On Nov. 7, 2020, American news sources congratulated President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris on their projected victory in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was revealed that Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada swung the election in Biden’s favor, and Biden is now projected to win with 306 electoral votes.
Americans: Donald Trump’s reign of terror is over, and it’s not because of voter fraud from mail-in ballots, like he claims. It’s the exact opposite.
During this election, America saw the highest number of voters that we have seen in years. In fact, voter turnout for this election has been the highest it’s been in over a century, according to BBC News. CBS News reports that former Vice President Joe Biden has received more votes than any other presidential candidate ever has, is winning the popular vote and is projected to win when the electoral college votes. Of course, there will be recounts, but if all goes according to the current projections, former Vice President Joe Biden will become President Joe Biden.
No matter which candidate you’ve supported, it is a good thing that more people are voting. The foundation of our country is democracy, otherwise known as the concept that everyone in the country has their voice heard.
Perhaps the most important part about the high voter turnout is the higher representation of voters of color and minority groups. Voter suppression, especially for black Americans, has been an issue for decades, but this election saw record breaking voter turnout for black Americans, and half of researched Latinx demographics are “extremely motivated” to vote. It is about time that people of color and people of the LGBTQ+ community fight to be represented by their politicians. In terms of Senate seats, quite a few of the seats won went to people of these, or supporting these demographics.
President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory is not just a victory for his supporters, but for everyone. With Biden in office, we are offered the opportunity to reflect on the role of the president instead of worrying about the mental stability of the man in office.
It is time to apply pressure to the White House. Now that we have a president that is not threatening to instate racist, sexist and anti LGBTQ+ policies, does not continuously deny scientific research and does not throw daily temper tantrums on Twitter, we must remember that that is a very low bar. There are multiple groups of people who are emotionally scarred from living in the United States during Trump’s presidency, even on this campus.
Though it is relieving to not live in as much fear of Trump’s policies, there is still a lot of work to do to compensate for Trump’s actions. For example, re-entering the Paris Agreement, which Trump formally withdrew from on the morning that I wrote this, protecting black Americans from police brutality and other injustices, ensuring a woman’s right to choose and protecting the LGBTQ+ community from hate crimes are all things that need to be addressed. There is a seemingly never-ending list of things for Joe Biden to do. However, as our president, it is his job to make America a safer, more equal place for all Americans – not just the ones that he likes.
We have pressured President Trump to do better for four whole years, especially during this summer’s peaceful Black Lives Matter protests, but he has done nothing but chip away at the notion of liberty and justice for all. Biden, though not perfect by any means, has shown that he will listen to the people. His Vice President, Kamala Harris, has done the same in her home state of California.
Social media has been an outlet for people to express their opinions about the election. Twitter’s hashtags, Instagram stories and TikTok have all been politically focused these past few months, and that focus has skyrocketed since Tuesday.
Accounts like @aclu to @nowthisisnews on Instagram have been informing their followers of various statistics and facts concerning the election. There are plenty of videos of Trump supporters yelling to either count or stop counting the votes, depending on the area in which they are located. On the other hand, there are also videos of celebrations in the streets of cities like New York, Philadelphia and Austin. The amount of joy that has been documented after the outcome of this election was announced should be enough for all to see the terror that Donald Trump provoked during his presidency.
It is also popular for social media users to cope with election anxiety in the form of memes. Many accounts had been making memes about Nevada, for example, a state that had been counting ballots for days on end. Social media outlets are just trying to keep everything under control, going as far as censoring incorrect information about the election.
Social media, though, is generally not acknowledging that the most important part of the election is that we can hold Biden accountable for his actions upon winning the presidency. This goes for Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, communists, leftists, libertarians and any other political category you can think of.
Biden and Harris will not wave a magic wand over America and make everything better, but they do not claim they will. What they do provide, though, is sensible leadership and an avenue for our voices to be heard. It is our job, as citizens of the United States, to “build back better,” and it is Biden and Harris’s job to listen to our needs.
The fight is far from over, but this is a step towards victory.
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