WHY THE USA IS THE BIGGEST LOSER IN ITS 2020 ELECTION.

... And you should be concerned.

Joe Biden has finally been declared 46TH President of the United States after one week of intense vote counting. On the first night after the USA elections 2020, Van Jones, a Democrat and Senior adviser to Former President Obama said on CNN:

 “I think a lot of Democrats are hurt tonight, we wanted to see a repudiation of this direction for the country. And the fact that it’s this close, I think it hurts, it just hurts. There’s the moral victory, and there’s the political victory, they are not the same. The Democratic political victory might still come. But I believe people wanted a moral victory tonight. There were people hoping for a big repudiation in this election and that has not yet come”.

His opinion reflected the feelings of a large chunk of Democrats who couldn’t stand one more day of Trump. They wanted him crushed and dragged out of the White House. Since Biden's election in the past 24 hours, there have been huge celebrations across America for this historic moment. Trump is out and the first female Vice President in the USA history is IN.

But even in victory, some Democrats are deeply concerned that the damage caused by Trump to their country is irreversible.

They have already lost 6 seats in the US Congress while Republicans might still retain the Senate. America is in dire economic shape with the highest budget deficit since World War 2. With nearly 10 million infections, the USA has the highest coronavirus deaths in the world. 240,000 Americans have already been killed by COVID-19 while an additional 1000 die every day. Trump, for his part, is sowing doubt by not immediately conceding. He’s been claiming fraud, threatening to contest the outcome and fight all the way to the supreme court if he doesn’t win. The problem is: It doesn’t really matter whether Trump is actually bluffing, plainly lying or being serious. The 70 million Americans who voted for him take him seriously. A solid hardcore of them believe in him. THE TRUE DEFEAT OF AMERICA IS THAT TRUTH HAS BEEN DEFEATED IN THIS ELECTION. Trump's lies have been re-packaged and mainstreamed as “alternative facts”. Trump is still saying “The election is far from over”. It’s almost certain that he won’t succeed in overturning Biden’s victory. Trump’s current public posture can be akin to the last kick of dying horse but the verdict is clear : America has already lost. Here are 3 reasons:

1. America is deeply divided

The United States of America (USA) looks more like The DSA (Divided States of America), The two political parties have become entrenched and radicalized. There are 2 camps bitterly opposed to each other: The White Party vs The Rainbow Party.

Even if you aren’t a political junkie following US politics daily you probably can guess which Party is White and Which is Rainbow.

The White Party under Trump has attracted almost all the right-wing racist groups (Q-anon, KKK, White supremacists etc.). Political campaign, public debate and persuasion doesn’t change anyone’s mind anymore. The White party is fully aligned with Trump and the republican party. When Trump was asked to condemn a White Supremacist Group during the 1st Presidential debate, he did the opposite: He said “Stand Back, Stand By”. Republicans have shamelessly abandoned their so-called religious principles to embrace a vulgar adulterer who cheated on his wife with a pornstar. In case you wondered, Republicans also support gay unions, they just don’t advertise it.

Democrats on the other hand have gone way too liberal. Their desire to form an all-inclusive umbrella Party have made them tolerate and support some of the most morally & ethically extreme positions like late-term abortion.

In the 2016 elections, Trump received 62,979,636 votes against 65,844,610 for Hilary Clinton according to AP.

The American elites dismissed Trump success as fluke. Granted, he received 3 million votes less than Clinton but they could not bring themselves to believe that 62 million of the fellow citizens actually supported a foul-mouth, racist tax cheat as President.

Fast forward to 2020, Trump hasn’t changed. He doubled-down on his vulgarity, crass racism, tax cheating and top it up with nepotism and incompetence in handling COVID-19 crisis.

You would think Americans would collectively vomit him out when they have a chance. Nope! Trump has actually increased his vote tally. His current vote total stands at 69,534,876 and counting.

What happened? why do 69 million Americans still support this guy? Simple: He’s A white Guy and supports White supremacy. It’s got nothing to do with the Economy. Obama saved America from the greatest economic crisis since the great depression, he created jobs for 7 years in a row, gave healthcare to 20 million Americans yet the right-wing still Trumped up (pun intended) rural America to hate him. Trump on the other hand is the American President with the worst job losses on the record. 

He lost 4.7 million jobs since his inauguration in January 2017 according to the Labor Department. Trump has frequently boasted about his pre-pandemic jobs creation. Obama created 1.6 million more jobs in his last 3 years than Trump over a three-year period before COVID-19 crisis, yet his supporters still believe he is good for the economy. No matter how much Trump lies, corrupts the system and embarrasses his country they don’t care. He’s part of their tribe.

