What’s at risk in the showdown between Trump and Biden is not just another changing of the executive guard. This is the most consequential election in US history and will determine the trajectory of the nation for decades.
Before considering how Americans’ lives will change come November 4, it will be necessary for the country to succeed at one crucial thing: survival. Amid talk of looming civil war, this may prove to be the trickiest part. Coming, as this election does, smack in the middle of a pandemic and lockdown, the nation’s brain is loaded to the rafters with combustible emotions and set to blow.
To make matters worse, both sides are absolutely convinced that their opponent is cheating. This will make the simple act of declaring a victor a bit like ringing the bell for a Mixed Martial Arts title fight.
This quickly leads to one of the most critical issues the American people will be deciding at the ballot box: should the US strengthen or weaken its police forces? In the event the incumbent Trump retains his belt for another four years, an age of ‘law and order’ will settle upon the nation like jackboots on cobblestone.
This will come as ominous news for Biden supporters, not least of all BLM and Antifa, who have been protesting for the defunding of police departments. Since the death of George Floyd, many on the left believe that US police departments are tainted by the specter of ‘white supremacism’; the right retorts that the police are dutifully performing their jobs the best they can. On November 3 that issue will be resolved.
Not far behind the issue of law and order is the question of what America’s neighborhoods will look like under either Republican or Democratic rule. In the name of equality, Biden has said he would reinstate the Obama administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, which forces affluent, single-home suburban neighborhoods to open their communities to low-income housing developments. Trump, meanwhile, who repealed the AFFH, would fight to keep the suburbs as grass-lined pockets of affluence, a privilege still largely reserved for white people, it should be noted.
Have the American people reached the point in their political development that they are ready to sacrifice the peace and tranquility that comes with suburban living on behalf of minority populations who currently lack the means for such a lifestyle? And will the suburbs be able to retain the qualities that make them unique and desirable in the first place if the Democrats bring the city – with all of its attendant problems – to them?
Any discussion on ‘what America’s neighborhoods will look like’ under either a Trump or Biden administration would be idle if it did not consider immigration, the lightning-bolt issue that catapulted Trump into the White House.
In addition to bringing low-income housing into the suburbs, Biden will almost certainly strengthen the so-called ‘sanctuary city’ program, which allows illegal migrants to be transported from the US-Mexico border to various cities around the country. Illegal immigration may also be expected to explode, given that Biden’s nominee for vice president, Kamala Harris, has said she would fight for the defunding of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the very people in charge of guarding the US border.
It should be mentioned that Harris, who has been described as being even more to the left than Bernie Sanders, is supported by the radical Democratic progressives in the House, led by the Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. If reelected, Trump will likely force the Supreme Court to decide on all issues related to immigration.
Also on rt.com Happily ever after? Electing Biden won’t make protesters’ problems disappear, but it might make them even angrierThe ‘de-gentrification’ of America's neighborhoods, however, is not the only Obama-era legislation that Biden has promised to resurrect should he win. For example, one of Trump’s first acts in office was to eliminate Obama’s so-called ‘Bathroom law,’ which forced public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms matching their chosen gender identity. Schools that did not comply risked losing federal funding. Under Trump, Republicans argued that the issue had been inflamed by the irrational ‘woke’ passions on the left. Should Americans allow a miniscule number of biological males who ‘self-identify’ as females to use the bathroom and changing facility of their choice, despite the possible risk this may present to biological females? Although the simple answer would be to create same-sex bathrooms, complete with full partitions, the United States, as Winston Churchill once quipped, “always does the right thing, but not until it has exhausted all of the other options.”
This and other such partisan issues will likely come down to major legal battles, and with the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the Republicans will be in a very good position to draft an image of America according to their ideological wishes. However, in the event of a Biden victory, there is a high possibility that the Democrats, in an effort to neutralize the edge that the conservatives now enjoy on the bench, will load the Court to its ultimate advantage.
Such a cunning move will have the effect of making the US Constitution almost redundant as the left-leaning judiciaries will be empowered to eradicate a number of Amendments they disagree with, including the right for Americans to bear arms, limitations on search and seizure, and even the freedom of speech, already being obliterated daily by the media industrial complex and Big Tech.
Last but not least, if the American people awake to a new Democratic leadership come November 4, they should be aware that this could place them back on a war footing. The Democrats, despite their loud declarations about human rights and freedoms, have never been shy about exercising US military might around the world. That was obvious during the Obama administration, for example, which brought about the destruction of Libya, at the time the most advanced country in Africa.
For some Americans, however, they believe it is the right of the United States, as the so-called ‘indispensable nation,’ to exert its muscles around the planet as it sees fit. Although Trump has his faults, it must be said that the US has kept its nose out of foreign entanglements for the four years he has been in office. That is a national record by any standard.
In closing, it bears saying that the most pronounced aftermath of the 2020 elections will be a great country torn asunder by political strife and partisanship, and at a time when the world really needs US leadership. This is where the real threat of war happens to be. While it is crucial for Americans to get out and cast their vote for either Donald Trump or Joe Biden, what is even more crucial is that the results of the election do not result in terrible violence, death and destruction. On the eve of November 3, however, that is the regrettable fate that appears to be haunting the United States.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.