Time for the states to unite
JOE Biden is the 46th president of the United States of America. Or it looks that way, at least.
The Democratic challenger appears to have gained enough electoral college votes over two drawnout days of counting (with no immediate end in sight) to have unseated the defiant Donald Trump.
To paraphrase former president Gerald Ford, a long national nightmare is over.
As of last night, however, that could not be stated with 100% certainty due to the fact there were still lots of votes to be counted, and still three or four states that were on the redblue border. With 50 states all having slightly different voting processes, and a massive number of postal ballots, this was never going to be a simple process.
Even by modern American standards, this has been a rancorous, divisive, chaotic and occasionally unpleasant election, and we don’t quite know how the US will look when the dust has settled.
Right now, it looks like a bit of a shambles. With no winner able to be declared on polling day, the ‘‘divided states of America’’ are a fractured mess.
That was starkly illustrated in footage of protesters — Trump supporters — all but breaking down the doors of votecounting stations, chanting ‘‘Stop the count’’ as they displayed a bewildering lack of understanding of the democratic system, while in other cities and on the other side, protesters held signs proclaiming ‘‘count every vote’’.
Mr Trump’s ramblings on election night were a worrying foreshadow of what may come.
A shockingly bad loser, the incumbent has, somewhat predictably, chosen to attack the legitimacy of the voting process, even filing lawsuits in a couple of swing states.
It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so deeply disturbing. Mr Trump knows he can whip his ardent supporters into a frenzy, no matter what lies he tells, and the prospect of the coming days featuring serious civil unrest cannot be discounted.
Mr Trump is set to be the first incumbent president to be booted out of office in 28 years. Lacking a bone of grace in his body, there is no chance he will quietly slip away from the White House. He is humiliated, and embarrassed, and he is going to make sure everybody knows about it.
The New York Times yesterday outlined what might lie ahead, saying Mr Trump had ‘‘76 days left in office to use his power as he sees fit and to seek revenge on some of his perceived adversaries. Angry at a defeat, he may fire or sideline a variety of senior officials who failed to carry out his wishes as he saw it.’’
It is, perhaps, time to move on from shaking our heads that nearly half of the American people voted for Mr Trump despite his four years of untruths, scandal, impeachment and disastrous handling of the Covid19 pandemic.
It is Mr Biden’s time, nearly. His nearlyvictory speech yesterday was impressive, speaking of the power flowing from the people, and his commitment to ‘‘govern as an American president’’, not a Democratic leader.
The line that really struck home was: There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America.’’
Mr Biden, in many respects a not particularly inspiring candidate, has done his job. He ‘‘flipped’’ three states — Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan. He earned over 50% of the popular vote. And he and deputy Kamala Harris are on track to win more votes than any other ticket in US election history.
But the real job now lies ahead of him. The world needs him to do it well.