I am writing this article before the election has been called against Trump, though given biden now has over 250 electoral college votes, and a path to 270 appears to be quite simple, with multiple options.
What does this election mean for America and the rest of the world?
In the short term it would appear to mean a lot of suits and absurd claims leveled by Trump and his campaign staff, however assuming that they are all easily pushed aside (thus far I haven’t heard one that makes sense). However, when it is clear and Biden has been declared victorious (regardless of what Trump is saying) what will happen next?
We may be in for a particularly bumpy ride during the lame-duck season, Trump has already disregarded any sense of fair play with pushing through supreme court judge one week before the election,despite republicans refusing to do so one year before the last one. However there is an expectation that he will do lots of things that will have to be undone by Biden after January and will waste a significant portion of his term.
The US has officially left the Paris climate change agreement, Biden his promise to reverse this stupid move which he should be able to do come January.
The facts that it looks like democrats will not have won the senate, is concerning and we will have to see how much republicans can stop sensible change.
It is possible that in the next few years American might start to pull its weight, though with an increasingly political now thoroughly dominating conservative supreme court, there is a significant possibility of them causing problems.
While it is only an American problem, I have always found it battling the American fight against public health care – by definition if you have the money, you can continue as you are.it would seem that America will have to continue to pay twice what every other advanced economy does for healthcare (while failing to provide basic care for millions of its citizens). It is likely that the republicans now will block any attempt to bring back the affordable care act in any form.
However, there are issues that impact this blog with far more relevance. Unfortunately, the lack of clean sweep may well cause problems on this front. The republicans have shown a disdain for science, essentially of any kind that gets in the way of a policy. Much of this only impacts American citizens.
There are however two areas which do impact us,
- An America ignoring global warming and the science that supports it, and refusing to put the work in to cut their emissions is a serious problem. The world needs to be ratcheting up the carbon emission reduction targets, under the republicans there is a serious desire and not to cut them at all. A 2019 study calculated we needed cuts 7.6% each year every year between 2020 and 2030. America accounts for 25% of the world’s emissions so they must pull their weight
- The American government has been very lax when it comes to protecting species around the world, it is particularly concerning that the American government allows so many exotic animals to be kept in backyards and this fuels are they legal taking around animals from the wild.there also needs to be a change in American behaviour to stop going off and hunting animals all over the place, there are many species being pushed to the brink of extinction by this behaviour.
My hope is that at least on these two to different important global issues a Bidin lead America will fully engage and be part of the solution rather than the problem.
Unfortunately while he appears to have lost it wasn’t the repudiation tha of trump is not overwhelming, in otherwords it is clearly not the American people coming to their senses. Such a close election is alarming. On the scientific side, Trump has so forcefully left sense beyond, yet 40% or more of the American public approve.
So I leave you with a horrifying question; will the majority of USA citizens only support climate mitigation efforts as necessary when it is too late? Or will an eventual removal of trump fully from power help people come to realize the truth in the warnings they have dismissed? Only time will tell, but Mitt Romney mocking Obama back in 2012 is unlikely to be the only politician looked back on as foolishly misguided.