of Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham chaperoning him to save their Senate positions.
The GOP gave in to Donald Trump with all they have, except for a few exceptions like Mitt Romney and late John McCain.
The nationalist zealot that Donald Trump created in the United States, the right-wing supremacist groups he flirts with, the evangelical Supreme Court nominees he pushed into, the legitimate protests against racial injustice he stands against just turned so important and popular among millions of Americans that Trump’s abject failures in controlling coronavirus that already killed tens of thousands of people — which could cost presidency of any decent nation of the world — could not give them enough reasons to stand up against this wannabe “tin-pot dictator”.
Apparently disappointed with the US elections outcome and full of worries for his children’s future in America, prominent author Andrew Mitrovica wrote in an Al Jazeera column earlier that, “Last night was not a referendum on Trump’s character, but America’s character. Last night, the myth about the decency of America was extinguished.
Last night, the myth about the wisdom of America was extinguished. Last night, the myth about the exuberance of America was extinguished. Last night, the myth about the good sense of America was extinguished.”
On 3 November, these millions of US voters proved that just like Donald Trump, they also believe climate change is a hoax, scientists are lying, and they spoke against abortion as well. On 3 November, millions of US voters proved that they will vote for the candidate of their choice no matter how pathologically they lie and what an abject failure they are.
This US election was true, as the progressives and the Democrats have been saying, a referendum on United States’ character as a nation. It was an election to prove who they are as people.
And the people have indeed spoken.
Giving the Republican party more seats in the House than expected might have come off as a surprise to a few, in addition to it being a blow to the Democrats’ dream to grip the majority in the Senate. But by casting millions of votes for Donald Trump, Americans have indeed shown the world their character as a nation.
