What Else Is Happening on 3rd November?
The US presidential election matters. But the other elections there, on November 3rd matter just as much if not more.
“The 2020 United States elections is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, 2020. All 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate, and the office of President of the United States will be contested. Thirteen state and territorial governorships, as well as numerous other state and local elections, will also be contested”. (Wikipedia, 2020)
I thought I had better look this up in case my long-distance view of the USA from Britain is out of focus, as I suspected it might be. Because, reading the endless comments in Medium, and elsewhere, about Trump, I had to forgive myself for forgetting that aside from electing a POTUS on November 3rd, there is a lot more at stake. So much more, in fact, that unless the Democrats win majorities in both houses of Congress, a President Biden’s nights at the White House will be sleepless. The Republican Party, smarting and snarling as a result of the dumping of Trump, would do everything in either House or both, to make life difficult for Biden.
If America (and other countries) could rid themselves of unthinking, faux-ideological, tribal politics, Congress could work with the President to repair the damage inflicted by a clinically insane ex-president, and restore America’s faith in itself. Not to mention restore America’s reputation in the world. But until then, the Democrat and Republican tribes will continue to line up against each other the way Union and Confederate armies once did, more’s the pity. Party politics is way past its “best by” date and democracy everywhere needs to get rid of the already-rotten bodies. I find it telling that in America, probably not unique as a phenomenon but possibly so, that people actually identify themselves as, “I am a Democrat” or “I am a Republican”.
I am told that American people, meeting for the first time, will actually ask “Democrat or Republican?” Getting rid of that level of tribalism is for the future. Meanwhile, what is the Democratic Party doing to ensure that a Democratic president has a Democratic majority Congress to work with, not against him? Not working just for the election of a president, but straining every fibre to get Democratic candidates elected wherever voting is going to happen.
The problem faced by everyone who cares about this, is encapsulated in the Trump-effect, which will either be working to bolster the Republican tribe, or to defeat it. If enough voters, come November and despite the idiocies and absurdities which Trump will have perpetrated between now and then, still believe that he is fit to be president, then he will win, and take one or both Houses with him. If on the other hand, his is seen by enough voters to be the kiss of death that he is, then he will go away (probably to be indicted for crimes, and then regrettably pardoned according to tradition) and the Democratic party will control either or both Houses.
But the problem is going to be … enough of which voters and where? If tribal Republican states vote Republican if every candidate were a not very intelligent red-coated goat, then Red states will stay Red, in all elections. If tribal blue states vote Democratic if every Democratic candidate were a blue-haired goat, then Blue states will stay Blue in all elections. No offence intended to goats.
But if there are enough people, notably young people, in those battleground states where Red voters might vote Blue this time, then there is a chance that the USA will dump Trump while at the same time, voters in states where members of Congress are up for election, give Biden the comfort of a Democratic legislature, then there is hope for a better future. Not just for America. For us all in the West.
If America continues to fail us, then world leadership will continue to be handed on a plate to Putin and Xi Jinping. Who, in their right minds, would want that?
