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One of the wisdoms of the political calendar is that success has many fathers (or mothers). Whoever wins does not have to justify themselves, but this rule now appears to have been overruled in the United States. Because while Donald Trump unites the Republicans behind him even in defeat, the dispute erupted among the Democrats as soon as Joe Biden was proclaimed the winner of the presidential election. Left-wing New York Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused fellow moderates of conducting an amateur election campaign – the moderates in turn complained that the party’s left wing made radical demands such as “defund the police” – the de facto abolition of the police President voters in the arms.
There is more to the conflict than the usual friction within the traditionally warlike American left. Because the result of the presidential election poses fundamental questions to Democrats. You have regained the White House, and with what – at least at first glance – a very respectable result. Joe Biden garnered over 78 million votes, more than any other candidate before him. This is the good news. At the same time, however, the majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives dwindled. And the dream of taking the Senate out of Republicans is unlikely to die out again.
But what’s almost worse: on election day, Democrats are hoping a new multi-ethnic America will basically secure a White House membership for the party. Even in the darkest hours of the Trump presidency, Democrats could console themselves with the idea that the man in the White House was just the last gasp of a backward America before demographic change in states like Texas or Florida automatically gave power to the democrats.
But that, it has now turned out, was an illusion. Biden owes his victory in large part to moderate white voters from the American periphery, who turned their backs on the bully in the Oval Office. In the case of minorities like Latin Americans, on the other hand, Trump has even managed to grow since the 2016 elections, according to the election poll of the TV station CNN by four points to 32 percent. This was one of the main reasons Trump could hold states like Florida or Texas. Even with black voters, Trump could easily win, and 55% of white women voted for president.
The party is now faced with very uncomfortable questions: Why did the Latins choose a man who has labeled Mexicans as criminals and rapists and who is building a wall on the southern border of the United States? How is it possible that Trump, who despises only the Black Lives Matter movement, managed to increase his share of black voters? And why have so many women chosen a president who has a penchant for porn stars and pin-up girls and at the same time maneuvered a lawyer on the Supreme Court who could overturn the right to abortion?
How difficult these questions are can be seen this week in an interview that Barack Obama gave to The Atlantic magazine. Obama recalled that the gold-encrusted tastelessness of the Trump world is not that far removed from black rap culture – and this could also be a reason why some African American men voted for president. “It’s about bling-bling, about women, about money,” Obama said. “Many rap videos use the same standards of success as Donald Trump.” It was the phrases that immediately earned Obama criticism on social media that he was playing with racist cliches.
The Democrats are in a dispute that could divide the party. During the election campaign, a truce was held between the progressives and the rest of the party. The will to expel Trump from the White House masked all conflicts. But now moderate MPs are openly saying that they view some of their left-wing colleagues as dogmatists who are terrorizing central America with their radical demands.
If Democrats indulge in the misconception that November 3 was a success, the party will be crushed by Republicans in the Congressional election in two years, said Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger, who two years ago her seat in Congress was a republican. it had diminished and was now only able to defend it with difficulty. He urged his fellow party members never to use the word “socialism” again if they were interested in winning the election.
Indeed, there is nothing to suggest that the majority of Americans would like radical political change. Even in liberal California, which voted for Biden with a nearly two-thirds majority, voters rejected three progressive plebiscites on November 3, including one that gave concert industry workers – such as Uber drivers – a minimum. of social Security would have given.
And a Democratic Congressman from the state of Arizona, which Biden narrowly won, stressed to his fellow leftists how little his constituents appreciated when they approached them as participants in a gender-sensitive language seminar. Asked how the party could convince Latin Americans, Ruben Gallego wrote Twitter: »First of all by not using the term Latinx.«
What will be important
There has been a lot of speculation in Washington about what Trump was trying to accomplish by firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper shortly after the election and replacing him with Christopher Miller, a staunch supporter. Did Trump want to make the military docile? Was he also planning a coup? These concerns appear to be exaggerated, but as it turns out, Miller should execute Trump’s last foreign policy will.
On Tuesday it announced it would halve the number of US troops in Afghanistan by mid-January, and in Iraq it is expected to drop from 3,000 to 2,500. It is safe to doubt that the decision has anything to do with the military or political situation on the ground. Trump is clearly worried about keeping an election promise at the last minute. Joe Biden must therefore face the consequences of the hasty decision.
Stories of the week
I can recommend the following stories from my colleagues in the United States:
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My colleague Philipp Oehmke looks back on his time as a correspondent for SPIEGEL in New York.
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Alexander Sarovic analyzes the (renewed) bankruptcy of US electoral institutions.
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In our SPIEGEL cover story, my colleagues and I investigate whether Joe Biden could build on the mandate of Barack Obama, who is publishing the first volume of his memoirs this week.
Have a nice week!
From the heart
Your René Pfister
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