Election Results in Mixed Emotions

Like many Democratic voters and activists the recent election results have left me with mixed emotions. We’re all pretty happy that Joe Biden will be president in January. Many of us are disturbed by the level of support the reality show star pretending to be president received from Republican voters. The man is incompetent and yet 10 million more Americans voted for him in 2020 than did in 2016. Fortunately nearly 13 million more voted for Biden than Hillary Clinton. No sitting president has lost by as wide a margin since 1932 when the Great Depression was in full swing and Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover.

I’m frustrated because even with such an overwhelming margin of victory control of the United States Senate is in doubt and the only chance we have is for Georgia to elect two Democrats in the runoff there in early January. If they both Democrats win, each party will have 50 senators and Vice President Harris will be the tie breaker. If either or both lose we will likely see Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doing everything he can to obstruct President Biden, much like he did to President Obama. That will mean preventing the appointment of dozens of federal judges all over the country, refusal to confirm cabinet nominations, failing to hold hearings on legislation passed by the House and much more.

I’m encouraged that judges appointed by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush are shutting down lawsuits claiming election fraud but providing no evidence. I worry because the Republican Party has lurched toward authoritarianism under the current president and its leaders like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio are continuing to lead the charge with full throated support of debunked election fraud claims that their own judges have rejected.

I look forward to Joe Biden reversing much of the damage done by his predecessor but that’s not enough. I want real progress on really important issues like climate change and health care. I fear that once again too many will sit on their hands now that he has won and forget the lesson of the Obama administration which is that if we the people don’t demand such progress Congress will be all too happy to just go along to get along.

The increased support voters have shown for authoritarian leaders here like in much of Europe gives me great concern about 2024. There is precedent for my trepidation, just look at Hungary where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party have politicized the courts, decimated independent media, destroyed academic freedom, hobbled civil society, and promoted xenophobia. Orbán’s seizure of absolute power at the beginning of April, under the cover of the coronavirus pandemic, culminates a decade of authoritarian moves. Turkey is another example of the trend toward authoritarian leaders where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gone from being a model of democratic political Islam to a traditional autocrat, using a counterterrorism campaign to crack down on dissent and a failed coup as an excuse to purge political opponents.

If you want to see improvement in your life and the lives of your family you’re going to have to stay engaged for the long term. Voting every two years isn’t enough, even participating in get out the vote activities for a few months each election cycle isn’t enough. It’s going to take calling our legislators and badgering them about the issues that matter to you to prevent our democracy from failing like Hungary and Turkey. As President Obama once pointed out “We are the change we’ve been waiting for.”

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 18, 2020