Looks Like Biden! Now what?
Shôn Ellerton, November 5, 2020
Just hoping that all this election stuff will end soon because regardless who is elected in, it’s going to be an interesting four years.
The first day of the election has finished and it looks very much like Biden could bag the presidency. As of writing, the election is not over yet with several key battleground states in the fray and the possibility that finalising the counts could take several days or more. Whatever happens, I sincerely hope that whoever loses, concedes gracefully. And I fear, sadly, that this is not going to happen. Trump certainly won’t.
Much like the 2016 election, the betting shops put the Democrats as being an easy win. Our local betting shops here in Australia were averaging around a return of $2.70 for Trump and $1.50 for Biden for each $1 bet a few days before the election. I’ve always maintained that the election is going to be very close, and as of the end of the first day of election night, it was very close. Trump declared a premature victory speech and the Democrats along with most of mainstream media seemed pretty downcast about it all. But today, Biden is snatching up states left, right and centre and it looks like a definite win for the Democrats.
Now I’m going to be very selfish about this, but one side of me wishes that Biden wins this election. Moreover, I am hoping that Biden wins the electoral vote, but Trump wins the popular vote. As of writing, it is foreseeably possible that this could happen.
Why selfish you may ask?
First, I now live in Australia having moved away from the United States many years ago, so I don’t have to live there whatever happens after the election.
Second, I’m sick to death of all the anti-Trump rhetoric which has spread into practically every nation on the planet.
And third, let’s see how well the new administration under Biden solves all the problems of nationwide civil unrest, the ‘supposedly’ sinking economy (can they reduce the national debt?), the growing disparity between the rich and the poor, those unsettling relationships in the foreign community like Iran and North Korea, and of course, controlling the spread of the virus.
Without putting too much emphasis on schadenfreude, I have this picture in my head when, or if, Biden gets elected. Looters and rioters tearing down cities because of gross injustices caused by Trump, the great white Satan, suddenly realise that Trump has been voted out.
‘Oh!’ They say.
‘Trump’s out!’.
‘We did it!’
‘Uh…. What do we do now?’
‘Is that it?’
‘Guess we put down our weapons and go home now and say hi to all our friends and family and be nice and be good citizens now that everything will be okay now.’
As for Biden winning the electoral vote—which counts of course—but not the popular vote, that would be the best outcome as well.
‘Hey! Let’s rethink that thingy about the electoral college.’
‘I agree. It actually makes sense to have s system of weighted voting after all.’
To be honest, the electoral college is a bit of an oddity compared with the way many other democratic nations select their leaders. However, there is another country which has adopted a similar mechanism and that is the world’s other largest democracy. India. And this makes sense. Perhaps, these two of the world’s largest democracies have adopted the electoral college because of the sheer size of the population and the wide variations of land use and topography. As someone pointed out to me not long ago, why should four boroughs of New York City decide the outcome of a vast nation? Equally so, why should the population of Mumbai decide the leadership of the vast country of India? There is scope for some corruption insofar that an elector will put in a ‘rogue’ vote but, in practice, it is generally rare.
Back to Biden. I believe he could have had a landslide by now if his party steered away from the issues of promoting equity rather than equality, continuously decrying systemic and institutionalised racism, and supporting defunding the police—the most ridiculous notion of all. Not influencing his Democratic state governors to do more to quell civil unrest has not gone down very well with much of the citizenry too frightened to leave their homes, Portland being a good example. Perhaps if he concentrated on how to reduce the rich and poor divide, how to get the economy back on track, upholding the Bill of Rights, and how to break the big tech oligarchy which has gained worldwide dominance in terms of power of political and economic influence would have given him a downright landslide on the first day of the election.
Two days before the election, Kamala Harris released a short cartoon video explaining the difference between equity and equality. This probably did no good for Biden’s campaign as it clearly portrays the message of communism rather than what it was originally intended, which is justice and fairness for all. After all, most Americans value democracy, opportunity and freedom, regardless of what race, colour or creed they happen to be.
For those who have not watched the video, it portrays a black guy and a white guy trying to get to the top of a mountain. The white guy is standing on grass at the base of the mountain whilst the black guy is stuck in a pit trying to clamber onto the grassy field on which the white guy is standing on. The black guy can’t get out of the pit. The message tries to tell us that some people start on a lower level than others, meaning that they are disadvantaged in some way. Anyway, the ground grows under the black guy and flowers sprout and the ground rises to the same level as the white guy. They both clamber together to get to the top and look at the sun together when they reach the summit.
The video is stereotypically racist because according to the video’s creator, we just had to have a black guy in the pit and a white guy on the grass. This sort of humdrum only promotes real white supremacy by further amplifying alleged racial injustice. As for reaching the same outcome, that is outright communism, an ideology which does not settle very well with most Americans.
Here is the link for Kamala’s Equity vs Equality video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4kowE_YIVw
As for Trump, he would have had a landslide if he did not act so vehemently belligerent against all guidelines of what not to do in a pandemic. For instance, holding mass rallies with thousands of people seems to be sheer lunacy. The mass rallies may have put off many stalwart supporters of the Republican party as well. One cannot deny that some of his rallies have the look and feel of a Hitlerian midnight rally. The more nuanced of us will appreciate that Nazism (National Socialism) is about as left-wing and socialist as you can get. The other thing Trump could have done is to. How should I put this? Be a little bit nicer and more compassionate. Even getting rid of his tweeting habits would have helped. On his defence, this is a man that has been battered disproportionally by the press continuously for four years from Day 1 of his 2016 election, so perhaps he’s simply gone into total meltdown.
So, what happens if Biden gets elected?
Will life continue to continue as normal? There are some who express concern over Biden’s ability to lead due to age, health concerns and the ability to speak coherently. Will Biden’s press team provide as much protection as it can by limiting Biden’s live speeches to the bare minimum while preferring to pre-record, review, and edit material before syndicating to mainstream media? Or will mainstream media, being bereft of a considerably more interesting character like Trump, decide to flip the other way to get more readers? There is enough material for the press to keep the Trump character alive for, at most, a year, because news loses momentum quite quickly when the spotlights have shifted.
Will civil unrest continue? Will the new ruling elites remain in their ivory towers much as what the previous administration did? Will the United States still be heavily engaged in international politics since the League of Nations was founded early last century? Will a universal health care be set up and be successful? Will the next administration make better preparations for the 2024 presidential election by improving the voting system without waiting for the last moment? Unfortunately, I am pessimistic because I strongly suspect that we will be here again in four years’ time with the same set of issues—hopefully without a pandemic.
Whether Biden or Trump gets in, most Americans live their daily lives primarily through their state governments. If you don’t want to live in California or another ‘blue’ state, move to a ‘red’ state like Texas or a state with a mix of both like Colorado. I may be eating my words here, but I humbly believe the United States will simply continue much the same way whether Biden or Trump is elected. A federation of states relies on good state governance. Perhaps the way forward to a better United States is for the American people to elect good, strong governors.
