The Stretch Run – Election 2020

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

The final week before the most important election in the history of the United States started on Monday, October 26, with both campaigns gearing up for their final appeals to the electorate.

The big news on Monday was the swearing in of Trump nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, to the Supreme Court of the United States at a reception at the White House, shortly after her nomination was confirmed 52/48 by the Senate. Justice Barrett’s Constitutional Oath was administered by Justice Clarence Thomas at the White House event, and her Judicial Oath by Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday.

Justice Barrett is the third conservative Justice nominated to the Supreme Court by an impeached president elected to the presidency with the support of less than one-third of the electorate. A decision by an unpopular president, which will ensure a conservative dominance of the highest court in the land for decades to come.

While the pandemic remains the central issue of the presidential election, the White House of Science and Technology issued a statement on Wednesday listing “ending the Covid-19 pandemic” as one of Trump’s top achievements of his presidency. A spectacularly deceptive statement, even for this White House. The Covid-19 pandemic shows no sign of ending. In fact, the virus had reached a record daily total of over 81,000 cases on Thursday, and the number of fatalities have exceeded 228,000. Mark Meadows, White House Chief of Staff, admitted during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that the administration had “lost control” of the pandemic. This startling admission means that Trump will continue to ignore the advice of the scientific community about face-masks, social distancing and avoiding crowds. He will take no substantive action to combat the virus, relying instead on therapeutic measures and vaccines, which are nowhere near the time frame falsely projected by Trump. Trump has been lying all along that the virus is “rounding the bend,” and that he is in complete control. A lie that is obvious to all except hard-core members of his cult.

The reality is that the Trump administration is going for “herd immunity” – the unrestricted infection, by taking no preventive measures to combat the virus, of at least 80% of the population which will ultimately provide immunity for all. The downside to this plan is that over two million Americans, especially the aged, the poor and minorities, will get infected by the virus and die. A minor consideration for Trump, as he is interested only in the welfare of himself, his family and his wealthy friends who will be able to take the necessary measures to avoid infection. Even if they do contract the virus, they will have access to the best medical treatment that money can buy, treatment not available to the vast majority of the American people.

Trump and Vice President Pence persist in holding numerous “super spreader” rallies during the final week, before audiences of tens of thousands of fans not wearing masks or practicing social distancing, evidence of their callous disregard for health of even their own supporters. As a contrast, Biden’s rallies are held less often and in strict accordance with scientific guidelines.

Trump, cognizant of the fact that his mishandling of the virus may cost him his re-election, has started to mock the virus at these rallies. He accuses the media of “over-covering” the virus, while “they remain silent if an airliner crashes, killing 500 people”. Trump chooses to forget that no airliner has crashed for the media to report, while twice the number of passengers in an airliner die every day from his incompetence in handling the virus.

Vice President Biden has given his plan to mitigate the virus from Day One of his presidency. He will act in accordance with scientific guidelines, mandate masks, social distancing and avoidance of crowds. He will give premier preference to the health of the people, and will re-open the economy when it is absolutely safe to do so.

An admirable and optimistic statistic has emerged during this last week, when over 80 million Americans had cast their votes by Thursday, October 29, either by standing in long lines or by mail-in votes. Remarkable for a nation which has been largely apathetic to elections – Americans have rarely reached voter participation of 60% in past elections. The early voting numbers represent more than 50% of the total votes cast in 2016, with five more voting days till Election Day. Generally, the great majority of voters turn out on Election Day, so the 2020 election seems to be well on the way to breaking all voting records.

The staggeringly high early voting numbers seem to be favoring the Biden campaign two to one, and put extreme pressure on Trump to have a big Republican turnout on Election Day. The election seems to depend on the ultimate result in Florida, which shows Biden with a razor-thin majority. Trump has to win Florida to have a realistic path to re-election, while a Biden loss in Florida will still leave him with many other alternatives to reach that magic number of 270 Electoral College votes.

