A timeline of political events through the winter of 2020
November 3rd - November 12th: 2020 Election
After more than 3 months of electoral races, November 3 marked the beginning of the most contested election in American history. Thanks to early winnings, Trump managed to lead tough battleground states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. These states, all states that had voted for Trump in 2016 were key wins that the Biden administration needed to win the 2020 election.
Slowly over the period of a week, Trump began to lose his grip on these states, as more and more mail-in ballots were counted. Eventually, Biden managed to flip these states and form the largest voting coalition of any American election ever. He defeated Trump by 74 electoral votes. A major problem with Biden’s comeback win was that it grew large amounts of distrust and anger in the opposing faction. Not only did they see their supposed win fall from their grip, but more and more Trump voters, fueled by their president’s rhetoric, saw the coming in votes as invalid. By the end of the race, fake reports of extortion and fraud at ballot counting election offices propagated themselves throughout social media and the internet.
December 2020:
Thankfully, tensions decreased throughout the last weeks of 2020, as all state governments legally and officially contested and refuted the voter fraud claims presented by Donald Trump and his Republican base. After weeks and weeks of no major events, life slowly returned to normality, if that even is a thing during the 2020 epidemic, but at least major tensions decreased as most republicans slowly began to accept that there would be no way to push their fraud claims on the US government.
Then everything went downhill…
January 5th - January 6th: 2021 Georgia runoffs:
These smaller elections were meant to determine whether the incumbent 2 republican senators in Georgia would maintain their positions, but its ramifications were far larger than that. The problem was that although Biden had won the presidency, his administration would still be weakened by a republican held senate, just as Obama’s second administration was. This was the republican’s last stand of defense against a fully democratic government, yet these two small elections, could flip the Senate and give the Democrats control of the house of representatives, the senate, and the white house.
The gravity and importance of these elections fired back up political fervor throughout the weeks prior, leading to a return to election week levels of anger and distrust. Eventually, the Georgia elections mirrored those of the 2020 election, with a small democrat majority winning both seats in a highly contested election. This, for the first time since 2015, gave the Democrats control of the Senate, leading to a virtually unopposed white house.
January 6th: Storming of the US capitol:
On the same day as the Georgia runoffs, one of the darkest days in the history of the US occurred. Donald Trump met a crowd in Washington DC and incited them to march on the capitol. His recalling of election fraud claims and instigation of anger, lead to the mob becoming violent and breaching the US congress, leading to the death of several trump supporters and one DC policeman.
At the same time as this historical event was occurring, the US senate was convening in order to officially confirm Biden’s presidency. This meeting, which historically had been considered a minor ceremonial event, became pivotal, as a coalition of Trump-supporting senators, led by Ted Cruz of Texas, challenged the confirmation and proposed extending the confirmation, in order to give the senators time for a “recount” of votes. Clearly, this was an unprecedented move to revoke a US election for baseless claims, and after hours of deliberation, which was interrupted by the senators having to flee the capitol as Trump supporters stormed the building, finally confirmed Joe Biden as the 46th US president.
There are many things that can be said about the mob. From how it has shattered the US’s reputation as the bastion of democracy abroad, to how it has shown and proven racial discrimination in the police force of the United States. But the most important consequence is that it has shown Americans that democracy is truly fragile. And that to maintain it, they must actively and regularly fight and struggle for its safety and defense.
January 13th: Trump’s Impeachment:
Another critical consequence of the storming is that Trump has lost much of his reputation and support amongst moderate voters, and politicians. Just 8 days after the tragic events at the capitol, the house of representatives convened and impeached Donald Trump. When a president is impeached, this ratifies the hosting of a trial against them and a further congress vote on conviction. This conviction vote can remove a president from office, and remove their rights to run again.
This means that Trump is the first US president to be impeached twice, and the second time seems far more deadly for Donald Trump, as major republican figures such as Mitch McConnell, Republican leader, have vocally supported impeachment. The fight is now between the new Biden presidency and the congress’s conviction trial, as Joe Biden struggles for breathing room and wishes to delay the trial.
January 20th: Biden’s Inauguration and Presidency
Finally, after months and years of struggle, America finally saw Joe Biden take the presidency and become the 46th US president. His inauguration prohibited large crowd gatherings, yet it starred famous celebrities including Jeniffer Lopez and Lady Gaga. The true highlight of the event was when Amanda Gorman recited poetry live on air, a beautiful and touching piece, that truly left a mark on the event.
Once Biden retired into the White House, he quickly set out to revoke and change a majority of policies enacted during Trump’s presidency. This included lifting a ban on transgenders joining the military and re-entering the Paris Accords. It is now time for Biden’s presidency to carry the torch that has been handed to him by 81,283, 563 Americans, who voted for him during the darkest period of America’s democracy.
- Juan De Grazia
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