Columns

Thankfully, Joe Biden has finally been declared the winner of the presidential election. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be the first woman, the first Black woman, the first Indian-American woman and the first daughter of immigrants to be sworn in as vice president.  

Our democracy couldn’t withstand another four years of Donald Trump. Biden won more popular votes for President than any other candidate in U.S. history. However, it was a nail-biter before Biden surpassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win.  

Biden won despite Republican suppression efforts by defanging the Voting Rights Act, closing polling places and reducing ballot drop boxes, sabotaging the U.S. Postal Service, voter intimidation, and trying to undermine public confidence by claiming voter fraud. Absent these voter suppression tactics, Biden might have won even more decisively. 

The Democrats have a slim chance of flipping the Senate. It will come down two runoffs in Georgia (Democrat Raphael Warnock v. Republican Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Jon Ossoff v. Republican David Perdue). Maybe Stacey Abrams can perform some more magic. If the Democrats don’t flip the Senate, Mitch McConnell will remain the majority leader controlling the Senate agenda. Biden will then be unlikely to accomplish many of his goals, and he may have difficulty getting his cabinet and federal judges confirmed. On the plus side, no more Bill Barr. 

Trump received the second most popular votes in U.S. history. Thus, Trump and Trumpism won’t go away quietly. To make sure it doesn’t happen again, we will have to figure out why a misogynist, racist. lying, incompetent, and corrupt person can win one election and garner 47% of the vote in another. 

Trump is unlikely to be gracious in defeat. Instead, we will see more lawsuits challenging election results in key states and recount requests.