I’m not connected to the US, except by my overfascination for the past two years with their history and politics. Still, I considered who I’d vote for. Trump was out of the question. The Tara Reade allegations made me deposit Biden in the same basket at first. Politicians are elected to make policy decisions, and when they err, we vote in better ones. Terrible personal conduct is discernible before policymaking begins, and should not be rewarded with the baubles of office. Over the year, voters who knew they had plenty of reasons to oppose him - Middle Eastern refugees, African-Americans young and old, women of all stripes - still decided to vote for him. I came to the same conclusion: policy that affects millions - billions - is the most important factor, and Biden’s was better.
Celebrating the Biden-Harris ticket still seemed wrong, but I got what the moment meant. One, the word “relief” understates the situation. This was fear relenting. Two, seventeen years after the last segregationist left Congress (and Joe Biden delivered his eulogy), a Black woman is Vice-President, and the most likely next President. Her record is also bad, but not on Biden’s level.
Another reason to vote for Biden, all but forgotten, was that a vote for him was a vote for his Cabinet instead of Trump’s. There’ll still be too much lobbyist interest, and many of these members have been part of past crimes, like Obama-era deportations and cagings. But, again, we can expect them to lessen the harm of some broken systems, amidst a pandemic and economic collapse that require rectifying. They replace a Cabinet of white supremacists, dangerous ideologues, and corporate barons who insisted all is well.
Obstacles remain to the confirmation of the Cabinet. One is nonsense claims of voter fraud, including amongst politicians who decide who’s in Cabinet. Who has the motive to actually carry it out? Who has the ability? How could this repeat to such a magnitude to influence the election’s outcome? Republicans can’t have spent the last two decades tightening voting procedures, restructuring electoral systems and suppressing populations, only to now claim they failed in that mission and let millions of illegal votes slip through.
Polls err by asking “do you feel the election was free and fair?” Democrats focus on the “free” side: were there militia intimidating us? (Thankfully, mostly no.) Was there voter suppression? (Yes.) Republicans focus on the “fair”: Were all legal votes counted? (Yes, some recounted.) Was there voter fraud? The waters muddy between a solution of voter restrictions begging for a problem, and the problem they’ve created of voter suppression.
The second factor is Senate control. Here, the Prime Minister chooses their Cabinet. There, the President’s nominees must be voted for by a majority of the Senate, and right now fifty are Republicans, two (Bernie Sanders and another Northeaster) are Democrat-aligned independents, and forty-eight are Democrats. Republicans have a history of blocking Democrat nominees for offices, like the Supreme Court.
If that situation develops, the solution lies on January 5th. The state of Georgia is holding runoff elections for both their Senate seats then. Both Republican Senators are running for reelection. One was appointed by the Governor, who won reelection against Stacey Abrams (a name to watch, as the figure most responsible for delivering Biden Georgia) in 2018 by purging thousands of voters off the rolls right before the election. Both are linked to an insider trading scandal: using their early briefings on COVID to sell stocks before the public knew. Both are Trump sycophants.
One Democratic candidate is Jon Ossoff, whose defeat in a race for a less important House seat in Georgia three years ago set records, with a price tag of $55,000,000. The other, Raphael Warnock, is the youngest-ever pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr.'s congregation. They would be Georgia's first Jewish and Black Senator, respectively. If they both win, then the Vice-President (Harris) breaks 50-50 ties in the Senate.
The USA has divided along partisan lines. Voters very likely won’t split their votes between one Democrat and one Republican candidate. If one wins, so does the other. Georgia shall be a bellwether of whether voters prefer Republicans, who are split around voter fraud and the Trump-Biden transition, but unified on message, or Democrats, who unanimously reject voter fraud and support transition, but are divided internally. Democrats have historically struggled with turnout in runoff elections. People show up to vote for President, then stay home for lower-scale Senate races. Democrats are relying on groups who turn out less, like young voters and Black voters, while Republicans have white evangelicals who reliably turn up to the polls.
Biden’s victory was Pyrrhic. He ran a mediocre-at-best campaign, and Democrats still lack a clear identity beyond whatever their left wing wishes and Republicans claim they are - emergency services for the climate, defunding the emergency service in blue, and funding the ER for everyone. The lesson is that the USA must reform their political institutions. Not only is Trump still out there; not only are there more Trumps - his family, Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley (my pick to keep an eye on), Ron DeSantis, Matt Gaetz; but it doesn’t take Trumps to grind down and ruin their democracy. Votes must be counted, not illegitimately discarded to suppress voters. The voting system must be fair - one person, one vote - and minimise “waste”, forcing would-be presidents to campaign for all states, not a decisive handful. The political system must abandon gridlock as its goal and embrace fixes. Only problem is, that capability lies with the politicians, and this election proves American voters haven’t made their minds up about embracing better alternatives.
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