What the DNC 2020 showed was a Democratic Party united in its disdain and disapproval of the Trump presidency.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected all walks of life across the world beyond anyone’s imagination, and the campaign for the US presidential election 2020 is no exception. The sight of presidential and vice presidential nominees of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, speaking not to a huge cheering crowd, but to digital screens showing people virtually rooting for the Biden-Harris ticket, epitomised the extraordinary times ahead. Political heavyweights of the Democratic Party, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former presidential nominee and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Michelle Obama spoke, emphatically supporting the Biden-Harris team, and accusing the current incumbent President Donald Trump’s lack of leadership in times when it is most needed. If there was one thing that animated the Democratic National Convention (DNC), it was a “now or never” call to all American voters, particularly the younger ones, to vote and not stay away from an election that will be fought to “redeem the soul of America”. “This campaign isn’t just about winning votes. It’s about winning the heart and, yes, the soul of America,” Biden said in his speech at the DNC. Therefore, as the Democratic Party sees it, the United States has been rudderless in both domestic and foreign policy issues in four years of the Trump presidency. The clarion call of the DNC was for the American electorate to help put someone at the White House, who is ready to lead from day one, and will keep “America and Americans First” in real.
Given the raging impact of the pandemic that continues to kill and infect a huge section of the US population, the DNC chose to put front and centre how Trump administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic had cost American lives and livelihood. Inclusive access to quality affordable healthcare has been a recurring issue of division and polarisation in American politics, and the DNC clearly emphasised the centrality of healthcare issue, more particularly in the time of the pandemic that has further exposed the unequal access to public healthcare. “In the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, President Trump and the Republican Party are trying to tear health care away from millions of people who depend on it for survival. Democrats will not allow that to happen. We will not rest until every American can access quality health care and affordable prescription drugs,” the 2020 Democratic Party platform contended.
In every election season, the health of the US economy has remained an overriding topic of attacks and counter-attacks from both the parties. From debates on indicators of America’s performance in the global economy, creating and sustaining jobs for Americans, to rising income inequality and the issue of taxing the wealthy, both the parties will leave no stones unturned to prove their worth and disprove the other’s. This time around, economy as an electoral issue has gained new lofty heights because of the way the pandemic has led to never imagined lockdowns and shutdowns of businesses in US history. As the DNC made it clear, the Democratic Party will excavate the weakest spots of the Trump’s presidency, and the wide scale impact of the pandemic on American society and economy might give more ammunition for them to do so.
The law and order fiasco that broke out across the country following the death of George Floyd, has reopened the Pandora’s Box of complex race relations, an Achilles’ heel of American society and democracy. The nomination of Kamala Harris, a woman of Jamaican-American and Indian roots, has given a whole new dimension to the role that gender and race have played in US electoral politics. Coming four years after Hillary’s run for the presidency and the recurring element of race tensions in American society, the 2020 election will add more chapters to these unresolved issues, and Harris emphatically raised it when she said, “And let’s be clear—there is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.” “We must elect a President…who will bring all of us together, black, white, Latino, Asian, indigenous, to achieve the future we collectively want. We must elect Joe Biden,” Harris underscored.
Trump’s clarion call for putting “America First” and “Making America Great Again” has been a fodder for attack from the Democratic Party, particularly on how his presidency has neither made the US tougher in front of adversaries, nor taken the country closer to allies and partners, when it was required the most. Underlining the forces of American values and democracy, the Democratic Party has confronted the Trump administration for failing to seek good counsel, and squandering America’s time tested trust with its allies. The Democratic platform, countering Trump’s foreign policy record, said, “Democrats will lead with diplomacy as our tool of first resort and mobilize our allies and partners to meet the tests none of us can meeton our own.” What the DNC 2020 showed, more than anything else, was a Democratic Party, united in its disdain and disapproval of the Trump’s presidency and a “now nor never” attitude to defeating Trump’s presidential run. As Biden said, “United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America.” The DNC focused on showcasing presidential nominee Joe Biden’s long years of experience in public service, on domestic and foreign policy, and his personal journey of resilience and empathy in times of crisis. The DNC focused on calling out American voters, to vote, come what may, to elect a leader who will heal an American scarred by poor leadership from the White House in the last four years. Now that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are official nominees of the Democratic Party for the presidential election in November, it will be pertinent to wait and watch how the Biden-Harris duo will go beyond attacking the Trump presidency and present more concrete proposals as to how they intend to be different and put “America First” for real. Whether the United States needs a change of guard at the White House will very much depend on how the confidence is built in the minds of the people on the overall governance issues and making America again a respectable power in the international system.
Monish Tourangbam is an Assistant Professor (Senior Scale) and Arvind Kumar is Professor at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal. Both specialise in American Studies.