They will stick with him to their grave. Look how many were willing to expose themselves to Coronavirus infection just to attend his rallies. Some of have died but many still went to more rallies without masks.

No point debating or trying to persuade them. They don’t believe in facts nor science unless it comes from Trump’s mouth.   

2. America has been dumbed down

Americans don’t pay attention to politics and governance. The average American is more passionate about NFL, UFC and WWE than he is about elections. More people voted for the talent show “American Idol” in 2012 than US president. 132 million people for “American Idol” and 122 million voted for US Presidential election. They see politics through the lenses of sport (mostly violent & blood sport) and entertainment. Trump Understood America psyche and social polarization.

He then leveraged it and exploited some US constitutional Loopholes, played up racial sentiments which forced the majority white people to back him by instinct out of tribal affiliation and privilege preservation. While Trump was attacking Obama as “Kenyan” therefore illegitimate, Hilary Clinton as “Crooked” most people dismissed it as just another WWE/MMA trash talk for entertainment. Today in hindsight it’s no longer funny. Things have become bitter.

Anti-Trump forces are fighting back. His supporters see an attack on Trump as an attack on them. They have stopped listening to contrarian views and logic if it doesn’t fit their narrative.

3. American congress is broken and frozen

Long before Trump came to power, the US congress was already dysfunctional as a result of electoral gerrymandering. It’s a process by which the geographical delimitations of congressional districts are drawn up by the party that controls each State legislature.

Naturally Republicans as just as Democrats do make sure that their congressional map captures the demographics (ethnic & income) group that supports them. This situation means that candidates running for congress don’t have to appeal to voters outside their core demographic in order to win. Within those gerrymandered constituencies, Republicans win by being ultra-conservatives while Democrats win by being ultra-liberals.

Once they reach the congress, they discover that they have nothing in common with the other side. They refuse to compromise for fear of being branded as weak (or sell-out) by their base back home. When Trump became President, he made it worse by bashing anyone from his party in the congress who dared supports a legislation proposal tabled by Democrats (If said legislations contradict Trump wishes). There is no evidence that Biden message of Unity is penetrating the Republicans. He was VP of Obama was 8 years and they undermined him at every turn. If Trump get re-elected, Democrats will be furious and might impeach him again (rightly or wrongly).

If Biden wins, he can expect being stifled by a divided congress with a Republicans Party committed to Trumpism. Even out of the white house Trump would still be the voice for White America’s grievances. He has built a cult of following that terrifies republicans to toe the line.

America was born out of violence perpetrated into Natives Indians & African Americans.

Yet the nation’s founding fathers made a commitment to gradually heal their nation and build what they called “A more perfect Union”. This was the recognition that things could always be improved as long as the country races and ethnic groups stayed united.

They devised a democratic electoral system that would give each citizen equal right and opportunity to participate in the nation building project via free and fair elections of its leaders. A major crack in the system occurred in the year 2000: Al Gore won the popular vote against George W Bush.

Yet the latter was declared winner by the USA Supreme Court, thanks to the electoral college math. Al Gore was disappointed and his supporters were crushed. He had all the reasons in the world (having received the majority support from his fellow citizens) to wreak havoc into the streets but he didn’t. He conceded.

He gracefully accepted Bush’s victory and wished him well for the sake of his country. That’s what Unity Looks like. Today we have Trump who has already lost the popular votes twice in a row (2016 & 2020) yet his supporters still feel emboldened to threaten mass revolt if Trump loses the Presidency (i.e. Electoral College).

Why is Trump willing to drag his country through the mud in order to hang on to power?

Because there are 70 million Americans who back him and are happy to let him violate the rules, cheat and yes break the back of the country so that their tribe can stay in charge. Of course, Trump himself has personal reasons (financial and legal) to hang on to the White House.

The 70 million who support Trump don’t give a damn about the other 73 million who don’t (To them, they are just blacks, Mexicans, immigrants and a bunch of white-sissies). 

Trump has stripped America naked and exposed its hypocrisy.

By his open bigotry he has compelled the hypocrites and closet-racists to come out of their hiding. For 4 years, they have been popping up across all States in America, they murdered George Floyd in broad daylight, they have infiltrated the police, the court system and in the Congress. They are not going back to wearing Klan’s hood anytime soon.

When citizens start taking medical advice from Trump instead of Dr Fauci, the America is doomed.

The coronavirus pandemic may be over in a year or two but America's deep division is here to stay.

Some observers are already arguing that America’s loss is China’s win along with Japan, Iran and Russia.

I'll break it down in the next article. 

Baron Lamarre.

www.baronlamarre.com Main cover image credit: The National