Is it any longer possible for an American Presidential candidate to garner enough votes to say they have a mandate? Trump and his people claimed to have one in 2016 when they didn’t even win the popular vote. While Pelosi has claimed the Democrats now have one, President-elect Biden has said no such thing. Biden won the popular vote by a margin of seven million votes. The 81 million votes Biden won is the most any presidential candidate has ever received. However, if you look just at the states that made Biden a winner in the Electoral College, he won by fewer votes than Trump did in 2016. So, does Biden have a mandate?
As we are all tired of hearing: the country is deeply divided. Adam Tooze in The Guardian stated that one thing is clear about the 2020 election: “it has not delivered a comprehensive repudiation of Donald Trump.” Small town and rural white America, in particular, want Trump as our leader. Some believe that anyone who voted for Trump is a racist, but it’s doubtful that is the case. It is more complicated than that. As in any election, there is voting “for” and voting “against.” How many Republican votes were cast not so much for Trump but against Democrats because of voters’ perceived reality of what the party does and doesn’t stand for. As for Republicans, does such a party still exist? Do they have a set of principles or are they just blind supporters of the cult-like figure who leads them? Why their perpetual silence about urgent matters affecting all Americans?
There is good reason why there is public disagreement about the role Progressive Democrats played in creating the absence of the blue wave some had envisioned. John Kasich, who has been floated as a possible Cabinet member under Biden, said, “the Democrats have to make it clear to the far left that they almost cost him the election.” Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, according to Business Insider, told the New York Times that she might quit politics “depending on the hostility of her own party towards progressive causes.” She cites, in particular, Medicare for All and Black Lives Matter. Politicians such as Cortez have also been blamed for the loss of seats in the House.
The trigger label “Socialist” worked to scare many from supporting Democrats at all levels of the ticket. Vocal leftists who were considered “Far Left” like Sanders and Warren were branded Socialists or Socialist-leaning. It seems that many Americans are happy to have an active, centralized government helping them with Social Security checks, food support programs, and stimulus checks while remaining silent about such “socialistic” programs, if they even realize their own hypocrisy. The results of the recent election may indicate that this fear of Democrats going “too far,” however one defines that, cost them a large number of votes. A large number of Americans would have voted for a sane, moderate Republican if such a choice existed.
The impact of Biden’s time in the White House largely depends on which party will end up controlling the Senate. According to Ronald Brownstein of CNN, the fate of those running for Senate seats “increasingly correlate with the outcomes of presidential races in the same states. Democrats face the stark reality that more states lean toward the GOP in the contest for the White House.” It is nearly impossible for a Democrat to unseat Republican senators in Trump-supportive states. Brownstein states that this “underscores the thin pathway the party faces toward winning Senate majorities in an era or widening partisan polarization and GOP dominance of smaller, preponderantly White states across the nation’s interior.” Winning the popular vote for President does not translate into control of the Senate for Democrats.
One of the factors that is difficult to sort out in election results is the effect the recent social unrest had on the choices the electorate made. Especially beginning in 2018, Trump capitalized on touting himself as the “law and order” candidate, a strategy that helped Nixon win after the turmoil of antiwar demonstrations and race riots in major cities fifty years ago. The scare tactic here is not veiled. He wanted to convince white suburban voters that such unrest would not affect them. Urban race riots have once again been occurring due to the extended spate of officer-involved killings of Black people, particularly young men. Different communities view the police in different ways due to the interactions members of their group have had with them. The rage of many Black Americans has prompted civil protest and riots, including serious destruction of property, looting, and overall mayhem. Businesses now preemptively board up their windows when there is any possibility of unrest. Bridges are raised in Chicago to keep protesters from flooding downtown streets. This situation has brought out the more radical groups on the Right and the Left.
The Democrats are more often than not associated with the more violent factions of Antifa and with anarchists. Most don’t realize that General Eisenhower was the leader of Antifa at the end of World War II. Americans who can’t grasp the rage of African-Americans, perhaps due to their lack of contact with them, are appalled and condemn such destructive public behavior. This block of Americans was what Nixon, and then subsequently Trump, called the “silent majority.” They are part of the reason polls have proven to be so inaccurate in the last couple of elections. Many Trump supporters in particular keep their support under wraps. In addition, there is the reality that all Latinos do not vote Democratic. Republicans garnered large vote counts from Cuban and Venezuelan voters in Miami who fear socialism, and significant numbers of Mexican-Americans went for Biden in Texas.
One of the surprising aspects of the election has been the willingness of millions of Americans to overlook Trump’s tragic lack of any serious plan to attack the pandemic which is ravaging our country, making it not the land of the free and the brave but the land of grandchildren without grandparents and a battlefield for camps of hoaxers and anti-maskers versus those who follow guidelines for public health. Americans are unwelcome in almost all other countries as we are ground central for a pandemic. Our streak of often-rabid individualism and tendency for some to believe in conspiracy theories or to just blindly believe their leader who denies science and plays fast and loose with the truth such as when he says that “we are turning the corner” and that the pandemic is in the past. How so many voters could still vote for him is shocking. Why did they not hold him accountable for his total failure in keeping us safe and in following what science tells us?
The Republicans are acting disgracefully in light of election results. Just when one thought the President couldn’t be more of an embarrassment on the world stage, he is. And so are his numerous minions shouting fraud without any evidence and demanding recounts when none seem to be warranted. Nonetheless, Democrats have a great deal of soul searching to do. Do they realize the electorate has changed? Are they still appealing to the same groups? Can they coordinate their messaging better and at least appear like they are under the same tent? And so, we now wait on the results of two Senate seats in Georgia. One of the most important questions is how far Left are the Democrats as a party? Equally important is how voters view how Left they are. The blue wave never reached our shores largely due to the Democrat’s failure to corral the new American electorate.
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This post was previously published on Co-existence.
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