The Return of Conservatism To The White House

“The Electoral College is an outdated, undemocratic system that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately.”- Senator Barbara Boxer. The US presidential election is a global event. The outcome is not only important for the American society but for the wider international community. The United States of America is viewed as the leader of the free world and recognized as the hegemonic power in geo-political issues. The choice American voters faced for president on Election Day was between Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. At the end of the election night Tuesday, November 5th Donald Trump soared to a decisive election victory over Kamala Harris. Trump showed muscle with the white working-class voters who first propelled him to the presidency in 2016, while gaining huge support from Latino voters. Since 2016 Trump has consistently gained support from the Latino community. Undoubtedly, Trump over-performed among key demographic groups especially among younger Americans, especially men and this is foundation of his victory. Why Tuesday?. Originally, election days in the United States of America varied by state, but in 1845 a law was passed to set a single election day for the entire country. (At first, it applied only to presidential elections, but it was later extended to congressional elections as well.) On January 23rd, 1845, the U.S. 28th Congress passed a Statue II, Chapter I "An Act to Establish a Uniform Time for Holding Elections for Electors of President and Vice President in all States of the Union," that defined a special Tuesday as Election Day. The Act states, "Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed in each State on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in the month of November of the year in which they are to be appointed: Provided, That each State may by law provide for the filling of any vacancy or vacancies which may occur in its college of electors when such college meets to give its electoral vote." At the time the federal law was passed, Tuesday in November worked best with the planting season. Tuesday gave U.S. citizens enough time (one day each way) to travel to the polling stations and back. As for Sunday, it was impractical because the majority of Americans attended church; and Wednesdays were market days for farmers, which made things impractical. So, Tuesday was chosen. Tuesday also stayed until nowadays. In 2024, the General Election will take place on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024. In 2028, it will be on Tuesday, November 7th, 2028, and in 2032, Election Day will be held on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2032. Electoral College. The Electoral College contrary to some beliefs is not a physical space but a process. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. The Founding Fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution, in part, as a compromise between the election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The United States of America has 50 States. The larger the State the more weight it carries regarding the number of electoral votes. For example, California has 54 electoral votes, Texas has 40 electoral votes, Florida has 30 electoral votes, and New York has 28 electoral votes. Pennsylvania and Illinois both have 19 electoral votes. Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota all have 3 electoral votes, so too Vermont, Alaska and Wyoming. Every four years, voters elect a group of electors whose only purpose is to elect the president and vice president. This group of electors is known as the Electoral College. The President-elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in as President of the United States on January 20th in the year following the general election. Beyond November 5 2024. Many persons have shied away from discussing the elephant in the room. The sex of the vice-president Kamala Harris must have played a role in terms of the outcome of the US elections. The USA has never had a woman president and will have to wait much longer for their breaking of the glass ceiling. In fact, on the campaign trails there were instances of misogynistic comments thus reinforcing the staunch patriarchal system in place within the society. This strand of masculinity was a magnet for the Latino community and therefore it should not be surprising that Trump received their endorsement. In 2016 the Democrat Party also nominated another woman in Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton went against Donald Trump and lost the presidential elections. The Democrat outpaced Donald Trump by almost 2.9 million votes, with 65,844,954 (48.2%) to his 62,979,879 (46.1%). However, Trump won 304 electoral votes compared to Clinton’s 227. Fast forward to 2024, Donald Trump won 312 compared to Harris’s 226. Trump in 2024 won the popular vote 74, 547, 306 votes compared to Harris’ 70, 870, 926 votes. The candidate who wins 270 electoral votes or more becomes the president-elect of the USA prior to inauguration. Inflation was another of Trump’s big campaign ticket issues. A number of voters openly expressed dissatisfaction regarding prices at the gas pumps as well as their local grocery. During the Trump presidency from 2016-2020 many Americans will agree that prices were lower. The fact is the Biden administration had to deal with the full extent of the COVID-19 pandemic which among other things disrupted regular trade routes, goods and supplies thus adding to inflation. This reality of course was of little comfort to the average working class voter who work pay cheque to pay cheque or the pensioner who has a fixed income. Immigration was yet another of Trump’s big campaign issues. During his first presidency Trump spoke about building a wall, however, unlike the Electoral College this is a physical space. During the campaign Trump was adamant that the borders of the USA were too porous and this facilitated illegal migration and fuelled crime. Arizona borders Mexico for hundreds of miles, and has become a focal point of the nation’s immigration debate. Many citizens felt a connection with the former president and would have voted for him. While campaigning Trump announced that his immigration policy will include mass deportations. This will be of particular concern for various minority groups and undoubtedly will have negative implications for remittances globally. Religion also played a role in Trump’s win over Harris. Many rural, white and conservative Americans were uncomfortable with how liberal the United States of America had become. Many Evangelicals were not in favour of what was viewed as the ever increasing rights of the transgendered community as sexual diversity was no longer in the closet. It is important to also mention the Bible Belt States. The Bible Belt is a region located primarily in the southern United States. This term is used to describe an area with conservative Protestant values. This region also has attendance numbers at Christian churches that exceed the national average. The states are: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina Oklahoma, and Tennessee. In fact, the overturn of Roe versus Wade was a primary example of how religious convictions and evangelism can impact the judiciary branch of government and by extension the lives of the average citizen. On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court officially reversed Roe v. Wade declaring that the constitutional right to abortion, upheld for nearly a half century, no longer exists. Harris campaigned on the issue of reproductive rights which many thought would have been enough to carry her across the winning post. Reproductive Rights is much more than access to abortions. We must be