THE PIVOTAL 2020 ELECTION
The contentious American election of 2020 is a consequential American crossroads. Trump v. Biden may have appeared to be a referendum on a controversial incumbent and influenced by a pandemic. However, there is significantly more about our political system, economic way of life, character, and cultural direction in the balance. For the first time since 1789, the United States of America may transition away from multiparty and balanced governance, free market capitalism and traditional Judeo-Christian values. After transcending communism in the Cold War, America might ironically become a centralized, one party, socialist and secular nation. Moreover, the temperament of the current president has inflamed an emotional and additional justification for revisionists and progressives. Some have militantly sought this fundamental American transformation that they righteously, if illiberally, believe is evident, vital, and long-obstructed. Meanwhile, conservatives fear that a fateful Constitutional crisis may soon be upon us.
ANDREW JACKSON EMBODIED
The energetic Donald Trump is the embodiment of Andrew Jackson, an impetuous and insensitive populist who intellectuals, academics and establishment Washington despise. It was no accident that Trump selected Jackson’s portrait for his White House Oval Office. As Jackson, Trump’s unorthodox presence mortified and terrified the elite government and media class. Therefore, they mounted a coup d’état and unleashed impeachment to neutralize but unsuccessfully depose him. Likewise, rather than counter America First with superior ideas, opponents chose to exaggerate, entrap, and frame Trump. This was how opponents tried to get rid of the polarizing Jackson. However, allies rationalize Trump as the defender of traditional America. They support canceling the problematic Iran nuclear deal, confronting China, championing Israel, unilateral trade deals, tariffs, replacing the NAFTA treaty, and border security. Furthermore, supporters view three conservative SCOTUS justices, a robust economy, tax cuts, wage increases and energy independence to be consequential achievements.
C’MON, MAN!
The subdued if reliably establishment challenger Joseph Biden was more a committee than a candidate. A pragmatic Democratic party persuaded primary opponents to fold, coalesce around Biden, and block socialist candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. Biden, a previously moderate and congenial politician (“c’mon, man!”) with about fifty years’ of unspectacular experience, disguised a party that presented an assertive progressive platform, including a revolutionary “green new deal” and national healthcare. Critics labeled Biden a “trojan horse” for tax increases, energy dependence and unfettered immigration. Moreover, Biden suffered from debatable criticisms of corruption, influence peddling and assent to China that an amenable media and “big tech” suppressed. Biden ran a curtailed and socially distant campaign. But Trump fatigue and the pandemic brought the challenger to the precipice of election. Would a majority of citizens who continued to believe in the evident exceptionalism of their nation expose America to unintended consequences by firing Trump?
THE SOUL OF AMERICA
On an election-eve Zoom call, socialist Sanders assured the leftist militants of Congress known as the “squad” that electing Biden was the “first step” toward realizing their objectives. However, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio assured Floridians that Cuban and Venezuelan Americans did not take to rafts and risk shark attacks fleeing communism to now allow America to become the type of nation (like China) that they fled. Meanwhile, Biden pledged that if elected, he would restore rapprochement with communist Cuba and “work with (socialist dictator) Maduro” in Venezuela. He inexplicably claimed that China was not America’s leading geopolitical competitor. Wall Street hedged their bet on Biden, the progressives, “big tech” and China. But the direction in which Biden might lead the nation forward remained unclear. Therefore, whatever the election outcome or Biden’s actual blueprint (if any), a battle for the soul and direction of America between progressives and traditionalists is underway.
DECISIVE MOMENT
A Trump election victory would only delay the inevitable national reckoning from the irresistible force of progressives. Likewise, and of equal importance, was the Senate majority. A Biden victory without a Senate majority would sustain the immovable object of traditionalists and complicate the Constitutional confrontation. However, the events of 2020 and warnings by Senate minority leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) leave no doubt that America has come to a crossroads. Moreover, exasperated progressives will not tolerate compromise. An illiberal Washington elite, the media and “big tech” appear to align with the interests of the People’s Republic of China. Likewise, the establishment has complied in censoring inconvenient evidence, erasing independent thought, and revising American history. The first decisive moment at the crossroads is a myriad of legal battles, precinct by precinct, fought over problematic absentee, mail and in-person ballots by armies of attorneys. As the adage goes, if you cannot legislate, litigate.
CHECKS AND BALANCES
The Supreme Court has a newly minted six conservative member majority. SCOTUS may inevitably rule on state-by-state cases and determine the presidential election outcome. Therefore, a confrontation is inevitable. Firstly, the key issues include the size and nature of SCOTUS, otherwise known as court packing. As with FDR in 1937. this is a challenge to our elegant system of checks and balances. Constitutionalists will aggressively resist any court packing scheme. Progressives demand elimination of the Electoral College. Consequently, this would ensure that California and several larger states would permanently select (presumably) Democrat presidents. However, other states will strongly resist any change. Senior Democrats have vowed to consider admitting Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states. Opponents decry adding four new (presumably) Democratic senators. Progressives also seek to accelerate immigration to add (presumably) more Democratic constituents.
AMERICAN RENEWAL
In conclusion, Americans of good conscience have frequently debated the constitution and our constitutional system of governance. Bipartisan compromise has resolved controversial and challenging issues. Furthermore, the House and Senate hotly debated the issue of slavery before a bloody Civil War settled the matter forever. Meanwhile, modern elites instinctively loathe any assertion of American self-interest or traditional values as fundamentally racist, imperialist, and dishonest. This postmodern perspective argues that humanity does better to concede a new world order led by an emerging People’s Republic of China. But a paralyzed capitalist America is in only communist China’s best interest. American progressives and traditionalists must find a way to reconcile and restore a dynamic nation with a renewed sense of identity, structure, and purpose. Moreover, our planet has arrived at its own crossroads. Only America can offer enlightened multilateral liberal democratic leadership, whoever occupies the White House or controls the Senate.
For further reading, among my earlier articles that connect American history with the current crossroads are America First, One World vs. America First, Packing the Supreme Court and NATO and the Marshall Plan. You can find detailed context in my critically praised book America Ascendant, the Rise of American Exceptionalism.