U.S. Politics

By George Matthew Paily

6th January 2021

 US politics is currently in great turmoil, but the seeds of the current situation were sowed many years ago. For roughly the last 150 years, politics in the United States of America has revolved around two political parties: the Democratic Party - commonly linked with the color blue and the animal symbol of the donkey - and the Republican Party, often called the GOP (Grand Old Party), and associated with the color red and the symbol of the elephant. Various third parties have cropped up from time to time, with varying degrees of influence and importance, but with little staying power. While over the years the viewpoints and policies espoused by the two parties have changed, in current times the GOP is associated with cultural conservatism, a strong support of the military, a belief in ‘small government’, and supporting the rights of States over the power of the central federal government. In contrast, the Democrats are seen as culturally progressive, and believe strongly in using the power and influence of the federal government to improve the lives of the country’s citizens. 

In order to acquire or retain power, winning elections is a must. It might seem straightforward that the best way to do this would be to:

1. Come up with good policies,   

2. Convince a majority of the eligible voters that those policies are worth voting for, and

3. Convince a sufficient number of those voters to show up on election day and exercise their votes in your favor.

This would be working within the political process of democracy. However, for whatever reason, a considerable amount of energy in the American political system has been spent on subverting the democratic process, by:

1. Redrawing electoral maps so that a party that possesses a minority of the votes overall can win a majority of the elections, and

2. Imposing strict laws about who is eligible to vote and how, often using criteria that disenfranchises large categories of voters.

While every voting system has its flaws, the United States uses the ‘first-past-the-post’ voting system in most of its elections, where the winner takes all, and the loser - even if they have only one vote less - does not get representation in the elected body. First-past-the-post voting is particularly susceptible to the two subversions mentioned, and thus in 2016 in the US presidential election, an unexpected result was obtained - Donald J. Trump was elected President of the United States, despite getting fewer votes overall. 

Given nearly 4 years to govern, Donald Trump disappointed observers and voters in many ways. His corruption and embarrassing behaviour were forgiven by other Republican politicians for two reasons in particular:

1. He had enabled them to seize control a vast swathe of the US judiciary system, and

2. They were afraid that failing to support him would lead Trump to call on his many followers to vote against them, or harass them. 

2020 began with the impeachment of President Trump by the House of Representatives, but he retained his seat due to the Republicans’ hold on power in the Senate. All eyes were on the general election in November, which had the potential to change the balance of power. Then the pandemic struck.

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare Trump’s incompetence, and revealed the limits to what State governments could achieve by themselves. The US response to the pandemic was crucially hampered by the reluctance of Trump to wear a mask and failure to take the spread of the disease seriously. This attitude percolated down to his followers, and resulted in the disease being ‘politicized’. Wearing a mask and practising social distancing - two simple public health safety precautions that everyone could do - suddenly became statements that revealed which side of the political aisle you stood on. Obsessed with being perceived as a ‘winner’ Trump’s reaction to the rising American death toll was to deny reality. Throughout the course of the pandemic, he rarely wore a mask, downplayed the spread of the disease, and criticized governors who imposed lockdowns in response to rising case numbers. Except for a few breaks, he continued to hold political rallies and other functions that acted as superspreader events.

In response to the pandemic, many voters decided to vote by mail - a well-established process, but one that had never been used by such numbers. Many others decided to vote early, before election day. All told there was a historic turnout. Counting these votes, cast in different ways at different times, took time, and in many states the election boards had been prohibited from starting counting early. As a consequence, the results in many states were not clear for a few days. But once the votes were counted, the results were clear - Donald J. Trump had lost the presidency. 

And this brings us to our current crisis in US politics. For Donald Trump cannot bear to be a loser. And so, he has decided, the only way he could have lost was if he was cheated of his victory. And so baseless allegations, of voter fraud on a massive scale, have been made by Trump and his team, with no proof. In his 4 years of the Presidency, Trump has had a very distant relationship with reality, and he has nurtured this attitude in his followers, embracing and amplifying whatever conspiracy theory best suits his needs. And the Republican party, out of cynicism, greed, and fear, has followed him. Without the slightest shred of proof, they have alleged fraud. Almost every time their cases have been brought to court, they have lost - because it is a crime to lie in court. But it is not a crime to lie in a political rally. It is not a crime to lie on Facebook or YouTube. And so they fan the flames of conspiracies, encourage armed insurrection, deny the results of an election that actually helped elect some of them. It is the natural evolution of the GOP’s past policies. In the past, instead of appealing to the people with better policies, they made it harder for their opponents to vote. Now their opponents have voted, and won, so they seek to deny the votes themselves. And in order to do so, they are willing to deny reality.