In 2019, India, with a population of 1.2 billion, had one of the largest numbers of people eligible for voting in world history. Of the 900-plus million eligible, around 600 million voted, and it was all counted within two days.
As we wait for the long haul of accurate information about the 2020 vote for the American presidency, some significant lessons can be inferred already. Here are two important takeaways, regardless of who ultimately wins.
The System Works
There appears to be no Blue Wave this year. Once again, conservative voices were ignored amidst ultimately inaccurate predictions from social scientists and skewed polling, which by now seems obviously an effort to influence the outcome by dampening enthusiasm and effort.
More importantly, no Blue Wave means no Democrat-controlled Senate. That essentially means that Republicans either win both the presidency and the Senate yet again, or that the Senate will be able to somewhat restrain a Joe Biden presidency.
A restrained Biden presidency is what the American founders wanted from any presidency. A system designed by geniuses centuries back appears to have worked once more.
Under a Republican Senate, it should be more difficult for continued critical theory racism to infect workplaces and higher education. There will be no court packing, nor Electoral College abolishing. The Republicans are positioned to check the left’s worst impulses, just as the system was designed.
In fact, a Biden win would propel further Republican gains in the midterms. Even if Biden wins narrowly, unless major changes are in place among liberals including sorting tech bias, media and academia bias, culling rioters, and cutting off critical race theory, the next “Reaction” will be massive.
Never, Ever Believe ‘Demography Is Destiny’
One of the most reductive ideas prevalent among the left in recent western politics is that people vote according to their race. The idea of a “rainbow coalition,” or “demography is destiny,” is deeply destructive. There now should be a nail in that coffin.
For years we have been told that if more voters vote, they’ll vote Democrat, and that minorities and new voters will always vote left. This entire worldview is the basis of the push for abolishing the Electoral College and institutionalizing a more direct form of democracy through a national popular vote. Because the majority is naturally left, the thinking went, there would then finaly be a leftist utopia.
Except, in the largest turnout in decades, significant movement was recorded among minorities from left to right. Not just among Cubans and Hispanics, Republicans gained among every demographic group except college-educated whites.
https://twitter.com/esaagar/status/1323978930727145472?s=21
Trump is currently on course to win the highest share of the vote among non-whites for sixty years. https://t.co/8WzB4Omfqa
— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) November 4, 2020
It is somewhat interesting to see the “demography is destiny” arguments coming back to bite the left, as it is very clear the Republican Party is now a multiracial coalition with a working-class backbone.
Compare the two major parties’ donor bases. The managerial class donated to the Biden campaign, just as truckers, plumbers, and police and veterans donated to the right. Elites will act shocked that Trump got even more votes this election compared to in 2016, while arguing for defending police as upper-middle class Antifa rioted and burned down minority businesses.
Unifying, Multiethnic Social Conservatism Is the Future
Regardless of the outcome, this has been a crushing defeat for the left’s racial identity politics. If Trump wins because of Latino voters, it destroys the heart of an entire worldview. Maybe Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Peronism-lite with “Latinx”-style overreach is not a good model for social-conservative minorities.
Whatever happens, and whoever wins, the future of Anglosphere conservatism is multi-ethnic and socially traditional. Most hardworking African-Americans, Hispanics, Indians, and Asians do not want more LGBT politics, drag queen story hours, or defunding police. They want order, stability, and family-supportive politics. From the Never Trumpers, to the elite 1619 theorists, this is a slap that should be heard across the English-speaking world.
Trump’s biggest legacy will be reshaping Republicanism back into its socially conservative, multiethnic, and unifying working-class roots. A century earlier, Teddy Roosevelt once said no one cares who comes to America, provided they become American. His formula was avoided. Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters have torn down Teddy’s statues. A century later, however, Teddy’s worldview has been avenged by the forces of history.