Deconstructing the American Election: Where Are We Now?
Rory Sullivan, External Affairs
March 20, 2021
This article is a condensed interpretation of Right of Reply’s episode Deconstructing the American Election. For more information about the original podcast, please reach out to Right of Reply’s current team: Itamar Kofman, Coleman Campbell, and Natalie Woodland.
On January 20th, 2021, current President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sworn in after a historic election that marked a turbulent time in the world. Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic take over the news cycle for the past year, but the insurrection which took place two weeks before the inauguration had cast a long shadow on the future of American politics. The latest episode of Right of Reply, which aired on February 8th, discussed the different elements that made up this historic election, including the insurrection and the role of former President Donald Trump in its occurrence.
This election was nothing if not engaging, especially with President Trump launching 62 lawsuits at the federal and provincial level in an attempt to overturn the results of the election, most taking place in crucial swing states such as Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia. Of the 62 lawsuits filed, 61 were quickly dismissed while one was won in Pennsylvania. In the three recounts he filed, his numbers went down in Wisconsin, but grew slightly in Georgia (where two recounts were done). At the end of the day, after many attempts to change the outcome, Trump lost his baseless fight to stay President and ultimately had to admit defeat to the fairly elected President Biden.
However, Trump was not a normal president. Instead of committing to a peaceful transition of power and conceding the election to the person who was elected by the people, Trump made claims that the Republican party had won the election, blaming the record amount of mail-in ballots due to the pandemic for the “fraudulent” win of Biden and Harris. The insurrection that took place on Capitol Hill on January 6th began shortly after former President Trump’s speech that same morning, where he asked them to show strength after weeks of encouragement to travel to Washington to interrupt the certification of the election results. As stated in the podcast, this was “a culmination of four years worth of anti-democratic rhetoric and far-right rhetoric that Trump has been preaching”. The forces at Capitol Hill were quickly outnumbered by Trump supporters and stealing, chanting, and trashing of this historic building soon followed. Though the members of Congress were evacuated to the rarely-used safe rooms, many of their offices were broken into and items stolen, most notably that of Speaker Pelosi. Once again, Trump failed to take reasonable steps, instead of taking his time with the deployment of the National Guard and telling his supporters that he “loved them”.
And so another record was broken: Trump became the first President to be impeached twice. While his first impeachment was for "abuse of power and the obstruction of Congress", his second was for the incitement of an insurrection, one that many argued he could have largely prevented had he taken the proper action. At the time of the podcast’s airing, the impeachment trial had not yet made it to the Senate. Similar to his first impeachment trial, Trump was acquitted by the Senate, though the vote for the second trial was the most bipartisan in history. The ultimate goal of the impeachment was to prevent any future chance of Trump holding public office again, but unfortunately, it failed, and Trump seems to be determined to run again in 2024.
At the time of the podcast airing in early February, President Biden had already signed several executive orders repealing some of Trump’s actions while in office, including rejoining the Paris Climate Accord and cancelling the Keystone Pipeline, the latter being an action that caused significant tension with Canada’s oil industry. But what has Biden done in the month since this podcast aired? Perhaps the most relevant action of Biden’s is the COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan. President Biden recently announced that the government would be purchasing an additional 100M Johnson & Johnson vaccines and already 91M Americans have received their first dose of the vaccine at this date. Also, a COVID-19 stimulus relief package has finally passed Congress, offering some Americans a light during this pandemic through means such as $1400 stimulus checks and increased unemployment benefits.
Not everything has been positive for the Biden administration, though. His administration drew criticism for the recent airstrike in Syria that took place in late February as a “warning to Iran” to cease their support to militia groups that threaten the United States. Several Congressmembers voiced their disappointment in the administration due to the lack of Congressional support for the attack. Biden also faces significant criticism for the lack of student debt forgiveness in his latest stimulus package, something that was originally promised during his Presidential campaign, but now seems to be very unlikely. Biden has publicly questioned his ability to cancel student debt, which is well within his rights as president, demonstrating a lack of willingness on his part to follow through on some of his more left-leaning campaign promises. In a town hall in late February, Biden made several comments about who should have access to debt relief, such as stating that those who attend schools like Yale should not be allowed to have relief, as if all who attended came from the same upper-class background. The numbers of migrants at the border have drastically increased in the last month as well, proving to be a challenge for Biden as he attempts to have a more welcoming strategy than Trump in the handling of migrant children and their families. Unfortunately, there have been large numbers of migrant children who have been forced to stay at the detention centers for longer than legally allowed due to the pandemic and the rising numbers at the border.
This past year has no doubt been a trying one due to the pandemic and election. In his absence, Trump has left the current administration with a multitude of problems to deal with. President Biden has a long four years ahead of him, and though he was the better choice as President, he still needs to be held accountable for his promises and criticized for his actions all the same. It will be an exciting next four years to see where Biden and Harris can take the U.S., and after the previous four years under the Trump administration, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the world is watching.