For every American who was watching the 2020 Presidential Election on Nov. 3, it was a whirlwind of a night across the country, no matter party affiliation, filling people with passion and lots of anxiety. Watching the numbers slowly add up, state by state, was one of the slowest, most painful, yet exciting parts of the process as America waited to see which candidate would end up on top. It seemed to last forever. My friends and I sat ourselves in front of the TV, in our American patriot apparel, nervous, yet confident that our candidate would prevail. No matter who you voted for, it was stressful; but, at the same time, it was extremely historic and thrilling!
Currently the number of electoral votes are in favor of Joe Biden with 290, and incumbent Donald Trump standing at 232, giving Biden the necessary number of electoral votes, to secure the presidency. Not surprisingly, the election seemed to come down to seven key states: Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona. A large percentage of the polls ahead of the election called for a blue wave; however, that definitely did not occur. Each battleground state was closer than ever, with the margins of success being less that .1 percent. Because of the severity of these states and the importance of every vote, legally Trump’s campaign is allowed to request a recount, depending on the state and its individual laws.
Texas was surprisingly close in the polls, calling it at 52.2 percent for Trump and 46.3 percent for Biden. This was surprising because the state has historically voted red; however, in the near future that could change, considering how well Biden did. In the state of Florida, President Trump received more non-white, specifically Latino, votes, than any Republian candidate since 1960.
Biden cannot be officially declared the president-elect until every legal vote is recounted. Just because the American people and the media have called the election, that does not mean that it is true. After the recounts have completely been finished and deemed legal, then president-elect Biden can deliver a speech of victory. I think it is important to remember that Al Gore was considered to be president-elect for 37 days until the recount was finalized. There also have been numerous accounts of voter fraud occurring all over the country in key states. For example, White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, gave a press conference and cited the suspicious activity occurring at the polls, according to Fox News.
“The Trump campaign has located plenty of ‘people who are really willing, in their own handwriting, to write down their allegation, put their name down, sign their allegation with a notary there [and give] sworn testimony under penalty of perjury,’” McEnany said.
If that does happen, which it most likely will, there are numerous positive attributes of Biden that will contribute to our country in a productive manner. First of all, Biden comes off as the polar opposite of President Trump, which in some ways is very appealing Americans and foriegn nations who are our allies. Biden is soft spoken, speaks with kind words and can be considered to have a kind soul. He is extremely dedicated to his family, and with Biden having experienced so much pain in his own life, such as losing his wife, son and daughter, it makes Americans feel more empathetic towards him. Biden has also been involved with the government for over 47 years, which means he has as much experience as possible, in contrast to Trump who had never been in politics prior to running for president. His character traits give off the impression that Biden will be a president for everyone, no matter party lines, and will work in congress across the aisle, which is what America needs right now, more than ever.
My main concern, and only fear, is that Biden will pander to the far left end of the Democratic party, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and vice president-elect Kamala Harris, as the Democratic party seems to already be splitting over policy that is moderate and far left.
Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio stated about the Democrats results that, “Our brand is not good. We have over 70 million people who either hate us or are afraid of us or believe there is this vast spread of socialism in our party. It is why we lost so many seats in the house, or some seats were a lot closer than we wanted.”
The far left part of the party supports ideas such as the Green New Deal, free college, universal healthcare and defunding the police. Although Biden has come out against most of these policy ideas, he has been known for flip-flopping, depending on what the Democratic “majority” wants.
One point about the past week that is extremely unnerving is the Democrats’ new call for “unity” and “healing” under president-elect Joe Biden. This is bothersome and ridiculous because what these Democrats are saying is that Americans should just accept these results no matter what, because Biden is a uniting force. The problem with this idea is that since President Trump was elected in 2016, Democrats have used the phrase #NotmyPresdient and tried to impeach him using Russia Collusion to create the Muller Investigation that took over three years and used around $25 million dollars of American taxpayers money. Russian collusion was a false narrative that had little to no evidence concerning Trump, yet still tried to link him to Russia, and the Democrats have been pushing this for years. The Democrats, with Hillary Clinton, refused to accept the election results for the last four years, claiming he really didn’t win and was a Russian agent; yet now, despite the evidence of fraud and the fact that recounting is still occurring, they want Trump to concede and Republicans to stop fighting.
Overall, the reaction of the American people has shown positivity and joy over the projected win of Biden. In New York City, thousands gathered in the streets to express their happiness, despite the coronavirus, which seemed very unlike Democrats. Another good note is that, despite cities such as Washington D.C. and New York boarding up the streets to prevent damage, there has been no reported riots or looting. Some Amercians on the Republican side are bringing up the idea of a “rigged election” and talking about how the election was stolen by the Democrats. This type of rhetoric comes from the President and even secretary of state Mike Pompeo who said there would be another four years of Trump. The media has not surprisingly been overjoyed with the election results, with CNN correspondent Van Jones breaking down in tears and Fox News anchor Dona Brazil also breaking down in tears over Kamala Harris becoming the first woman and person of color to serve as vice president-elect.
The 2020 Presidential Election will go down as a historic event and will have everlasting effects on the present and future generations. No matter which candidate is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021, as Americans, we must remember to come together in unity in order to preserve our great country’s democracy and founding fathers’ wishes.
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