Donald Trump, you are fired!
The female vote and that of the black, Latino, Asian minorities, plus young people, were the faithful of the balance last November 3 and, even by millimeters, made the difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Marco is a 23-year-old Cuban-American citizen and lives in California. In 2016 he was registered to vote in the presidential election in which the Republican Party Donald Trump, and the Democrats, Hillary Clinton, competed. But instead of going to the polling place or casting his vote by mail, he stayed home. He did not like either of the two candidates. Clinton seemed artificial and out of touch with the young, and Trump too inept. Marco did not want to be part of that story and refused to inaugurate his electoral life.
On November 3, he found himself in the same dilemma. In his family, as in many other American families, there was a long debate about who to vote for. The polarization generated an insidiousness that deeply permeated not only Marco's family, but an entire nation.
The issue became so sensitive that I myself attended family meetings in which before sitting down at the table it was recommended not to talk about the electoral issue. Paulina, the wife of Marco's father, asked to avoid the topic because a family friend, Cynthia, was a radical opponent of Trump, while Marco's father, like many other Cuban-Americans in Florida, was equally radical against him. Biden and in favor of Trump.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the air was so dense that it was cut with a knife whenever someone, from one political position or another, broke the rules of the neutral family territory created by Paulina. Political disagreements between family and friends became so acrimonious that they will hardly be erased quickly.
The evolution of a vote
Marco was evolving throughout the electoral process. He first he was bored with the issue and thought not to show up to vote again. With the issue of the coronavirus, he was more concerned about being able to maintain even a few hours of his employment and being able to follow the complicated online classes in economics and statistics at the "College" of his city. Later he thought that, in the midst of such an intense national debate, he should manifest his position: he would go to the polling place to annul his vote, because he did not feel represented by either of the two candidates.
On November 3, he got up at six thirty in the morning and walked fifteen minutes to the polling place. There they gave him gloves, hand sanitizer and a kind of pen. He digitally signed his voter registry and placed it in front of a tablet screen. At that moment, Marco thought of his many friends who in the Trump administration had not been able to obtain or renew their visas and were now undocumented, who did not have health insurance to face the coronavirus crisis, and who in the unemployment crisis would never have it. an unemployment bonus.
There Marco decided to vote for Biden, because although he did not feel represented by him, he trusted that his Presidency would benefit friends who did not have the same advantages. Before his eyes, a machine printed his vote and put it in the ballot box, convinced that he had done something for the people who mattered to him.
Every vote was important
His vote was decisive, along with the millions of young people who voted for Biden. Of the American population ages 18-29, 60 percent voted for Biden, compared to 2016, when 55 percent voted for Clinton.
Another sector that marked the 2020 presidential election were the so-called minorities. 87 percent of the African American population voted for Biden. 66 percent of Latinos also voted for the Democratic candidate, as did 63 percent of Asians and 58 percent of other minorities.
And of all these sectors, it was women who gave the final word. 56 percent of the female electorate voted for Biden and 43 percent for Trump. While 49 percent of the men with the right to vote did so in favor of the still President and 48 percent for his opponent.
That is why on Saturday, November 7, as soon as Biden's clear advantage was confirmed with 279 electoral points, the first to take to the streets were women of all races and ages, standing on the main avenues of Oakland and its surroundings, dancing, singing, raising their hands in triumph, ringing their pots in celebration. In the afternoon around Lake Merritt, in Oakland, the homeland of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, entire families gathered at a party celebrating Trump's defeat.
Win by narrow margin
But beyond the massive celebrations in various parts of the United States and the number of electoral votes, Joe Biden's triumph was less overwhelming than the celebrations. The narrow margin of difference between him and Trump - just three percentage points in the number of total votes per citizen - draws an invisible line between his constituents, the same line that exists within Marco's family and millions of other American citizens: polarization that will have collateral effects, regardless of the officialization of Biden's electoral victory.
Biden has obtained the most votes so far in 24 of the 51 states that make up the United States, and Trump in 23. And while minorities voted overwhelmingly for Biden, 57 percent of the white-skinned electorate voted for the Republican candidate; 76.1 million voters chose the Democrat and 71.5 million for Trump.
That is why Biden's speech on November 6, when he was already sure that the electoral votes were in his favor, was extremely measured. He put triumphalism aside and called for the reunification of the country, reiterating that he would be the president of winners and losers. But it will not be words that unify a deeply divided country.
On November 9 on Highway 101 North, passing Gilroy, California, dozens of people stationed on a vehicular bridge demonstrated in favor of Trump, paralyzing traffic. "Stop the theft", "stop the fraud", "prayers save nations", "We defend our freedom", among others.
To deny or belittle the existence of this large part of the population that feels represented by Trump would be to ignore the warning sign of the dawn of what could become an internal social conflict in the world's leading power.
