November 21, 2020
Over the last five years, Trump has paralyzed the country’s ability to function properly, causing the American people, Democrats, and the Republican Party difficulty at the polling booths. Why is it important for Trump to attack people’s character and not the substance? It seems as if his strategies engulf voter suppression to help his campaign, but with the pandemic, there was a cause for change. All of these tactics and efforts seem to be Trump’s plan to accomplish in his re-election. President Trump has made an insinuation that voter fraud is on the rise and that thousands illegally voted. Did Trump’s voter suppression strategies succeed, or did they backfire in his re-election? Some of the goals of voter suppression are to alienate minority populations, move or relocate polling locations, or block ballots from being cast to disfranchising or intimidating voters by using scare tactics.
Over the last five years, Trump has used voter suppression, and it is more evident than ever before. At the same time, Trump used a tone in many of his speeches and rhetoric to intimidate the opposing party, which has left some American people in disbelief or shock. Accordingly to an article “Trump seems to have so dulled our national sensibilities that we are unable to muster much collective outrage over even the most undemocratic behavior” (Vance, 2020). The reason this article is important is to show President Trump’s behavior and how Americans have become so numb to his rhetoric when it comes to disenfranchising many people. He has tried to block voters from casting their ballots or even stopping the counting; which seems unreal. In minority areas across the U.S., there has been a reduction of or a consolidation by eliminating polling places. When this happens, it causes long lines and increases the voter’s time to wait in line. In a photograph Marietta, Georgia, on October 12, 2020, it shows the long lines, photo credit to Ron Harris/A.P. (Pereira, I. and Sanz, C., 2020). Using this secondary source to show how people are in long lines at a polling location and the pandemic has not deterred them. The other issue is not correctly staffing polling sites to help to expedite the flow of moving voters rapidly. Racial gerrymandering by redistricting certain areas makes it hard for the voter to know their location causing a mass of confusion for the voter to excise their rights. Now we are fighting a pandemic in the midst of our 2020 election on top of everything else occurring.
The pandemic is beyond our control, and we need to find ways to work around our current situation during the 2020 election year. Taking a closer look at how the rules have changed can affect how we are voting in this election. “Where Democrats sought additional days for ballots to be received in the mail, Republicans went to court to try and block the new rules being put in place to make it easier to vote during the pandemic” (Vance, 2020). In the article, both parties approved the changes, but now the Republicans want to make adjustments because they are not in line with their current narrative. Today people will face many issues and challenges that test our courage and strength. While the Coronavirus is still a presence in our everyday lives, the voters are looking to exercise their right to vote; regardless of the virus, the one thing everyone has in common is to vote.
One of the most significant changes is allowing people to vote by mail. For instance, “Nine states plus D.C. will send mail-in ballots to active registered voters” (Scanlan, 2020). As a secondary source shows, the changes are necessary to help keep people safe due to the pandemic environment.Trump has planned to block any ballots from being cast that are voting for the Democratic candidate Biden. Trump has gone as far as to tell his voters that the Democrats will steal the election, and we need to watch the polling locations. The GOP and Democrats agreed to mail-in ballots, but now Trump is trying to block those ballots because most who did vote by mail were democrats.
It seems that Trump was focusing on minimizing Biden supporters, but he lost focus on his campaign. In addition, “Trump has often worked harder to make sure ballots from Biden supporters weren’t counted than he has to win over voters of his own” (Vance, 2020). This article is talking about how Trump delegitimizes his opponents. However, the Biden campaign did well to focus on their objective and their voters at the polling booths. One of the areas that did exceptionally well was Georgia. In fact, Stacey Abrams motivated voters in Georgia to vote and increased the number to over “800,000” new registered voters. In the meantime, “Stacey Abrams says fighting voter suppression changed “the trajectory of the nation” (Mark Strassmann, 2020). This is an example of staying focused to achieve your goal by performing well. So looking at performance, we need to see stats of who is voting in the current election.