mindful that 6 of the 9 Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republican presidents and normally vote conservatively. Most of the 50 US states are either viewed as ‘blue’ or ‘red’ states. Red is associated with Republicans while Blue is linked to the Democrats. There are some who will argue that there are more ‘red’ states than ‘blue’ states and as a result the Republican candidate, whosoever that is, already has an advantage in become president. If a state is a “red state,” the voters within that state primarily vote for the Republican Party. The term is also used to describe a state that is perceived to have conservative views. Blue states vote Democratic and tend to have more liberal views. A total of 13 states are solid Republican. Those states are Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming. Three additional states lean Republican: Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri. Out of these states, some are considered to be “dark red” because they lean more Republican than the other states. On the other hand among the ‘blue states’ are New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Vermont and California. Outside of the blue or red states, the other states are referred to as ‘Swing States’ or “purple” states such as Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia and Michigan. Interestingly, Trump won all seven "swing states". Other Factors. Some have argued that President Joe Biden should have dropped out of the presidential race earlier in order to allow Kamala Harris more time to introduce herself to the American electorate. Among those who are supportive of this is Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the United States House of Representative. The blame game is counterproductive. Like any other democracy, a strong and united Opposition is necessary in order to keep the governing party in line. What it comes down to is the fact that the American electorate was more concerned about their national security than the other issues which were campaigned on. This is the foundation of Trump’s victory. Trump is also viewed by many as being strong against Iran. This abode well for Israel in general and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. However, only time will tell what a second Trump presidency will mean regarding the Middle East. Young Black and Latino Men . Trump gained a larger share of Black and Latino voters than he did in 2020, when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and most notably among men under age 45, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters. Voters overall cited the economy and jobs as the most important issue the country faced. That was true for Black and Hispanic voters as well. About 3 in 10 Black men under age 45 went for Trump, roughly double the share he got in 2020. Young Latinos, particularly young Latino men, also were more open to Trump than in 2020. Roughly half of young Latino men voted for Harris, compared with about 6 in 10 who went for Biden. Even as Democrat Kamala Harris won majorities of Black and Latino voters, it wasn’t enough to give the vice president the White House, because of the gains Trump made. Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC, the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization for Hispanic Americans, said the election results make it clear that Trump’s messaging on the economy resonated with Latinos. The Rev. Derrick Harkins, a minister who has served Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, has overseen outreach to Black American religious communities for more than a decade. He said that Trump’s hyper masculine appeal worked to win over some younger men of colour. Agenda 47. Donald Trump’s ‘Agenda 47’ outlines a sweeping vision for his return to the White House, with policies spanning education, energy, immigration, and foreign affairs. The agenda includes bold changes like banning ‘critical race theory’ in schools, intensifying immigration restrictions, and pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. While some of these proposals may require congressional approval, others could be implemented via executive orders. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to completely remake the US government and wield new power as president. These include the closing of the southern border and ending birthright citizenship, mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants, impose tariffs on foreign goods from all countries and reforming the country’s health and food systems. Trump has also promised to outlaw gender-affirming care for minors at the federal level, and “cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.” He also promised to ban transgender athletes from competing on teams that match their gender identity, as well as to create a new credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values. Agenda 27 includes a proposed bill that will establish that the only genders recognized by the United States government are male and female which are assigned at birth. Additionally, Trump has promised to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which delays deportation for children of undocumented immigrants. DACA is a US immigration policy that protects undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation. DACA recipients also receive a work permit. The policy concerning DACA was introduced by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012. During the next four years Americans will discover what was an exaggeration from what was reality. Political Discourse. Kamala Harris’s lost to become the first woman president should not be viewed as a rebuke; instead it is a reminder that despite all the technological advancements of the USA the culture and society are not forward thinking and therefore were not ready for Kamala Harris. Unquestionably, in American political discourse a number of factors contribute to winning the White House. Donald Trump’s second bat at the presidency will be much easier legislatively as the Republican Party has the majority in both the Senate and the Congress. The checks and balances are held by the Republican Party and this clearly is a challenge to democracy. The next four years will be intriguing not only for the United States of America but globally as relationships are defined and redefined. Of particular interest should be the relationship between members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Donald Trump. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy must be very concerned that a Trump presidency will not be as generous concerning military equipment, money and other support as President Biden has been. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Kamala Harris has a lot more to contribute to the dynamics of the political culture of the United States. Some have suggested that one of the older Democrat nominated US Supreme Court justices could resign and Harris could be seen as a replacement. Harris’ former communications director Jamal Simmons argued that President Joe Biden should step down as president in his final weeks in office to make Vice President Kamala Harris the 47th president and first female president of the U.S. Whatever happens the legacy of the Trump’s presidency will be felt for generations especially given he might have the opportunity to appoint more judges to the US Supreme Court during his time in the White House. In the words of Dr. Eric Williams, democracy means responsibility of the Government to its citizens, the protection of the citizens from the exercise of arbitrary power and the violation of human freedoms and individual rights. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo © #USElections2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #democracy