with Rev Dr Chris Walker
Biden and Trump
We have just had the US presidential election and thankfully Democrat Joe Biden won in the end convincingly over Republican Donald Trump. The election highlighted how divided the USA is and also how differently the two sides view the corona virus pandemic. I hope that the style of Trump does not continue to be a negative influence on American society and politics but he is not going to go away quietly. Both the Democratic party and the Republican party need to learn from what has taken place.
After days of counting the postal votes, the Democrats finally did win this presidential election easily but choosing Joe Biden, who will be 78 on 20 November, as their candidate could have cost them the election. I was amazed the Democrat party could not find a younger, energetic, capable candidate as they did when Barak Obama became President. Nevertheless, Joe Biden does come across as a decent person, knows and respects the US democratic system and has said all the right things since the election. He has spoken about wanting to reunite the nation, deal with the pandemic, the black lives matter issue and climate change. Kamala Harris was an excellent choice as vice-president.
On the other side Donald Trump is not a true Republican but a populist who was fortunate to win the last election in 2016 against the unpopular Hilary Clinton, even though she did get three million more overall votes. Trump was strategic and it paid off. He targeted the states he was most likely to be able to win and did so. His style of egotistical, derogatory leadership has appealed to many US citizens who liked his anti-politically correct manner. His criticism of the media, his deliberate untruths or false claims, his abusive treatment of others he does not like, all became accepted as just his style. He had been a reality television host and acted like one as president. He knew how to be always in the media with his constant tweeting and achieved this aim.
The US election is always predominately about the economy with other issues as secondary. Even with a major pandemic this was so. The pandemic featured differently whether people were Democrats or Republicans. Democrats were very concerned about the pandemic as the number of cases and deaths continued to rise. Republicans, however, believed Trump when he said it was not serious and you just had to live with it until a vaccine is found. Trump held his mass rallies with most people not wearing protective masks. It has been estimated that thousands would have caught the disease at these rallies and something like 700 people would have died as a result. Nevertheless, people came in droves to hear Trump and enjoy his performances on stage. He did know how to work the crowd.
Fortunately, the majority of Americans have had enough of Trump and have voted him out. The vote as I read it was less an enthusiastic endorsement of Biden than an anti-Trump one. However, Biden does now have the opportunity of restoring the US democracy and re-joining the world community in terms of affirming relationships with world bodies and other nations in contrast to what Trump had done.
It will be a challenge for Biden to reunite the US after the divisiveness of Trump and the election. It was probably a good thing that the election result took some days to be finally announced. Initially Trump looked likely to win but the huge number of postal votes were overwhelmingly in Biden’s favour. As the days went on the contested key states’ electoral college votes needed to win changed from being Trump’s to becoming Biden’s. Hopefully by taking some time people could see that Trump was not in fact going to win and that Biden was. The final outcome was not close.
The Democrats retained their majority in the House but the Senate is even. It would seem that while many Republican people wanted to see Trump defeated, they still voted Republican for the House and Senate. They are concerned at what they perceive to be the left leaning policies of Biden and the Democrats. Having the Senate split will make it difficult for Biden to make major changes just as Obama found. Nevertheless, hopefully Biden will strengthen health care for the poor, make some headway in relation to the black lives matter issue, take some real action on climate change and even try to do something in relation to gun laws.
The Democrats need to learn from this election how they can appeal sufficiently to the voters to gain not only the Presidency but also the Senate in order to achieve what they desire when in office. Policies that cannot get passed into action are not helpful.
The Republicans now need to move beyond Trump and not allow his style to infect the way they think and act in the future. It would be a pity if Trump’s appeal to the far right becomes an accepted approach for Republicans in the future. Hopefully they will be better than that.
This election and its divisiveness also highlighted the weaknesses of the individualism of US society. Individualism that is not coupled with a concern for the community is dangerous. The attitude of the Trump supporters to the pandemic has meant it has spread more and cost more lives that could have been the case. The death toll has now past 240,000 and will continue to rise. Curbing it will be one of the challenges Biden faces. More people than ever have guns and reducing violence including by the police will be something Biden will need to deal with. Individual rights have to be balanced by responsibility towards others in the community. Australia has shown this.
Biden’s election will influence Australia also. Hopefully Biden’s stance on climate change will lead to Australia’s government taking it more seriously. Let us pray for politicians and for the USA at this time.
Chris Walker
Chris is currently serving the Assembly of the Uniting Church as the National Consultant for Theology and Discipleship.
He has served in a range of positions and places in the Uniting Church including local church ministry in three congregations in NSW, as a regional education and mission officer, and consultant for evangelism and discipleship, in Queensland, as principal of Parkin-Wesley College in SA, and as a mission resource officer for Parramatta-Nepean Presbytery.
He has a passion for theology, mission and discipleship. His interest in writing has resulted in various publications including five books, most recently Peace Like A Diamond: facets of peace (Spectrum, 2009) and Living Life to the Full: Spirituality for today’s baby boomers (Openbook, 2005).