Trump began the final week touting his Big Lie, that the greatest economy which he singlehandedly created was rocketing in spite of the pandemic. Wrong on both counts. He inherited a booming economy from the Obama administration, with 72 months of continuous economic growth and shrinking unemployment. The economy is in tatters today because of his incompetent handling of the Coronavirus. Over 20 million people are unemployed, with no hope of government help in the way of a second stimulus payment due two months ago. Millions are facing homelessness and over 20 million more will lose their health insurance, when Trump’s new-found majority in the Supreme Court is scheduled to repeal Obamacare on November 10. All this in the face of a long, dark winter.

Biden is currently enjoying a healthy lead in national polls of 12 percentage points. More to the point, Biden has slender leads in battleground states like Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, which Trump won with small margins in 2016, and cannot afford to lose on Tuesday. Translated into Electoral College votes, these numbers project that Biden will garner at least 300 electoral votes; the magic number of electoral votes needed to win the presidency is 270.

Tuesday saw the continuation racial unrest with the murder of another young black man, Walter Wallace Jnr., 27-years-old, in Philadelphia. Wallace, who had a history of mental disease and a criminal record, was brandishing a knife during a manic episode, and his mother was trying to restrain him when the Philadelphia cops arrived on the scene. His mother pleaded with the cops that her son was suffering from an episode, but the cops, when Wallace did not drop the knife as instructed, fatally shot him. There is no doubt that Wallace had to be stopped before he caused any harm; but it is sad that he was executed in front of his mother who was begging for restraint. The cops could have restrained him and taken him alive with less than lethal means, like a Taser or rubber bullets. There is no doubt that a white man would have been taken alive, given similar circumstances.

Biden’s campaign brought out the big guns in the final week, with President Obama campaigning for his Vice President of eight years. Obama slammed Trump for lying about ending the virus and belittling it, and for whining that the media was giving the virus too much coverage.

Melania Trump and the Trump children continued on the Trump campaign trail, though their efforts provided no new strategies, and were hollow echoes of hatred and fear, the hallmarks of the Trump strategy.

There is only one certain consequence of the 2020 presidential election. A close election will be disputed by Trump, who will refuse to surrender the White House. And he will use his suppliant Supreme Court and, worse, post-election violence instigated mainly by the Trump militia, to steal the presidency.

Winston Churchill once famously said, “Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else”. Americans have now tried the extreme option of four years of a captive and sycophantic administration run by a malignant, ignorant, lying sociopath. Hopefully they will wake up from this nightmare, realize how their choice of 2016 has nearly destroyed their democracy, finally come to their senses on November 3 and do the right thing. If, however, the American voter chooses, either by ballot or bullet, to continue on the slippery slope they embarked on four years ago, I can do no better than echo the condescending warning issued to Sri Lanka by Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, in a statement before his one-day visit to the island on Wednesday.

Pompeo has stated that the US “will ask Sri Lanka to make ‘difficult’ choices on its growing relationship with China amid criticism that the island is sliding toward authoritarianism.” Sri Lanka will make “difficult” choices, those which will best help meet her socio-economic needs, within the framework of her fledgling democracy. Sri Lanka needs no warnings as to the friends she should choose; that is her sovereign privilege.

However, the administration of the United States of America, the greatest democracy in the world, the vaunted cradle of freedom which Secretary Pompeo represents, would do well to recognize the slide towards authoritarianism they have embarked on since 2016, on a slope much more slippery than the one faced by Sri Lanka. Notably, its own strangely servile relationship with its main adversary, Russia, while throwing long-standing friends and allies under the bus; its flouting of the First Amendment by condemning an independent media, which its president has called the “enemy of the people”; its state sponsored racist violence against minorities; its partisan politicization of the judiciary; its government-sponsored voter suppression and election rigging; the rise of extra-military cadres of armed goons ready “to stand back and stand by” to act on Trump’s command. Secretary Pompeo would do well to be aware of “slide toward authoritarianism” of the world’s most powerful nation before handing out gratuitous and sanctimonious advice/warnings to a small, developing, sovereign nation.