The story in the English-speaking world, it will come as little surprise, was the story of the American presidential election; indeed, the conclusion of the race has been watched, covered, and monitored by the entire planet, including here in Québec. As of this writing, Joe Biden has been named the president-elect of the United States. Biden is joined in victory by Kamala Harris as vice-president-elect, who makes American history as the first woman to take this office; she will also be the first vice-president of Indian and Jamaican descent.
The election was, according to the calendar, held on Tuesday, November 3. Due to the astonishing increase in mail-in ballots, however, the election had really been going on for a couple of months: nearly 100 million American voters—including this writer—had voted prior to the formal election day. That increase in American turnout also created difficulties for vote counters; as every American state conducts its own election, many with specific rules about when and how absentee ballots can be counted—American and international media could not name an election winner on Tuesday night. The counting in several remaining states continued for several days: Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina all looked like they could play a dramatic and decisive role in crowning the next American leader. Memes mocking Nevada for its slow-counting process flourished. Georgia surprised everyone: votes counted in the Atlanta metro-area broke heavily for Biden, and the state made it clear they would be doing a recount for accuracy, as the margin fell within a 1% vote difference (as of this writing, but it’s worth noting that the ballot total continues to increase the lead for the Biden/Harris ticket).
Saturday morning, shortly before noon on the East Coast, the Associated Press decided that it had enough information to call the state of Pennsylvania for Biden. Major news outlets across America and around the world followed suit. Adding Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes meant a clear and convincing victory for Biden. Less than an hour later, the state of Nevada was also called for Biden, increasing his total, and as of this writing it looks like the former vice-president will win the state of Georgia as well.
President Trump has yet to this election, but, at least so far his refusal to do so appears to be making him an irrelevance even more quickly than a gracious admission of defeat would. Some analysts fear that the next 11 weeks could be the most dangerous in American history, as a ‘’ president flails in rage at the results of this election.
After the AP’s announcement, broke out in many American cities: there was dancing in Philadelphia, Manhattan, Atlanta, and perhaps especially in Washington D.C. Some armed Trump supporters were present, obviously disappointed, but as of this writing there has been no major violence as some pundits feared.
For personal reasons I found the story in Georgia especially compelling and interesting. Many observers credit the organizing work of Stacey Abrams, who lost the governorship of Georgia to Brian Kemp in 2018, under circumstances that are democratically dubious. Since that election, Abrams has built on historic Georgia civil rights infrastructure built by Atlanta-native Martin Luther King to make sure that record numbers of Georgians could vote (adding half a million votes over those that 2016 Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton received). Abrams, in other words, all but gift-wrapped a state deep in the very red American South for the Democrats. I felt I owed her a debt of gratitude: Abrams’s labor of love (and/or vengeance) likely made it easier for this American expatriate to deliver his mail-in vote in that state.
by Nathan R. Elliott
The Longform Reads of the Week: The end of the Trump-era is on the horizon: writers will be struggling to understand this era and put it in within the perspective of longer narratives. Those sorts of pieces began to appear within hours of the proclamation of Biden’s victory. This piece in The Guardian by American writer and political observer Thomas Frank is worth a read: it diagnoses both what allowed the Biden/Harris ticket to prevail, but also the political conditions that created the Trump phenomenon to begin with. Shortly before the election Nicolas Lemann of The New Yorker has also been writing about the growing crisis within the Republican party; this loss is just another episode in that strange , and Lemann gives us some glimpse of what we can expect from the GOP.
i. Ray Charles “Georgia on my Mind,” Live, 1960. Recorded live performance, 1960. Intermediate, 4 mins.
ii. “How Joe Biden Won the Presidency.” New York Times, Nov 8, 2020. 10 mins. Intermediate.
iii. “The Meaning of Kamala Harris: the woman who will break ground as vice-president.” Nov 8, 2020. 7 mins. Intermediate.
iv. “Pre-election day vote surpasses two-thirds of all 2016 ballots cast.” CNN, Nov 1, 2020. 4 mins. Intermediate.
v. “How to pass time waiting for Nevada to finish counting? These people made memes.” New York Times, Nov 6, 2020. 4 mins. Intermediate.
vi. “Wrecking Ball: the damage Trump could do while still President until January.” The Guardian, Nov 8, 2020. 4 mins. Intermediate/Advanced.
vii. “Popping champagne and dancing people take to the streets across the U.S. to celebrate Biden, Harris win.” USA Today, Nov 7, 2020. 3 mins. Beginner/Intermediate.
viii. “How Stacey Abrams and her band of believers turned Georgia blue.” Politico, Nov 8, 2020. 8 mins. Intermediate/Advanced.
ix. “For Stacey Abrams, revenge is a dish best served blue.” CNN, November 7, 2008. 5 mins. Intermediate.
x. “Ding, Dong, the Jerk is Gone. But read this before you sing the Hallelujah Chorus.” The Guardian, Nov 7, 2020. Intermediate/Advanced.
xi. “The Republicans Without Trump.”The New Yorker, Nov 7, 2020.