BY BORDI JAEN
US ELECTIONS are suspenseful and thrilling, not just for their citizens but for citizens all over the globe. It is only justifiable given the wide reach of American influence that pervades through multiple layers of society. Militarily, economically and culturally, America has a reach in just about everywhere.
This election was especially riveting, compared to before. One could smell the emanating desire of the Democrats to topple the highly controversial president, as well as the bombastic nature of The Donald.
The media portrayed it as Good vs. Evil, decency vs. degeneracy, so blatantly in fact that to many observers the election wasnât Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden but Pro-Donald Trump vs. Anti-Donald Trump.
The Democrats did succeed in toppling him, though not in such a great margin. In fact, if it werenât for COVID-19, the man would probably have been re-elected. So what went wrong with Donald Trump?
Historically, one-termer US Presidents have one thing in common â they all presided over a period of economic decline. Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Herbert Hoover all dealt with economic woes in their time. It isnât necessarily that the people attribute the cause of the problem to the head of state inasmuch as to their response or lack thereof.
One great example was the Wall Street crash of 1929 that came early into the presidency of Herbert Hoover. His failure to deal with the crisis helped bring about the Great Depression by limiting government aid to those affected, for he was a believer in limited government. Voters made him pay dearly for it.
Akin to this, it is no surprise that many voters made Trump feel the heat for his callous pandemic response, exacerbated by his refusal to treat the pandemic seriously. No matter how much Donald Trump points the finger at China, the economic decline was certainly attributed to him (his promises of economic prosperity and making America great again no longer having the same effect as it had). The onslaught of COVID-19 certainly wasnât Donaldâs fault. COVID response? Another story.
Donald Trumpâs alienation of more centrist voters and allies by appealing only to his more hard-core base of supporters also helped to sway undecided voters from him. The Democratic party had cast Joe Biden not necessarily as a progressive candidate but a centrist candidate who would not go into the far left; this enticed many more center-leaning Republicans and third party voters, distasteful of his crude politics, to Joe Biden.
One fatal flaw of Donald Trump is certainly his mouth, which his opponents have weaponized against him. An important incident was his bashing of John McCain by calling him, âNot a war heroâ and âa loserâ. This left a sour note especially among Republicans and citizens alike who still looked up to John McCain.
Donald Trump hit the double whammy especially because he said all these disparaging things on the manâs death which, no pundit needs to declare, was extremely disrespectful.
One could also see the distaste of establishment Republicans against Donald Trump, such as the Bushes and Romneys whose only cause of lukewarm support was being part of the same party, probably feeling indignant that an upstart like Donald Trump, with no experience in public office nor military service whatsoever, should have won the highest office in the land.
Not only that. In 2016, 4.5 million citizens voted for the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, as opposed to the 2020 candidate, Jo Jorgensen, who only garnered around 1.74 million votes. A few million votes certainly donât seem like much, but as any observer has seen, the margins in battleground districts were razor thin. This means that although Trump was able to keep his base, Biden was certainly able to keep his base and garner votes from those disaffectionate of Donald Trump, no longer an upstart but an incumbent. Apropos to the earlier paragraph that for certain, Donald Trump alienated those people who werenât his hard-core supporters.
One has to hand it to Donald Trump though. He was still able to bite the Democratic party where it hurts them, the minority groups. Despite the constant attacks of the media by labelling him a racist, sexist, white supremacist, and all those other colorful names, Donald Trump actually got a higher percentage of the demographics of women, black, and Latino voters in 2020 as compared to what he got in 2016. The only demographic where votes for Trump decreased? White men.
Donald Trumpâs focus on garnering those votes were certainly effective, especially by playing on disenfranchising blacks from the Democrats (he played against Joe Bidenâs gaffe âIf you donât vote for me, you ainât blackâ), as well as by painting Bidenâs party as Socialist, which strummed the memories of the Latinos who came to America to escape the socialist regimes of Venezuela and Cuba.
His campaign was generally far more exuberant and optimistic than that of Bidenâs, whose main platform was certainly by saying he wasnât Trump, but he played on Donald Trumpâs woes like a fine Stradivarius violin.
Another chapter closes and a new one is yet to be written. Donald Trump still tries to fight the results by allegations of fraud, but the chance isnât high. Love him or hate him, there is one thing that both sides can agree on: in the four years of his roller-coaster presidency, the name Donald Trump will forever be etched in history./PN
