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There wasn’t that Blue Wave, which Democrats dreamed of sweeping the president in office: no tsunami, but a close and throbbing race, with possible overtime linked to late arrivals of mailed ballots. There was no sweeping advance from the left that should have ended the political career of the regularly reelected Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. In place of the tsunami of blue votes, the color of the Democrats in America, we have returned to a classic thriller, crash in the last vote. With so many disappointments for Democrats: this time the polls are unreliable; the Hispanic community much more Trumpian than expected cost Florida. Biden found himself toying with all his credibility in regaining the workers’ vote, a defensive operation, rebuilding that anti-Trump Blue Wall that collapsed in 2016.
And in the end that recovery of the democratic consensus in the world of work was played between two issues: Covid and recession. The return of Trump, who in recent days has held up to five rallies a day, many of them in the Midwest, has been in the name of a priority: reopening the country, avoiding prolonged lockdowns, reviving growth. A figure from last Friday helped it, + 33% of GDP in the third quarter, a predictable but still strong rebound. The economy remains the terrain in which a slight majority of Americans view Trump as more effective than his opponent.
In a historic election for American democracy, citizen participation has broken records for more than a century. More than a hundred million had deposited or sent the card in the previous days; in the end the participation reached 160 million, 67% of the holders. For a country accustomed to electing its presidents and Congress with a turnout of just over half of the incumbents, it was an exceptional test, the confirmation of a choice “felt” like never before. And this despite the danger of Covid, the risks of contagion in the polling stations, the distancing rules that have created an unprecedented spectacle for several days, long lines in front of the polling stations in all 50 states.
Trump Tweets: We are doing well everywhere. Biden responds: the country votes for change. The soaring mobilization appears to have involved both sides of the political spectrum, both Democrats and Republicans, according to initial data. This exceptional participation concluded a campaign that is also unique in history. Election Day 2020 has come to the end of four years of the “Donald Trump earthquake”, after the surprise electoral victory of 2016, then a presidency that has broken all the rules of tradition, of institutional etiquette, of the political Right. Trump has changed the image of the presidency, as well as the position of the United States in the world. During the first three years it had achieved economic successes and kept many of its promises (tariffs on China, restrictions on immigration). So 2020 revolutionized everything again.
At the beginning of the year, the electoral campaign seemed marked by impeachment, only the third in history. Then came the coronavirus, which has killed more than 230,000 in the United States to date, drawing criticism for the government’s inadequate response. The lockdowns crippled the economy and plunged it into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the end of May, another upheaval occurred with the brutal murder of African American George Floyd by a white police officer: massive protests followed, some of which degenerated into violent looting. At the time, the theme of the campaign seemed to become racism for the left, public order for the right. Then came the second wave of Covid and the president himself was among the illustrious infected. Quick recovery, and Trump-Superman has relaunched one of his favorite themes: the virus that you heal, not the economic depression, and shutting down the entire nation.
On Election Day, a turnout that lasted for more than two weeks concluded, as many states had opened the polls well in advance. This exceptional day came to the end of a campaign equally anomalous for other reasons. The race for the White House saw two whites and Anglo-Saxons over 70 as protagonists, after an African-American president and a quasi-president. Joe Biden ended a 47-year political career marked by family tragedies and multiple political defeats. His candidacy appeared to have sunk earlier this year. The radical wing resigned when the South African-American electorate, much more moderate than Black Lives Matter, took to the field to support Biden. Biden has campaigned for a centrist campaign, in the name of restraint, refusing to allow Trump to defend public order. He attacked the management of the coronavirus, but stayed away from more radical reform plans.
