November 8th, 2022 / Leave Feedback / nezuppal
With the America’s mid-term elections fast approaching, which will decide the fate of the Senate, I thought now would be an appropriate time to give my own, unique, and flavoursome take on what is going to be an interesting time to in global politics to say the least.
Let’s begin with the current situation. We have Joe Biden (79 years old), who has served 8 years as vice-President and is currently in the middle of his first term as president. The House of Representatives, currently in it’s 117th session since 2021 is led by the Democrats. Within the House there are 435 voting members and the Democrats only hold an 8-seat majority. Slim margins to say the least. So, as things stand the Democrats are, at the time of writing, in a relatively comfortable position.
Nevertheless, the United States Senate, which is arguably more prestigious as it deals with more extensive powers, financial policies and each state has two senators, regardless of their population. Senators serve a 6-year term, longer than The President, so this election is going to be an extremely important one.
Let’s just start by saying that the Republicans are currently favourite to win in the Senate. Whilst it remains close, it is historically accurate to say that, generally speaking, when one party has control of the Presidency and one of the Houses, the other House swings the other way. And that’s what I believe will happen.
I truly believe that the fate of Joe Biden’s legacy, his agenda, and the way direction in which he is taking the country is under serious threat. Whilst Donald Trump is all smiles and waves, with his signature clenched fist raised in the air, Biden looks worried. And he should be. And so should you.
I have previously written articles about how democracy is failing and I do believe there will be a civil war in the United States within the next 40 years, if not sooner. A lot of people look at me with complete bewilderment when I suggest this to them. But history does not lie. Prior to the American Civil War, just before the election of Abraham Lincoln, there was a lot of division within the country, primarily concerning slavery and the fact that Lincoln had just won the 1860 Presidential election and was a well-known abolitionist. However, despite these massive divisions which we can now look back on and reflect, a famous Senator who actually was the first to secede from the Union infamously claimed that “not a single drop of American blood will be spilt – brother will not fight brother”. How wrong he was. How hypocritical he was.
And that is the main issue with democracy at the moment and with the divisions we can see right now. Senators and politicians are able to make claims like these, but not follow through with them. In the end, the American Civil War became less about slavery and was ultimately about protecting democracy and the Union of the United States of America.
It is a very simple principle and a fundamental one for any functioning democracy to work. Majority rules. And the minority has to accept that outcome, even if they don’t like it. The issue with the first American Civil War was that the Southern states did not like the outcome of the 1860 election and decided that they would form the Confederacy as new and entirely different country. This cannot be allowed to happen in any democracy because where does it end? In the Confederacy, what if they then elected a President which a few states did not like. Would those states secede into The Confederacy 2.0? What if within that Confederacy 2.0 another President was elected whom they did not like? Another, even smaller country needs to be created. And so on. The entire point of democracy is that, whilst not everyone will agree on every issue, the majority of people decide.
As Lincoln famously said in his Gettysburg address, in my opinion the best political speech of all time, he outlined why they were fighting this battle:
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
A beautiful speech which essentially sums up the entire American Civil War and what these young men were fighting for. America was a young country and it was being tested on its principles of equality and fairness. Whilst he was wrong when he states that the world would not remember what was said there, he was correct that no one has forgotten what those brave men did at Gettysburg.
They were engaged in a war that was dedicated to the fundamental principles of democracy. And to protect democracy they needed the best President in United States’ history, they needed determination and they needed “brother to fight brother”.
Whilst that was nearly 150 years ago, the same issues exist today. Not just inherent racism, division, and anger. But danger. Recently, as you may well know, Nancy Pelosi’s house was broken into. Pelosi, the Speaker of the House since 2019 and a Democrat was safe. But the self-proclaimed right-wing terrorist entered Pelosi’s house screaming “where is Nancy?” before brandishing a hammer and leaving Pelosi’s husband with a fractured skull. Worried yet?
This type of aggression and intolerance of fair and free elections is almost a modern-day re-enactment of the issues faced in 1860. People not being able to accept the outcome of democratic elections. A lot of people seem to have forgotten that it was just two years ago that right-wing Donald supporters stormed the Capitol after Biden was elected. This was insurrection. Four people died. This was a small mutiny and, in my eyes, a sign of things to come.
But history is repeating itself and people are burying their heads in the sand. The elections are taking place as I write this article. I’m predicting a Republican win, as are most political commentators, but what comes next?
Well … I’ve said what I think will come next. And it is a dystopian nightmare.
Ignorantly Ignorant 