BUT WHAT A CAMPAIGN
First my personal experience: Readers who follow my articles will recall my commentary from last week.
They’ll remember my personal voting experience and the democratic nature of the process.
The importance of answering a critical question before even beginning: “Have you already voted through the mail”?
My answer was “No’.
I don’t enjoy voting through the mail, it’s just not the same for me. The atmosphere of an in person voting venue stirs much more positive emotions in me.
Last week I didn’t go into detail regarding a certain point which ended up becoming important.
Let’s take a closer look.
A few months earlier four different ballots arrived at my home address. One of these was in my name and the other three were in the names of unknown individuals who I suspected may have lived at my residence years earlier. I threw them all in the trash!
I voted in person according to the “Self-Declaration” model.
If I had intended mischief could I have attempted to return the four mail-in ballots and to vote in person?
Yes, I could have filled out the ballots, signed my signature, and returned them which then would have caused each to be counted due to the lack of a mechanism to verify the legitimacy of the signatures.
This, dear reader, is the situation that I have attempted to explain in a detailed manner so as to provide background regarding the origins of Trump’s stomach ache.
TRUMP LOST THE ELECTION
On live TV Trump stated, “While the votes were being counted, I was winning, but the mail-in votes altered the outcome; there’s fraud at play”.
As I stated, the mainstream media has been anti-Trump from the very beginning in a manner never before seen in American history. The mainstream media cut Trump off on live television while he was making his statement.
To cut the broadcast of a President’s statement was an unbelievable event.
Some Turkish commentators made satire out of the situation stating that “the American elections were similar to those of Turkey”.
It’s possible! After all they have freedom of speech.
But in my opinion, it would have more accurate and just to state that the “American media had now come to resemble the Turkish media of the 80’s and 90’s which published fake polls and headlines to harm certain politicians that they disliked.
WHAT DID TRUMP ACCOMPLISH?
a) Domestic Policy: Trump eliminated unemployment and inflation. He lowered interest rates to historically low levels and reduced bureaucratic red-tape.
Trump opened a war against two sectors:
The first was against the big drug companies known as “Big Pharma” and the second was against the “Big Tech” firms such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple and the firms in the mainstream media that had come into their orbit.
If specific examples are needed:
The same pill that costs 10 dollars in Canada or 25 TL in Turkey costs 248 dollars in America.
For instance, Apple which keeps its’ profits in offshore account is in reality the world’s largest tax dodger.
The total it keeps amounts to more than Turkey’s annual national income, not small change to say the least.
b) Foreign policy: Trump reduced America’s military footprint in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria while finishing off Isis at the same time.
He had the Iranian National Guard Commander Suleymani, who was a constant thorn on the side of the United States, eliminated.
Citing Iran’s lack of sincerity as an excuse he canceled the nuclear agreement with Iran.
He criticized previous trade deals with China as unfair and “death by a thousand cuts” and started a trade war with China.
He demanded an increased burden sharing of defense spending from wealthier European countries.
He attempted to honestly deal with the North Korean situation which had become increasingly dangerous.
But in my opinion Trump’s most important contribution, little noticed in Turkey, was the formation of QUAD, a new alliance between America, India, Australia, and Japan to counter China.
BIDEN IS THE ELECTED PRESIDENT
Can Trump’s legal team object to the electoral outcome without any real legal arguments? (Most difficult!)
Biden will be the new U.S. president but certain background factors must not be forgotten.
The Democratic Party is consumed with internal factional struggles. The parties left wing is a hot bed of serious anti-capitalist tendencies. Biden owes his position to an alliance between the left wing and the Clinton-Obama elites. The establishment elites and the rising socialist wing are in serious clashes.
VP Kamala Harris would be quickly put to the test should Biden’s advanced age and good luck end with serious health issues.
Biden’s party holds the majority in the House of Representatives but is in the minority in the Senate where the Republicans are in the majority.
With no clear winner emerging in Georgia’s senatorial race the state’s two senate seats are still up for grabs and have taken on an increased importance. If the Republican’s win those seats Biden’s work will be hard because of the Senate’s outsized power in the American system.
My analysis: In contrast to the polls Biden squeaked out a victory but the mail-in ballot system left a bitter aftertaste with the 70 million voters who supported Trump.
If Trump had won certain groups would have rioted and engaged in vandalism in all of America’s large urban centers.
The armed right-wing groups that look doubtfully on a Biden victory have already begun referring to a “civil war”. These groups have hundreds of thousands of members. In short tensions are still high.
Biden won but Trumpism didn’t die. Trump received 6 million more votes than in the prior election. Whites, middle class Hispanics, and elderly Jews were especially supportive of Trump.
The liberal mainstream media portrayed Trump as a buffoon, childish, and a mere TV reality star.
Maybe there was some surface truth to their portrayal, but it is impossible to ignore the philosophy of which Trump has been the standard bearer.
It’s a serious and well entrenched view that he represented.
It’s a view that was debated by America’s founding fathers, one that has not produced a final outcome, and one upon which the door has not closed.
A philosophy that is isolationist, inward looking, and which is more go it alone.
Religious, conservative, nationalistic, and discriminatory.
It’s one which proclaims the right to oppose imperialism through force of arms. Its’ economic theory is not “the labor theory of value” but “subjective value”.
My main point: We’ve been writing and speaking of Covid-19, Trump, Biden, and America etc., etc.
The entire world watched America’s struggle with or more accurately her helplessness in the face of Covid-19.
Many couldn’t help wondering “if America is falling”?
Certainly, some took a secret pleasure in America’s plight.
Almost everyone had an opinion.
I have a unique and different take.
In my view…
America’s dysfunctional response to Covid and the chaos surrounding the American election have shown: America’s administrative system as well as her constitution which has served it well for 200 years require revision.
We know that small states especially will steadfastly oppose any revision.
Any change will only come after a long drawn out and painful process.
The world’s oldest constitution, which dates from 1776, is not up to the challenges of the 21st century digital age.
It’s clear that the outcome of the Covid struggle and the outcome of the election are two sides of the same coin.
For now, I’ll end my analysis.
Biden’s election victory will impact the entire world but especially Turkey.
I’ll delve deeper into the subject but we have time.
At any rate Biden will take the oath of office in mid-January and assume the presidency.
Translation: Deniz Mehmed
YORUMLAR