2020 Election: Biden Wins…So What Now?
2020 has been filled with many uncertainties, leaving the people in disarray and confusion. From the Coronavirus taking as many as 262,000 lives in the span of ten months, to protests and riots in the streets as a symbol of solidarity of the black communities and their allies against discrimination and systemic racism, I want to say that we as Americans have not only grown as individuals but as a country, and our decision to come together as a nation and vote out Trump is proof of that.
It is with great certainty that I say it is because of our resolve and determination to better ourselves as a country that we have made it possible for our future President and Vice President, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, to be the ones to lead us into a period of great unity and contentment. I condemn all of the people who went out to the voting booth by any means necessary to vote this past month in order to have their voices heard and demand that our nation become something we can pride ourselves on, despite knowing the risks with COVID in our midst. We have become unified in the sense that we are ready to see a real change in our society and in our country, and that starts with electing a leader we know will guide us in achieving that change. So to those that took the opportunity to vote this fall, thank you, this wouldn’t have been possible with you.
However, this is only the beginning, and although this is indeed a time for celebration and relief, we must remember two very important things: Biden is not perfect and we as people must continue to guide him in and call him out if he makes a wrong judgment call during his time in office, and Trump was not overwhelmingly beaten.
To elaborate on the last point a bit further– there are people who still voted for Trump, who still believe in Trump. According to the Associated Press, 47.2% of the votes went to Trump, meaning exactly 73,904,195 people believed that even after all he has failed to do for our country, including letting the number of COVID cases rise over twelve million nationwide and the failure to acknowledge when black people were mercilessly being murder by police officers this past year, they still thought his policies and leadership is what our country needed.
My question for those who believed Trump was still what America needed, even after these four years of underachievement, is, Why? Was the number of American people lost to COVID-19 was not enough to deter you from voting for him? Was the failure to defend the African-American community during a time of injustice and acknowledge their demand for action not enough to change your mind? How about the blatant racism, homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, and misogyny, and other discriminatory things that he has commented on publicly, whether it be on Twitter or in interviews? It is clear Trump has made himself an enemy in the eyes of many minority communities in the U.S., but not those who are unaffected by hate and discrimination. This country is supposed to symbolize unity and freedom, however, it is hard to believe that that almost seventy-four million people don’t think that community has any relevance to our nation’s political system.
Nonetheless, we cannot ask each other why we made the decision we did this November because judging and arguing will get us nowhere. What’s done is done, and we must move forward in the anticipation of the coming Biden Administration. And like I mentioned before, it is essential that we continue to stay active, that we continue to care and work towards a better future for our country.
So what happens now? Well like I said, Biden isn’t perfect, meaning he is likely to make mistakes during his term just like any other person would. He has made it clear as to what he hopes to accomplish once he is inaugurated, starting with addressing climate change and getting qualified scientists to help develop a vaccine for the Coronavirus in the coming year. However, those are only a few of the many things he said during his speech once the results had been announced. He mentioned how “this is a time for America to heal”, and that it starts with us accepting and understanding each other, working with each other to ensure we can achieve what we know we can achieve as a country…but that means holding ourselves and others accountable when we make a mistake, including Biden and Harris.
One of the things I think we didn’t see during Trump’s presidency was him acknowledge issues that we as a society fought tooth and nail for. Even with the awareness that we were bringing to the unjust police brutality against the black community in the U.S., as well as the systemic racism that we as a country have seen, he did not care nor give any attention to the issue, and treated it as something inadequate of his attention. The hope we have for this new administration is that Biden will listen to the people, and acknowledge the things which Trump failed to. However, it is us, the people, who need to bring to light the issues and make their presence known to Biden in advance, that way they can be dealt with in a way that will have a lasting effect.
So as we wait for Biden to be inaugurated, we should continue to educate each other and ourselves on issues which we find important, as well as be the voice for those who cannot express their concerns, and hopefully, that will let us aid Biden and Harris in creating an America that we can all be proud of. We saw how working together can have an immense impact on something as influential as the election, so know let’s keep that energy going throughout this upcoming presidency, and maybe, just maybe, we can not only see the change we want but also be responsible for it.