These numbers are significant, so we know how the population is shifting by different categories, race, age, and party affiliation. Looking at who voted for each candidate is storytelling—first looking at the most poll by “gender male 45% Biden and 53% Trump female 57% Biden and 42% Trump, race white 41% Biden and 58% Trump, black 87% Biden and 12% Trump, Hispanic/Latino 65% Biden and 32% Trump” (Exit Polls 2020, 2020). Now looking at another national exit poll to see how close the number by percent based on an “interview with 15590 voters.” Edison Research conducted the exit poll for the Nation Election Pool.For “white voters, male 45% Biden and 53% Trump, female 57% Biden and 42% Trump, for all ethics groups white 41% Biden and 58% Trump, black 87% Biden and 12% Trump and Hispanic/Latino 65% Biden and 32% Trump” (National Exit Polls: How different Groups Voted, 2020). These numbers are shocking to see that over 75% of non-white voters did not support Trump. I choose two national polls to see how close the percentages are with each other. President Trump thinks that the black minority would vote heavily for him in the 2020 election because, in past speeches, he said his administration had done more for the black community than any other president. However, “No, Trump Didn’t Win ‘The Largest Share of Non White Voters of Any Republican In 60Years’ (Roy, 2020). In figure 1 is showing only 12% of the black population voted Republican.
Figure 1
President Obama’s 2008 election was a most significantly higher voter turn-out with the minority groups in the last 50 years. Could the 2020 election exceed the 2008 election? Did minority groups tell Trump what he wanted to hear? The polling booths tell a different story on how these groups voted. The 2020 Election showed us one thing that the majority of the people had spoken. In fact, “If anything, this election and the massive, unprecedented voter turn-out, shows us that more than half the country rejects the idea of intersectionality” (Holt, 2020). In both polls, the minority groups have shown a significant movement in our election process. Did President Trump’s strategy work? In my opinion, his strategy and tactics failed. Trump never changed his tone that he used in the 2016 election, so people learned his real character by his actions. He used a tone as no other president has in the past by demoralizing people.
For President Trump to win his re-election, his tactic was to delegitimize and demobilize his opposing party by chaos in suppressing the voter. In the meantime, he ignites his voters to support the baseless claims. As a result, “The president is trying to win re-election by disenfranchising as many Democrats as he can” accordingly to (Levitz, E, 2020). This election has taught most Americans that we can pivot on a dime no matter what has been thrown our way to disrupt our Democracy. President Trump and his administration has said a lot against the American people and made baseless claims but it important to hear the other side.
In the opposing view of the argument President Trump has stated in a White house briefing, there is media polling interference with the 2020 election. However, “As everyone now recognizes, media polling was election interference, in the truest sense of that word, by powerful special interests. These really phony polls — I have to call them phony polls, fake polls — were designed to keep our voters at home, create the illusion of momentum for Mr. Biden, and diminish Republicans’ ability to raise funds. They were what’s called “suppression polls.” “Everyone knows that now. And it’s never been used to the extent that it’s been used on this last election” (Remarks by President Trump on the Election, 2020). In our presidential election the process has been the same for years, including 2016 election where President Trump won against Hillary Clinton. Our current election has ignited the voters especially in the minority groups which were the highest turnout.
I think the reason for a large increase of voters is that several elements play a major role. In the 2016 election some voters were not impressed with either candidate. Their dissatisfaction kept them away from voting. On the other hand after these last four years the American people have witnessed the current administration display their rhetoric, for example discrimination, riots, fires, and looting. During all of these events people have been hurt or even killed in relation to the protectors. Watching George Floyd killed on national TV was the catalyst that sparked the protest. A lot of the protesters were only protesting for Black Lives Matter (BLM), but there were groups that had no affiliation with the BLM that were causing destruction. The reason for me to include this information is a part of why there is an increase with voters and higher turnout in the minorities groups.
