While it's not yet official (the Electoral College still has to go through its process), more than enough people wanted a change from the last 4 years.
Some of the pre-election polls predicted a landslide in favor of the Democrats, but the only poll that really matters showed a much closer margin.
Donald Trump, the most polarizing president in my lifetime, had so many weaknesses. He is a thin-skinned bully that lashes out at even the most minor disagreement. He didn't even try to hide his cruelty towards immigrants from non-white countries. His trade wars made life difficult for exporters, especially farmers. He even insulted the military by calling them "babies" and "suckers" when things go wrong.
Then came the coronavirus crisis. Granted, this was a crisis that leaders in the USA weren't used to dealing with. Most political leaders there don't even think about pandemics when crafting a political campaign. No policy wouldn't come with its imperfections. I admit I was a skeptic of the seriousness of the crisis when it first started, now imagine being a leader of nations with many skeptics who never dealt with pandemics before.
Donald Trump, however, is a person who never admits mistakes. He is "Never Wrong". He lashes out at anyone who questions his majesty!
While I don't fault him too much for reacting too slowly in the beginning, I do fault him for demanding states to re-open their economies too early, causing a second & now the third wave. When faced with resistance to his demands to reopen, Trump lashes out even more.
His loud demands to reopen the economy fascinated millions who were tired of lockdowns and masks. They had rallies, parties & gatherings which spread the virus at a whole new level.
Meanwhile, other nations around the world were able to control the spread of the virus much faster while the rate in the USA was rising.
And to top it all off, near the last month of the campaign, Trump had an event in the White House in which hardly anyone wore protective masks. A few weeks later, Trump got the coronavirus and had to stay a few days in Walter Reed Hospital.
Even then, Trump could admit no wrong on his part. He is "Never Wrong".
And because of that, Trump is Never going to have his second term.
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Meanwhile, the Democrats were still in a weak position for most of the campaign.
Yes, Trump was able to form the largest cult of useful idiots in USA history.
But for too long, the Democrats couldn't get their acts together.
For the primaries, most of the candidates competed over who could be "woker than thou" and "more socialist than thou".
Bernie Sanders was on a roll until he was confronted about his past praise of Fidel Castro. Instead of apologizing, he doubled down. This didn't just offend Cuban-Americans, it also made a lot of other people nervous that Sanders would be a liability in Florida which has traditionally the most populated swing state.
From that point on, Joe Biden got the lead in the primaries. He didn't really have appeal to the "woker than thou" and "more socialist than thou", but he had name recognition and goodwill for being Obama's VP.
However, people still questioned how an old European-American man can lead a party whose passionate voters were women & people of non-European ancestries.
To answer that, Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his VP!
That selection was questionable because, during the primary debates, Harris questioned Biden's racial sensitivities, his past friendships with segregationist politicians, and his past opposition to school busing policies meant to integrate schools.
Apparently, all was forgiven between them when it came time to campaign for the general.
But Kamala Harris also had liabilities of her own. Just like Biden, Harris supported overly punitive drug policies. Even worse, as a prosecutor, she denied appeals to re-investigate questionable prosecutions of innocent people.
learn more on Kamala Harris as a prosecutor: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html
All this was a liability in an era where people wanted criminal justice reform. Even Trump had a criminal justice reform bill that Obama should've initiated in his first time but was too chicken to do so out of fear of being called "soft on crime".
After the death of George Floyd, massive racial justice protests occurred throughout the nation & the world. Some of the protests turned violent, which gave Trump the opportunity to call himself a "law & order" candidate and to taunt the Democrats of being "soft on crime".
Both Biden & Harris condemned the riots. However, the Republicans kept insisting they were "soft on crime", "soft on riots" and even had riot victims speak at the virtual Republican convention.
The Republicans also insisted Biden & Harris were "socialists" nevermind that real socialists consider Biden & Harris to be corporate stooges blocking progressive change.
Despite all those challenges, the Biden-Harris campaign was able to mobilize turnout in their favors in various swing states. Biden & Harris were able to keep their composure when faced with aggressive questioning during the debates.
And as I said earlier, the last month of the campaign exposed the weakness of Trump's coronavirus policy, which I believed was the final straw that broke the campaign in Biden-Harris' favor.
The Democrats didn't put on the strongest campaign possible. The friction between the center-left and radical left is a major weakness for the Democrats that made them vulnerable to a more unified cult of personality that is Trump's Republican party.
However, Trump has alienated too many people. His "Never Wrong" personality could never attract any support from skeptics. He has now been humiliated on an epic scale.
The nation didn't turn away from the Republican Party as a whole. The party picked up seats in the House, and could possibly hold on to the Senate.
People loved the low-taxes promises of the Republicans. Even in the mostly Democrat state of California, the voters opposed additional taxes. They also opposed efforts to force Uber/Lyft drivers to give up their independent contractor status, and they also opposed the reinstating of racial quotas in the state's universities.
This shows that most Democrats are center-left, not radical left.
