It is official. Joe Biden has won the election for President of the United States. After winning the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania, Biden has secured enough electoral college votes to win the election. While many may take this opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief, the fight is far from over. Biden may have won the election, but Trumpism will continue to live on.
Biden won, yet his victory was far from the blowout many in the pundit class expected. The fact is that Trump performed much better at the polls than expected. Again. While many predictions were correct, the margin of victory for Biden was not nearly as large. This was a close election when it really should not have been.
Had it not been for COVID-19, Trump would probably have won. The fact that it took a major cataclysmic event to shake a wannabe fascist from power does not speak highly of Biden and the Democrats. This fact shows that Trump, and the base that uncritically supports him, is not going away anytime soon.
Biden’s victory was not a permanent victory. Biden’s win also does not have teeth as of now. The Democrats have not won the Senate and have lost seats in the House of Representatives. The Democrats will still maintain a slim House majority, but not gain the Senate. If Democrats cannot win the Georgia Senate runoff seats in January, then Biden’s term will effectively be neutered.
If the Republicans keep control of the Senate, then Biden’s term will resemble much of Obama’s second term. It will be a whole lot of nothing getting done. Republicans will obstruct everything in ways that Democrats just would not do for Trump. With that as the case, progress will be stonewalled, and the blame will likely fall on Biden and the Democratic Party. It is not unlikely this could jeopardize Democratic control of the House.
With a toothless Biden administration, this will only embolden Trumpers going forward. I do not know if Trump would run again in 2024. Maybe, maybe not. It is clear, however, that the next Republican presidential nominee will follow in Trump’s footsteps. Even worse; that said nominee might be politically savvy.
Imagine Trump 2.0, but this time he is optically savvy, politically competent. We will get a Republican with all the fascist ideology, but without the apish incompetence that plagued Trump. If Biden had run against a more competent Trump, the election outcome could have been quite different.
In essence, the left should not get complacent. The fight will continue. Trumper fascism will live on and continue to get nastier with time. There will not be a return to “normal.” Normal no longer exists. Each election cycle will get more bitter if the tide of the far right and their neoliberal enablers is left unchecked. There will be no brunch or kumbaya. This is a lasting fight, and the left must keep fighting. Our future depends on it.
Biden’s victory may feel good in the sense that we will see an endless fascist whine-fest. It may feel good to watch the reactionaries cry about Trump losing, but in no way is the fight over. We cannot return to the complacency of the Obama years. That is what helped create the conditions for Trump to rise. If the left goes back to sleep, an even worse Trump will come on the horizon in four years. Gear up and get ready lefties. The battle has been won, but the war is far from over.
