That felt like the longest 3rd of November that I’ve ever experienced. It was like one day was stretched to five days. Of course I’m referring to the 2020 Presidential elections of Trump vs Biden, and how we didn’t have an official President-elect until the morning of November 7.
For comparison, I did experience the Gore vs W Bush election in 2000, but I was nowhere near as invested with politics as I am now. In hindsight, I really should have, as there’s an argument to be made that Trump becoming the 45th President can be directly linked back to that election, but I’m not going there now.
Right now, we’re still reeling from how the 2020 Elections went. There were a lot of assumptions, and many of them did not come true. Liberals thought it was going to be this big “Blue Wave” of Democrats dominating the landscape. Conservatives were confident that Trump was going to win big, and surprise the naysayers with their undeniable Republican victory. Neither were entirely correct. I myself expected it to be a much closer race, with Trump getting 259 Electoral college votes, and Biden getting 279 (apparently I didn’t have much faith with Arizona and Georgia). As of this writing, by the time all the votes have been counted, it’s looking like Trump is going to get 232 electoral votes, and Biden is getting 306.
Response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the protests following the murder of George Floyd, addressing Climate Change, were supposed to be the driving force to vote Trump out of office. The promise of a strong economy, law & order, and the fight against “Big Government,” was supposed to get Trump re-elected. In the end, the Democrats didn’t get all this support that they were expecting (but still won), and the Republicans actually got even more support than in 2016 (but still lost the Presidency).
So what happened?
Political analysts can study this more thoroughly, but let this layman try and share to you what I thought were the actual three issues on the ballot. Misinformation, self-preservation, and the lack of empathy. You can point out specific issues like the coronavirus, the economy, or how Trump conducts himself as the President of the United States, but all that links to those three things. Misinformation. Self-preservation. Lack of empathy.
“We the people of the United States of America,” are not all-in with the “WE” aspect of that phrase anymore. We think we are, but we’re really not at the moment. It’s all about fighting the other team now, and going for the win. It’s all about being defensive against the hurtful accusations. No more reaching across the aisle. It’s the “our side” is better for the country mentality.
For the amount of times somebody accuses another of being racist, somebody else is calling another unpatriotic. One side believes in science more, the other side thinks they are fear mongers. Democrats are socialists! Republicans are fascists! We need to fix the economy! We’re fighting to save our jobs! The Police are killing people! The Police are needed for our security! Pro-Choice! Pro-Life! Trump is a wannabe autocratic bully! Trump is politically incorrect, because he just like us regular guys!
You read something on social media of your preferred news source, and you automatically assume you’ve read the truth, and everybody else doesn’t know what they are talking about. You justify your actions, because you are only trying to do what is right to survive in this cruel world. You are fighting for what you believe in, and you think that’s for the betterment of everyone, even if you just think everyone doesn’t realize it yet.
Not progressive enough! Too progressive!
Not moderate enough! Too moderate!
Not conservative enough! Too conservative!
All that, plus more, comes down to those three issues I mentioned. Misinformation, self-preservation, and the lack of empathy. What needs to be done? How do we solve these issues? Well first off, you need to be vigilant in questioning the validity of the information you are getting. Secondly, you need to make more of an effort to take care of strangers, just as much as you want to take care of yourself, family, and friends. Thirdly, you need to earnestly ask the question “why” more often, about why some of your fellow Americans think the opposite of what you think.
President-Elect Joe Biden also has a suggestion on where we should start. He said that "It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again. And to make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans."
He is not wrong. Our need to unite together is something that must happen, if we are all going to survive. At the conclusion of this 2020 election season however, it’s looking like there are 25 Blue States and 25 Red States. That makes me think that it’s going to be a really hard task to find common ground, when we are that divided.
We need to at least try.
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