By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on October 15, 2020
Photo: Michael Fleshman
The November 3 election in the United States is taking place in a climate of hate and division in the country, and violence from Trump’s armed supporters should not be ruled out in case he loses. There are 165 militias including one group who planned to kidnap and overthrow Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, of which many of its members have just been arrested by the FBI.
The real estate magnate turned president has stimulated, day in and day out, the hatred towards blacks, other minorities, foreigners and particularly Latinos; not to mention the constant slanders and insults against the people of Mexico. Will he accept an eventual victory by his rival Joe Biden, or will he shout that there has been fraud and escalate a post-electoral conflict, which now could, as it was in 2000 presidential election, end up being decided in the Supreme Court, already with the new conservative judge Amy Coney Barret inside. It is worth remembering that the highest court then granted victory to George W. Bush by ordering the cessation of the vote count in Florida, despite the fact that his rival Al Gore had surpassed him by more than half a million votes. Trump himself has refused to respond to this question from the media.
On several occasions he has said that a Democratic victory can only come from a “rigged” election. In the same way, he has been associating, against all evidence, the mail-in vote with electoral fraud for months. In this particular election, the mail-in vote will be doubled because many of those who exercise it are Democrats, who want to avoid being infected by the covid-19 by standing in long lines that are already appearing in states conducting early voting.
Trump’s fanaticism, cult of ignorance, and disregard for science and life has reached such an extreme that most of his supporters attend mass rallies without observing social distance or wearing masks. It should not be forgotten that, in relation to its population, the United States exceeds almost all countries in the number of people infected and killed by the new coronavirus. The country with one of the two largest economies on the planet and with such an extraordinary scientific development in general, and in medical sciences in particular, has made a very deficient management of the pandemic, compared, for example, to Cuba and Venezuela, to which it mercilessly blockades by applying a cruel and redoubled economic asphyxiation, even in the midst of the pandemic.
It is clear that unlike Washington, Havana and Caracas place much more importance on life than on any other consideration and they do not charge a penny for their care of any patient.
Although many Americans are harshly critical of the White House’s handling of Covid, this is not the case for the Trump electorate, where many are coronavirus deniers. Numerous polls give Biden the edge over Trump, and the Real Clear Politics (RCP) average is 9.2 overall for the Democrat and 4.9 in the key swing states. But more than few analysts insist that similar data made many believe in the inevitable victory of the overconfident Hillary Clinton in 2016, even within the Trump team.
Several point out, with good reason, that in the peculiar U.S. electoral system it is not the popular vote that decides the outcome but the Electoral College. Clinton got almost 3 million more popular votes than Trump but lost in that archaic body. Interestingly, according to RCP, Trump is doing slightly better in the Electoral College than he did at this time in 2016. This could mean that he may be able to manage what he did then: win the swing states and thus garner more votes than his Democratic opponent in the indirect Electoral College election. And this data does not even consider the possible “October surprise” or any other fact that could modify in favor of the president the mood of an electorate characterized by its fickleness.
Many liberal, progressive and leftist personalities agree that Trump’s re-election would be disastrous for the United States and for humanity. Noam Chomsky has said that voting for Trump is worse than voting for Hitler in the 1930s. Chomsky argues that to vote for the tycoon is to give the green light to an acceleration of climate change with the tragic consequences it already has for life and that it would mean the end of democracy. To this should be added the continuation of Washington’s total disregard for international law.
In our region it would mean the strengthening of the blockade against Cuba and Venezuela, full support for the reprehensible neoliberal governments that we suffer from, and the continued use of force to overthrow progressive leaders or prevent them from reaching government. Biden has moved quite far to the right and has made clear his distance from the progressive sector of the Democrats, but he has said he would pursue a “new policy” toward Cuba and has been less clear about his plans with Venezuela but in both cases he has continued the cynical voice of US-style democracy.
Source: La Pupila Insomne: translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau