Everyone I’ve talked to so far about the election has been in complete shock. In my neck of the woods, the idea of voting for a regime presiding over more than 230,000 deaths due to disease, escalating authoritarianism and political violence (I wrote a whole article on this), possibly one of the largest transfers of wealth to the ultra-wealthy in history during one of the worst recessions in US history, a degradation of the office of the presidency as well as our political institutions, and some of the largest and deadliest forest fires in recorded history is rare, like Mr. Clean with hair. Nearly 70 million people disagree, and at the time of me writing this article the outcome of the election is far from clear. How could this have happened?
The first thing people are probably going to point at is the electoral college. I would add that the first past the post or “winner take all” system is also a major factor. Despite a 3.5 million vote lead in the popular vote, Biden could lose the election due to a difference in a few thousand votes in four key states. This isn’t something I want to get into too deeply since I expect it will later be done to death and I already addressed the ideas I have for the most part in my article on voting third party. Needless to say we would not be having this conversation if the voting system were different, but the voting system doesn’t change the fact that over 20% of the total population of the United States actively decided they wanted four more years of Trump.
For me, the most troubling part of this election is how Trump has managed to not only maintain but in some cases expand his base of support. I don’t know anyone personally who claims to have voted for Trump, and among the people with whom I have any sort of contact, I imagine I could probably count the Trump supporters on one hand. It feels more than ever like there are two parallel universes colliding with each other, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand where people are coming from without assuming the worst. Even if Trump loses the election, these people are going to continue…
