Waseem Khokhar
The international political system, which is being led by the United States of America has great influence and impact on the affairs of world community. The American policies directly and indirectly have implications for world politics and geographically. One of the key event which take place in the U.S. is to elect new president after every four years. This will also take the nations to ponder over and decide or revisit their policies in respect to their relationship with the new U.S. government.
The 2020 Republican and Democratic presidential contestants, who got their nominations from their respective parties. The incumbent President, Donald J. Trump, 74, was a businessman and television celebrity before entering politics. He won the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a Republican by defeating then Democratic candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The other presidential contestant is Joe Biden, 77, was U.S. vice president from 2009 to 2017 after serving 36 years as U.S. senator for state of Delaware. This is the third time Biden has run for the president.
There has never been such a differences between the two parties, or two individuals, in ideology, philosophy and vision than there is right now.
Both Trump and Biden rolled out their visions for the U.S., while adding fuel to political rhetoric against each other. The conventions came at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is still raging in the country, with the economy struggling to recover, and calls for racial justice growing stronger. The events have set the stage for the final sprint in the presidential election that is saddled with uncertainties and challenges.
At the finale of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) on Aug. 20, Biden accepted party’s presidential nomination in a speech lashing out at his Republican rival, Donald Trump. Biden accused Trump of cloaking “America in darkness for much too long” and causing “too much anger, too much fear, too much division,” while presenting himself as a unifying force to restore “the soul of the nation” and “an ally of the light.”
He slammed the sitting President Trump over mishandling of Coronavirus Pandemic and promised to address the virus more efficiently, rebuilding the economy, strengthening the healthcare system, dealing with racial injustice, and tackling climate change issue. The Democrats strongly criticized on Trump’s tweets about COVID-19 Pandemic on social media platform Twitter. They are of the view that no one can stop it with a tweet.
On the other hand, Trump fought back by going after Biden on topics ranging from the economy to foreign policy and sought to draw a contrast between himself and the former vice president. He highlighted job numbers for African Americans, and doubled down on his support of police. Trump also touted what he believes were accomplishments of his first term, made promises for the next four years, and tried to reshape the narrative of his administration’s handling of the pandemic, which has infected nearly 6 million people and killed more than 182,000 in the U.S. However, Trump did not address the shooting or racial justice in his speech.
Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies at Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, stated that: “Democrats basically argued Trump is incompetent and completely mismanaged COVID-19 and economy … Republicans are focused on law and order and say Biden will be an ultra-liberal who will take America in a dangerous direction”.
The final months of the presidential race also come as Trump continues to cast doubt on mail-in voting, repeatedly claiming without providing any evidence that it would lead to massive voter fraud, as states have moved to expand voting by mail amid the pandemic. He had even raised the prospect that he won’t accept the results in November.
The Commission on Presidential Debates has scheduled three debates between Trump and Biden and one between the sitting vice president Mike Pence (Republicans’ vice presidential candidate) and U.S. Senator from California and 2020 Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris in this month of September and next month October, 2020.
Finally, the upcoming debates and campaign related events covering range of domestic and international issues would build the narrative to clinch support of voters on Election Day, which will be held on November 3, 2020.
Apart from domestic issues the other global challenges such as how and what kind of policy would be opted to handle challenges relevant to the rising China and tackling North Korea, Iran and other states that poses threat to U.S. interests abroad. What will be the U.S. policy for Middle East and Af-Pak, counter-terrorism strategy, issues of climate change/energy, cybersecurity/digital media and immigration? Being a leading player in the international community, U.S. foreign policy regarding policies on economy, defense, diplomacy and foreign aid will also play key role in the upcoming U.S. election.