In the White House briefing Trump stated “I won the largest share of non-white voters of any Republican in 60 years, including historic numbers of Latino, African American, Asian American, and Native American voters — the largest ever in our history. We grew our party by 4 million voters, the greatest turnout in Republican Party history” (Remarks by President Trump on the Election, 2020). After reading the White House briefing where Trump proclaimed he won the largest minority voter in history, I wasn’t able to find those numbers or facts to backup his claim. There was an article written that “Trump Didn’t Win ’The Largest Share of Non White Voters of Any Republican in 60 Years’ (Roy, 2020). President Trump was misinformed about this article. These mistakes are an embarrassment to the Oval Office, to the White House, and the Republican Party, less not forget the American people too. For a president to be successful they need the best and sharpest support. In fairness to the president, does he have the right professionals in key position in his cabinet?
However, for Trump’s plan to work, he needed to disenfranchise the opposing party by his rhetoric of demoralizing the people. His motive is to dominate the Republican Party by getting his voters’ to support his claim. On the other hand, he delegitimizes and demobilizes the opposing party. Because of the rhetoric and tone Trump used in his campaign in the 2016 election it help to get him elected, so he believed in keeping the same platform for his reelection. At this time, the American people and the world watched how he treated people and attack the characters of others. However, his strategy was to select people in a position that would help him overturn the election by claiming voter fraud. Did Trump’s voter suppression strategies succeed, or did they backfire in his re-election? Some of the goals of voter suppression are to alienate minority populations, move or relocate polling locations, or block ballots from being cast to disfranchising or intimidating voters by using scare tactics. He did succeed by increasing new voters, especially in the minority groups, but was that enough to help Trump’s reelection? He has divided our country, and we the people allowed his influence to manipulate the vulnerable, but we the people need to rise above the rhetoric. Our Democracy is at risk and being challenged by the president, his voters, and some of the Republican Party. Trump made some baseless claims, yet his voters agreed with him, but this was a distraction for some voters not to exercise their right to vote in our Democracy. Trump’s re-election campaign crumbled and backfired by losing control as the voters were determined to cast their votes to change the trajectory of the administration in the Oval Office.
Reference
Exit Polls 2020. (2020, November 18). Retrieved from NBC NEWS: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/exit-polls
Holt, E. (2020, November 9). The 2020 Election Showed that Many Monority American aren’t Voting by Identity Politics. Retrieved from Evie Magizine: https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/the-2020-election-showed-that-many-minority-americans-arent-voting-by/
Levitz, E. (2020, October 29). Trump’s Voter-Suppression Strategy Is a Crisis (Even If It Backfires). Retrieved from Intelligencer: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/historic-voter-turnout-trump-voter-suppression.html
Mark Strassmann. (2020, November 10). Stacey Abrams says fighting voter suppression changed “the trajectory of the nation”. Retrieved from CBS NEWS: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stacey-abrams-voter-suppression-georgia-election/
National Exit Polls: How different Groups Voted. (2020). Retrieved from NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/exit-polls-president.html
Pereira, I. and Sanz, C. (2020, October 29). Long lines, broken machines: Why voters should not be too worried some poll site snafus. Retrieved from ABC News.go.: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/long-lines-broken-machines-voters-worried-poll-site/story?id=73718570
Roy, A. (2020, November 9). No, Trump Didn’t Win ‘The Largest Share Of Non White Voters Of Any Republican In 60 Years’. Retrieved from FORBES: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/11/09/no-trump-didnt-win-the-largest-share-of-non-white-voters-of-any-republican-in-60-years/?sh=5d06bc064a09
Scanlan, Q. (2020, September 22). Here’s how states have changed the rules around voting amid the coronavirus pandemic. Retrieved from ABC New GO: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/states-changed-rules-voting-amid-coronavirus-pandemic/story?id=72309089
Vance, J. (2020, November 4). Trump’s 2020 election strategy is to desensitize America to brazen GOP voter suppression. Retrieved from MSNBC: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/trump-s-2020-election-strategy-desensitize-america-brazen-gop-voter-n1246369
Written by: Greg MD
Greg MD Blog 
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