By Carsten Sander Christensen
On November 5 this year, the US presidential election, the 60th quadrennial of its kind, will take place. In comparison with the European states, where some have more than eight hundred years behind them, the USA is a rather young state, less than two hundred and fifty years old, and in the election period, the 47th president of America will face quite a few problems of democratic kinds. In the light of history, it is quite normal that many so-called younger states in periods of structural democratic problems. However, in reality the States is not really a genuine young state, therefore, the democratic problems could be of a completely different kind. The separation of powers (executive, legislative and judicial) has been a mantra in the global political world for many centuries. But to everything there is a season …
The Republican Party
November 15, 2022, was the election campaign of the Presidential election in November this year officially launched. Former President Donald Trump (R) announced his candidacy for the job in the White House in Mar-a-Lago (Florida). As early as March 2022, Donald Trump had made it clear that he would almost certainly run for the presidency and that without Mike Pence. In 2023, some opposing candidates announced their candidacy – among them Mike Pence (former vice president), Ron DeSantis (governor of Florida), Nikki Haley (former UN ambassador) and Vivek Ramaswamy (businessman).
None of them got a real chance. Donald Trump apparently still got the Republican Party and its organization under his thumb. For the public, such a big victory for Trump signals that the Republicans are united behind their candidate and Donald Trump managed to quickly stifle especially Nikki Haley’s bitter comments after the defeat on Super Tuesday (March 6 this year). Unity makes strong in the eyes of the American voters.
However, in reality, the election campaign, began on January 6, 2021, named the United States Capitol attack. In the previous months after the November 2020 presidential election, there was extensive debate about whether voter-fraud had taken place in the state of Georgia or not. The situation brought memories of the situation in Florida in November 2000 – during the election between George Bush jr. (R) and Al Gore (D) into the light again. Furthermore, the American voter and observers around the world are still left with an unanswered question – what actually happened in the two states?
The Democratic Party
But what is a far bigger problem is that the discussion around January 6, 2021, is the fact that the United States Capitol attack has characterized Joe Biden’s (D) entire election period from 2021 until today – three years later. And still does. The Democrats themselves have, rather than quickly closing the debate, also picked it up like a rabbit out of a hat when the political results have been poor, and many of them have, the last three years. Inflation has worsened everyday life for almost every American voter and the last photos from the withdrawal of Afghanistan in August 2021 were a complete disaster. And that undermines democracy, especially in the USA, as we know it today.
Joe Biden announced his candidacy for a re-election for a second term on April 25, 2023 with Kamala Harris (D) as his running mate. However, suddenly things developed. A debate on June 27, 2024 between Donald Trump (R) and Joe Biden (D) in Atlanta changed all.
During the following days, the focus from the Democratic Party on an apparently incipient senile dementia was enormous. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump (R) on July 13 in Pennsylvania really activated the Democratic Party and on July 21, Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy. Vice-president Kamala Harris (D) then announced her candidacy. The end of the candidacy of Joe Biden (D) took place in a presidential speech in the Oval Office on July 24, with the party’s leadership sitting next to him up the wall (but very convenient the viewers didn’t saw that on television).
The 82-year-old Joe Biden (D) is of course an older man, but the process of appointing Kamala Harris (D) may make the American voter ask him- or herself the questions – didn’t the Democrats know for a long time that Joe Biden was too old for the job? and after all, didn’t Joe Biden deserve a more dignified departure from the White House? and is the Democratic party really united?
November 5, 2024
Who will be the 47th President of the United States? The answer is blowing in wind. The attentive reader is sure to have noted that there is not a single word about the candidates’ political plans. Nor about the state of the nation. Can the USA really finance large parts of the war in Ukraine?, how is it with the American infrastructure? and how to solve the border problem with Mexico? and who are the people crossing the Mexican border in reality?
As on August 4, Donald Trump (R) is slightly leading in the opinion polls, but still four month to go. Kamala Harris has never been the most popular politician, but four months with election campaign can change the situation. However, it requires that the Democrats start playing political cards in openness and that the vice-presidential candidate is a real political ace. And that she will not be a copy of Hillary Clinton.
The next four months will be very intense, and the situation can change totally. What is a historical fact, however, is that a political system can change quickly in so-called young countries. Much faster than in Europe, where the political system is not doing very well either. So in the slip stream of fake news, fake election videos, fake political messages and Vladimir Putin’s possible role in the election campaign – let the 60th US Presidential election be a discovery of a new world – a new global political world.
