The US election is over, yet not over
If Al Gore's situation is repeated this time, the real face of the country that claims to be the world's strongest democracy will be exposed
The United State's (US) election is over. The results have been announced, but tension remains. What is going to happen in this superpower of the world? Trump has almost publicly announced that he does not accept the election results.
Trump's lawyers are expected to go to court within a day or two. Trump's last hope is the court. Previously, Bush seized power with the help of the court. The US Supreme Court at the time banned the recount of votes in Florida in a 5-4 vote, causing Democrat candidate Al Gore to lose. The Federal Supreme Court at the time had five Republican nominated judges.
The situation is more favourable for Trump now than it was then. The Republicans are still a majority in the Federal Supreme Court. Currently, six of the nine judges are Republican nominees. That is why it is easy to guess why Trump has been refusing to accept the election results from the very beginning!
The downside, however, is that if Al Gore's situation is repeated this time, the real face of the country that claims to be the world's strongest democracy will be exposed. The identity of the partisan justice system will also be revealed. Such a justice system would be strong even in the non-developed world.
Donald Trump's political life is colourful. In addition to achieving business success as the child of a real estate businessman, he dreamed of becoming the president, which is the most powerful position in America. Trump had been a television personality for a long time. He was the host of a reality show on NBC. Business skills had been the subject of the show that aired from 2004. The 15-episode show brought him wide familiarity. The success of the show encouraged him to get into politics.
Trump first became a Democrat. He then joined a less-known party called the Reform Party. From there, he became a Republican but then returned to the Democratic Party before finally being a Republican again in 2012. That year, he provided substantial financial support for the election to prove himself as a staunch Republican, and Republican candidates at all levels received financial support from him. Despite not being widely known in the political arena, his arbitrary funding helped him get to the top levels of the Republican Party.
Then came his incredible achievement. Hillary Clinton, who is globally known, lost to Trump in the 2016 election due to a difference in Electoral College votes. Hillary had been known worldwide long ago. When the Republicans initiated to impeach Bill Clinton in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Hillary became widely known to the American people by publicly describing the allegations against her husband as her family affair. Hillary, who has a long political career, lost to Trump's extreme nationalist philosophy.
During Trump's tenure, the US withdrew from many global agreements. For example, Trump ignored the opinions of his close friends in Europe on the Paris Agreement on climate, the World Trade Organization and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement with Iran. His role in escalating the US trade war with China created a new global challenge.
America is a country of immigrants. But while in power, what Trump did went against immigrants. He exercised many aspects of his presidential power, including: building wall segments on the Mexican border, separating the children of irregular immigrants from their parents, restricting the arrival of family members of legal immigrants to the US, and banning immigration from several Muslim countries.
These moves drew severe criticism. US civil society also opposed these activities that were against public interest, but Trump still did not change his aggressive "America First" policy. Last year, the US Congress voted to remove him, but he survived impeachment because of the Republican majority in the Senate.
When the election year began and the novel coronavirus broke out globally, no country in the world accepted the allegations Trump raised against China. At the same time, he ignored the opinions of his country's virus experts and told the citizens not to follow the health guideline of wearing a face mask. This caused infections to soar in the country. The US is still known as a country having one of the highest novel coronavirus death tolls in the world.
Such stubborn and misguided policies are among the many reasons for his defeat in the elections. His aggressive white supremacy ideology has also completely polarised the country into two groups. As a result, the US recorded the highest turnout in its history at the polls. Just as Joe Biden was elected the 46th president by bagging the highest number of votes in this year's presidential elections, Trump also lost as a candidate who got the highest number of votes.
Vice-President Kamala Harris helped Biden move forward. This woman of Indian descent has made history in the United States by being elected the first female vice-president. An extraordinary speaker and the child of a Jamaican father, Kamala is a lawyer by profession. Her father was an economics professor, and her Indian mother was a biomedical student at Harvard University. Her mother passed away in 2009.
Trump's defeat and Joe Biden's victory have put Turkey's Erdogan and India's Modi government in the most embarrassing situation internationally. Indian Prime Minister Modi had almost publicly asked Americans to vote for Trump. Biden, on the other hand, previously criticised India for issues such as the NRC in Assam, the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir and the religion-based citizenship law.
However, a change in government does not result in big changes in US policy. This is more applicable to a political leader like Joe Biden, who has long experience in the field of politics. But it can certainly be assumed that an extreme situation is waiting for Saudi Prince Salman. Joe Biden has publicly slammed the killing of children in Yemen or the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Khashoggi. However, the Middle East policy the US administration had when Obama was the president is still controversial.
Biden entered politics at the age of 29. He highlighted in his election speeches that he is the son of a car salesman. He is not an heir to family property.
In this election as well as the last one, there was strong competition between Hillary and Bernie Sanders, elected from Vermont. Sanders introduced himself as a democratic socialist. His new definition is completely new to the world. It was because of his initiative that the proposal to raise the minimum wage from the current $9.75 to $15 was accepted at the Democratic convention.
Socialism is almost a taboo subject in US society. Although politicians bring into discussions many examples of public welfare, no one calls himself a socialist. Sanders was different in this regard.
Every time Trump called Biden a socialist, the latter opposed the former. At the initial stage of the election, Sanders competed with Biden, but could not survive the race. However, the fact that Sanders had been nominated by the Democrats twice in a row has increased the chances of the party being identified as left-wing.
The US Communist Party was born in 1919. For years, they contested the presidential elections and 0.26% was the highest share of vote they secured in 1924. The party's followers are still there, and one of them is Noam Chomsky, a renowned intellectual. He openly sought public opinion for Trump's removal.
According to the Constitution of the United States, Trump will hold power until 11:59pm on January 19, 2021. Let us see where and how he exercises his power until then.
I would like to conclude by mentioning the good news the world received shortly after Biden's victory was announced. Pfizer and BioNTech, the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, have announced that their Covid-19 vaccine is 90% effective.
Monowarul Hoque is a political analyst
