If Donald Trump beats Joe Biden, America and the world will pay a high price
Today America will decide between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. More than 230,000 polling stations will open for a presidential election that will see the largest turnout in over a century. Progressives in Europe and the United Kingdom are hoping for new leadership in the White House and the end of four years, of breathtaking incompetence and recklessness.
But at the end of this campaign, there are big questions to be answered. How did this happen and how could America reinvent itself and become a serious democracy? In his book Identity, Francis Fukuyama said: “Trump himself was both the product of and a contributor to this decay.”
This has been a campaign of grim and startling statistics: a coronavirus pandemic of more than nine million cases and more than 230,000 deaths; a remarkable and record-breaking total of nearly 100 million Americans having already exercised their mandate through mail-in voting, absentee ballots and early voting; and a predicted turnout of more than 150 million voters, 20 million up on 2016 and the highest election turnout since 1908.
Sadly, there is a downside. The removal of thousands of polling places in Republican states and an armoury of voter-suppression weapons are being used to prevent the poor, the young and non-whites from voting. And, if only to illustrate how off-kilter America is, guns are permitted inside many polling stations, widespread intimidation of black voters is taking place, and heavily armed militias are menacing voters.
Trump also continues to break records. The Washington Post has documented how he has been “drowning in his own lies”, in the words of columnist Greg Sargent. Having made 20,000 faulse statements, lies or misleading claims in four years, Trump has been “relentlessly and uncontrollably lying about literally everything”.
Looking back in history, the first presidential election took place between December 1788 and January 1789, under the new constitution ratified in 1788. George Washington became President and John Adams was his vice-president. Only white males, over 21, had any form of franchise but in this election the legislators selected the voters. This was the first opportunity to try out the infamous “Electoral College”.
The population of the 13 states was three million – 2.4 million were free and 600,000 were slaves. Slaves were not regarded as people and had no rights. But at least then, there was a crude and undignified constitutional honesty about excluding blacks from voting, unlike now where at least 26 states are working frantically to deny African Americans their legal voting rights. The corrupt handling of African American votes could be the difference between defeat or victory for Biden.
Despite the claims of Republicans, that these measures are aimed at checking IDS and tackling fraud, there is no evidence of such abuse. Voter suppression is racist, anti-democratic and morally indefensible. As the polls open, this is another reminder of why this country has a great deal of soulsearching to do if its democracy is to survive populism and authoritarianism. If he wins, Biden faces an unimaginable first 100 days in office.
On a lighter note, just before George Washington took his oath of office in 1789, Congress discussed the question of “titles” for the new “Commander in Chief ”, an activity that would have consumed Donald Trump’s narcissism. There were several suggestions: “His Excellency”, “Elective majesty”, “His Serene Highness”, “Elective Highness” and his “Highness the President of the United States and Protector of the Rights of the same”. “High Mightiness” was another option, which would have certainly appealed to the current President. The founding fathers were clearly still in awe of their old colonial masters!
Not surprisingly, the campaign has ended on the same depressing level of insults and abuse. Trump has accused Biden of operating at “50 per cent mental capacity” and “waving a white flag on life”. And Biden suggested that Trump “had surrendered, waived the white flag and left the Covid-19 battlefield”, after the deaths of a quarter of a million Americans. This followed an admission by White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, that “the US is not going to control the virus”.
Trump’s tragic handling of Covid-19 is the issue that will tip the balance in favour of Joe Biden. The President, having given up the struggle against the pandemic, has insulted America by prioritising winning the election above winning the war against the virus. The gravest charge against Trump is that he bears responsibility for the needless deaths of thousands of Americans. This has highlighted his failure as a human being, never mind his tortured time as President of the United States.
In the court of public opinion, Americans increasingly recognise his dereliction of duty, suppression of the truth, and obstruction of justice in relation to those who lost family and friends. The terms of his impeachment over alleged collusion with Russia seem insignificant in comparison!
Lives and livelihoods remain at the heart of today’s polling. Trump’s four years have been highly disruptive, but four more years could be destructive for America and the international order. There is no escaping Trump’s catastrophic handling of the greatest threat to America this century. Populist authoritarianism – a contagion in itself – has contributed to the worst death toll of any country in the world and the massive economic damage that is now unfolding.
Four years ago, tonight, watching the election results on television in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an anticipated celebration of a Clinton victory gave way to the dark disappointment of a Trump victory. Maybe the early hours of tomorrow, or the following weeks or possibly months, will record a different result. Jon Meacham, writing in his latest book, The Soul of America, said “we have come through such darkness before”. Let us hope he is right.
God bless America!