Election Day in America
Today is an odd day, for today is the day America elects a new president. It is particularly odd from the perspective of a dual citizen, both having a say in America while simultaneously viewing America from the outside. Born, raised, and living in Canada, I realize that I’m not the most likely of Americans.
I have only been to America three times in my life — spending less than four months of my life in the country. However, I can trace my family history in America back to 1635, when my British ancestors sailed from Romsey to settle in Newbury, Massachusetts. The descendants of my British ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War, and for the Union in the Civil War. After the Union defeated the Confederacy, France gifted the Statue of Liberty to America in celebration of slavery’s abolition. When my Italian ancestors emigrated to New York City, from Puglia and Sicilia, at the turn of the last century, the Statue of Liberty was there to welcome them. My grandpa John, born in Brooklyn, was a civil servant for most of his life, serving as a lieutenant in the FDNY. He and my Pop both served in the Navy on the USS Independence. My great uncle Saverio worked on Project Apollo. Ancestors on both sides of my family served America in the Second World War. I could go on about my family history in America, but I think by now you are probably getting the point: not only am I a Canadian, but I am also a proud American abroad.
What was particularly odd about yesterday, November 2, 2020, was that I was feeling unusually calm. Today America holds the most consequential election that anyone in my family has ever seen. In an email, my Granny told me that she hopes “we’re not watching democracy die.” It certainly seems like it is — like liberty is slipping away — but the possibility of a Biden Administration brings hope. Today we should give us a good idea of America’s pulse, and I’m not sure what to expect. Although yesterday I was thinking about the election, the stakes had become so high that they were now beyond me: I wasn’t feeling particularly anxious, stressed, or worried. What, me worry? I proudly mailed in my ballot for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the beginning of last month (after voting for Bernie Sanders in the primary), and now there’s not much left that I can do. For those of you who haven’t cast your ballots yet, make sure that you do today — America needs you.
America needs you because Donald Trump has no regard for American democracy, and no respect for the Presidency. He does nothing but lie to the American people. He has habitually scapegoated immigrants, inhumanely separating their families at the border. He ignored the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in the preventable deaths of at least 130,000 Americans. He has stoked racial tensions, and empowered white supremacist groups. He denies global warming, even though it threatens the survival of human civilization. He has demanded that the justice department prosecute his political opponents. He has attacked our free press at every step of the way. He demeans and belittles his opponents. He has invited foreign interference in our elections. A sexist and a racist, Trump is a reflection of the worst of America, and the worst of humanity. Americans are facing a multitude of problems that must be addressed: our federal leadership should not be one of them. Unless decency is restored in the White House and the Senate, America will be unable to effectively confront the challenges it faces. America needs us to save ourselves from the throes of authoritarianism.
America has never been perfect — we should all know that by now. But it should be a lot better than it is today. America was a flawed democracy for most of its existence; at the time of America’s founding, only property-owning white men could vote. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, during the height of the civil rights movement, that racial discrimination against voters was made illegal. Although it was one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation ever passed, racial minorities still face unfair obstacles when they try to vote, including being most impacted by stringent ID laws, longer waiting times, and the purging of eligible voter rolls. James Baldwin, upon being asked by Ken Burns about what liberty is, said “I can always quote the declaration: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ And the moment I do that, I’m in trouble again because obviously I was not included in that pronouncement.” He goes on to note that “for Black Americans, for Black inhabitants of this country, the Statue of Liberty is a very bitter joke, meaning nothing to us.” Racism, systemic racism, as well as the horrors of police brutality, poison America to this day, as the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests have so rightfully pointed out. It is a tragedy that our indivisible Nation has been divided over whether all Americans have a right to liberty and justice. We need a President who will stand unequivocally opposed to racism, and unite our country around the pursuit of racial equality and justice. I believe that Biden and Harris administration offers our best chance at lifting up Black Americans, and uniting our country around liberty.
The last four years are a testament to Trump’s complete and utter failure to take a stand against racism. This is because he is a racist. His racism can be traced back a long time. He called for the innocent Central Park Five to be executed (they were later exonerated after thirteen years of false imprisonment). He denied the legitimacy of President Barack Obama’s American citizenship. Since he’s taken office, Trump has referred to white nationalists in Charlottesville as having “some very fine people.” In the second and last presidential debate, he told the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group, to “stand back and stand by.” He tear gassed peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters so he could have a photo op. He joked about the Trail of Tears, an act of genocide that caused the deaths of nearly 17,000 Native Americans (of the Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole Nations). At the beginning of his presidency, Trump implemented a Muslim travel ban, and characterized Mexican immigrants as “criminals, drug dealers, rapists,” before implementing a cruel and inhumane family separation policy at the border (this has been replaced by forced sterilization). Trump’s attack on immigration is not terribly dissimilar to the anti-semitic and racist crackdown on Jewish and Italian immigration that took place in the 1920s, nor to the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The internment camps at the border are a stark reminder of the cruel WWII era Japanese internment camps. Last year, Trump told the members of the Squad, Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Not only is there no room in our democracy for such racist language, all four members of the Squad are as American as the rest of us. They were elected for the express purpose of representing their American constituents. If Trump is unable to recognize the legitimacy of every American’s citizenship, let alone respect all Americans, then he is unfit to be anywhere near the office of the Presidency. Not only is he a xenophobe, he is also a misogynist, which alone precludes him from respecting half of the American population. He doesn’t even respect his supporters, whom he leaves out in the cold at his Covid Superspreader Events. Since he is unable to respect all Americans, how is he able to address the problems facing all Americans, such as the coronavirus pandemic, global warming, and extreme wealth inequality and poverty? The answer, plain and simple, is that he isn’t able to. I’d characterize Trump as deadweight holding America back, but that would be charitable of me. Donald Trump is actively seeking to dismantle the America we hold so dear, and is jeopardizing human civilization in the process.
Governor Mario Cuomo’s 1984 speech at the Democratic National Convention reads as if it were written today. He characterized the Republican policies of Reagan, like the rhetoric of Trump, as dividing “the nation into the lucky and the left-out, into the royalty and the rabble.” Cuomo wrapped up his speech by saying that “We will have a new President of the United States, a Democrat born not to the blood of kings but to the blood of pioneers and immigrants. And we will have America’s first woman Vice President, the child of immigrants, and she — she — she will open with one magnificent stroke, a whole new frontier for the United States.” It has been a long thirty six years since the 1984 election, and Cuomo’s prophecy remains unfulfilled. Tomorrow, I hope Americans turn out to vote in record numbers. I hope we put an end to the misery inflicted these past four years by Trump. But I’m not just concerned about defeating the current fascist president: I’m excited that we may soon move forward on the issues that have been facing us for too long. I’m excited for the possibilities of America’s new frontier.
Please, fellow Americans, go out and vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Together, we can restore empathy to the White House, and put America on a path towards justice.
