Shahzeb Khan
BY all measures, Joe Biden has won the historic 2020 US presidential election, though it won’t be official until 14 December. He has now solidified his victory by winning Georgia on Friday, taking his electoral vote count to 306. So it seems certain that Biden will be sworn in on January 20, 2021. Biden supporters believe that the new Administration will help navigate America out of its current crises. However, the state of affairs in America at present indicates that things will certainly not get better anytime soon. Biden’s victory itself may bring further trouble. This election has turned out to be far from the rebuke to Trump many expected. Back in 2008, the presidential election was considered historic not only because the first person from a racial minority was elected President but also because the number of Americans who voted for Obama was the largest ever, 69 million. Biden has already shattered that record, garnering 78 million votes. However, Trump has also beaten Obama with 73 million votes. This may be the result of Americans being more politically engaged than ever (a response, no doubt, to the multiple crises they are enduring). But Biden and Trump are so diametrically opposed to each other that their dual popularity signifies America being an extremely polarized polity.
This division is political as well as social and impacts the way the nation is run. A possibility thus exists that Biden won’t make it to the White House after all. Republicans are disputing the outcome of the election. Their efforts so far seem to be coming to naught, but there is the Supreme Court’s firm conservative majority to watch out for. The Supreme Court handed George Bush election victory in 2000. That election was much closer than 2020 has turned out to be, but this year’s election has taken place under challenging circumstances, with much of the ballots cast by mail due to COVID-19. Trump is exploiting these circumstances to claim votes were rigged. But will his efforts bear fruit? It is yet a question mark. More likely, though, is that the presidential transition will be bogged down in huge obstacles. The Trump administration is refusing to cooperate with the Biden team’s preparation for the White House. Trump is taking various rash actions during the final months of his term, such as firing the country’s top Defence officials. Trump’s unprecedented denial of the legitimacy of the 2020 election may leave behind deep wounds on American democracy. In a time of severe challenges (coronavirus, unrest, Afghanistan exit, etc.,), the consequences of all this could be especially serious.
Perhaps what upsets Donald Trump most is that the success of the Pfizer-Bio N-Tech vaccine was not announced before November 3. Trump was apparently banking his chances of victory on a COVID-19 vaccine arriving before the election. But when this finally seemed to happen, with Pfizer declaring 90% effectiveness of its vaccine candidate, it was November 9, too late for Election Day and even later for the 100 million Americans who voted early. That, in fact, could be a reason why Trump opposed mail-in (and therefore early) voting so much. Getting a vaccine declared in time for the final day of voting would be challenging enough. Even harder would be getting it declared in time for early voters. It could also explain why Trump at one point advocated delaying the election. He must have considered it important for Americans to vote after a breakthrough against the pandemic was made, hoping it would tilt voters towards the incumbent. Trump during this period has come across as a leader who’s in it to win it. It might be unfortunate that the election coincided with the pandemic and other crises. Americans are in need of help, but they seem to have leaders whose foremost priority is their own political success. Election year 2020 is the story of how, even in a seemingly perfect democracy, political players can be incentivized to put their survival and power ahead of the real issues and use the concerns of the people merely as a tool to pursue such goals. As an aspect of democracy, this merits scrutiny.
Witness how Senate Republicans stalled on coronavirus stimulus bills but confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court with hitherto unheard-of alacrity, or how Trump earlier put public image above practical results by expressing reluctance to take charge of a coronavirus-laden cruise ship so as not to expand the US’s official case counts. American people need to know if their politicians really are playing dirty and how such attitudes are affecting America’s crisis management. Crucial lessons are to be gleamed from the political dynamics of a year that is the most eventful in recent American history. And that history is being made right now, with unprecedented engagement of America’s people, who have produced the highest election turnout rate since 1900. Subsequently, the incoming Biden Administration could take things in a new direction. Joe Biden himself prioritized the fight against coronavirus over his election campaigning. And, yet, he won. Americans turned out in record numbers to vote for a candidate who barely advertised himself. They are fulfilling their role as the strength of American democracy. A good leader can only be of use if he attains office and this requires voters to be aware of what is important. In 2021, we will see if America’s leaders fulfil the roles entrusted to them.
—The writer is Director at Pakistan’s People Led Disaster Management.
