After a turbulent electoral process marked by vote counting delays, former Vice President Joe Biden was elected as the 46th President of the United States. He will also be joined by Senator Kamala Harris as Vice President –– the first woman, African-American and Asian-American to hold this position, thereby making her the highest-ranking female elected official in United States history. It is no surprise that much of the joy and acclaim at this news is also at the expense of Donald Trump losing –– a President who has done nothing but threaten the pillars of democracy that defines his very position.
Whether your positive response to the news emerges from Biden’s win or Trump’s defeat, it is valid to celebrate the results from this election. Hindsight does not need to be obtained in order to already assess Donald Trump’s reign –– his abject behaviour, pathological lying, foreign interference and defamation of people in his own cabinet was unprecedented. When he announced his run for presidency, both sides of the political spectrum did not anticipate him winning, and certainly did not expect his time in office to also align with an all-encompassing global pandemic. His handling of COVID-19 has been condemned virtually by all scientists, medical experts –– even ones in his own administration –– and the world at-large, and Trump is seen as responsible for the United States’ high death rate from the virus. It is safe to say that Trump’s tyrannical and authoritarian tendencies being thwarted by a new leader is something to laud.
While sighs of relief are completely understandable, I do take caution in praising a Biden and Harris presidency. It is to be noted that even though Donald Trump was an eccentric and unorthodox figure to take the oval office, he is a product of the system. Xenophobia, racism and policies against the working class and other marginalized communities are nothing new in American politics. Donald Trump and his campaign mobilized the already existing prejudices in the United States in order to win, and while he did not succeed this time, Biden and Trump were close in the race. Despite Trump seeming remarkably different to the status quo of the Republican party, it is this status quo in particular that has allowed Trump’s detrimental effects on the United States to be executed in the first place. The right wing is likewise not alone in this sentiment, and the Democrats have likewise failed to take care of their own people –– especially Joe Biden.
The 1994 crime law, overseen by Biden while still a senator, has been extensively problematic. Although it contains reasonable and applaudable measures such as the Violence Against Women Act and pushed for more thorough gun control, the pros should not immediately outweigh the cons. The law escalated the war on drugs by encouraging police officers to carry out more drug-related arrests. This largely affected people of colour, due to law enforcement’s racial profiling and the overall culture of prejudice within the police system at-large. Advocating for more incarceration for non-violent crimes, in general, is a poor decision that increases the state’s dependency on prisons while these funds should instead be allocated to education and health-care for efficient drug-prevention.
One cannot also forget the flaws and misfortunes of Biden’s influence under the Obama administration. Between 2009 and 2015, President Obama deported 2.5 million people through immigration orders, which does not include the number of people who “self-deported” or were turned at the border by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. While many are horrified ––and rightfully so –– at the separation of children from their families under Trump and the department of ICE, it is contradictory to be outraged by Trump but not acknowledge that the Obama administration committed the same acts, while on a more subtle scale. Even though Trump may have raised the stakes of deportation with the notorious “zero-tolerance” policy, the administration that Biden held a high role in built the cages that these children were subjected to. Obama and Biden also controversially provided assistance to Saudi Arabia in their war on Yemen, killing more than 6,000 civilians by the time they left office. Yemen faces an extraordinarily destructive famine that only escalated due to this violent foreign policy, and this is a fault that Biden now must carry. As Donald Trump faces critique for sending the military into American cities that protested the deaths of George Floyd and others lost due to police brutality, the Obama-Biden administration also parallels this incident. After Michael Brown lost his life at the hands of the police, individuals gathered in Ferguson to demonstrate their grief to which Barack Obama sent National Guard troops into. Tear gas was similarly used as well, and many protestors were arrested rather than listened to by the administration for police reform. The shared attributes between these two administrations should not go without recognizing, and we must hold Biden accountable to do better.
Kamala Harris, while providing inspiration for many women and people of colour to rise in politics, also has a questionable track record. She denied Michelle Norsworthy, a trans woman incarcerated in a men’s prison, surgery for her diagnosed gender dysmorphia, and in subsequent interviews failed to adequately answer whether or not she believes gender-affirming healthcare should be covered by the government. Although trying to portray herself as a “progressive prosecutor,” her actions say otherwise such as overseeing 1900 convictions for marijuana as a district attorney in California.
Biden becoming the President-Elect may alleviate some of the stresses and hardships that Trump’s presidency has inflicted, but should not go without criticism. While many are excited about returning to a more common state of affairs –– a President who has actual credentials, not a credit on Sex and the City and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York –– this normalcy can similarly be dangerous and destructive. Instead of pacifying ourselves and no longer engaging with politics due to a more likeable president, everyone should remain devoted to a more progressive future and push for further change as Biden and Harris are by no means perfect. This is not the time to turn away from current events, but continue to maintain awareness and advocate for our beliefs.