However, AOC went ballistic when Abigail Spanberger (a representative from Virginia) stated that accusations of "socialism" and "defund the police" are poison to the Democrats. AOC continues to insist that the whole country wants far-left progressive reforms even though some of the results show otherwise.
Yes, the minimum wage increases were accepted by Florida voters. Yes, all the states that voted on drug reform policies favored a more lenient drug policy. So in a way, AOC is correct that the nation is being receptive to some left-progressive reforms.
But AOC needs to realize that what worked for her in the Bronx & Queens isn't going to work well everywhere else. Bernie Sanders called himself a socialist and he couldn't even win the Democrat nomination! That should tell you something!
50 Cent had some controversy when he stated that he supports Trump's tax policy even as he said "I don’t care Trump doesn’t like black people". He doesn't need Chelsea Handler to remind him he's a black man! Even though 50 Cent likes to say stuff for the sake of getting attention, he can't be the only person who feels that way. Trump did get some increase among African-American & Latino voters. As 50 Cent himself noted, he didn't care if Trump is a racist, he still wants to pay lower taxes. In other words, some people are willing to vote for someone who is racist towards them as long as they see some economic benefit.
The Democrats have a long history of taking the black voters for granted, and this year, they took the Latino vote for granted. It isn't enough to point out that Trump started his campaign demonizing Mexican immigrants as "bringing drugs", "bringing crime" and "they're rapists". While I was definitely offended by those statements, not all Latinos were. Some seem to be at peace with supporting a president who is racist towards them as long as they feel they'll get some economic benefits from him.
Let's also remember that some Latinos are part of ICE & the Border Patrol and are totally OK with abusing other Latinos who are coming across the border. This is just like how apartheid-era South Africa used black South African troops to counteract anti-apartheid protests. The movie "Bopha" featuring Danny Glover is a good resource on how people are willing to fight for their oppressors.
Biden did win the majority of the Latino vote, and this helped him win swing states like Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado & Nevada (all of which both Bushes won for the Republicans).
However, his campaign could've done more.
For the first time in a long time, Texas was becoming a swing state, with its large Latino population and the increasing number of Anglos who came from other states to work in the tech industry. Biden won most of the Latinos in the urban areas of Texas but lost some mostly-Latino counties near the border that usually supports Democrats. This right there showed that the campaign took Latino voters for granted. This also was part of the reason why Trump was still able to win Texas.
learn more on the Texas Latino vote: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-texas-s-overwhelmingly-latino-rio-grande-valley-turned-toward-trump/ar-BB1aQRSp
But Florida was where the Democrats had the worst failure with the Latino vote. Much of Florida's Latinos were refugees (and their descendants) from Cuba & Venezuela! They already had a bad experience with communism & socialism. Trump was able to manipulate many of them by claiming that the Democrats were "socialists". Many Spanish language ads were run in Miami & the surrounding counties accusing the Democrats of being "socialists". Biden's campaign didn't counteract those accusations aggressively enough.
It would've been much worse had the Democrats chose Bernie Sanders, Trump would've won Florida by a larger margin. AOC needs to pay attention to this.
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Due to the coronavirus crisis, voting by mail became more popular nationwide.
Democrats encouraged "vote by mail", Trump expressed skepticism about voting by mail.
In my home state of Hawaii, mailed-in ballots are counted as they come in. The results just don't get announced until the last person at the polling place has voted.
However, the geniuses running states like Pennsylvania count the mailed-in votes after the votes from polling places are counted. This is ridiculous! This only encouraged conspiracy theories about "Democrats suspiciously finding votes after Trump's early lead", when it was just that ballots from polling places (which favored Trump) were counted before mailed-in votes (which favored Biden). Pennsylvania should adopt Hawaii vote-counting practices instead to avoid these silly conspiracy theories.
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As for the third parties, they got a smaller share of the voter in 2020 as compared to 2016.
Back in 2016, Gary Johnson got the most votes ever for a Libertarian. He already had experience as a political executive from when he was a governor of New Mexico. Even though he was mocked for his answers about foreign affairs, Johnson was still able to set a good path for libertarians by communicating in a way that didn't scare skeptics.
In 2020, the Libertarians had a good candidate in Jo Jorgensen, a psychology professor. She was able to articulate libertarian ideas without scaring skeptics. The only problem was that she was up against voters who feared that any vote that isn't going to Biden will help Trump instead. If the major political parties had less polarizing candidates, I believed that Jorgensen would've broken Gary Johnson's record for the most support for the libertarians.
The Green Party had Howie Hawkins, who was one of the founders of the party. He also could communicate his ideas without scaring skeptics. He also was up against the fear that any vote that isn't going to Biden will help Trump instead. A lot of far-left progressives who were skeptical of the corporate-friendly, too-punitive-on-drugs, center-left Joe Biden voted for him anyways just to keep Donald Trump from having another 4 years in office.
The Constitution Party, which is more right-wing than the Republicans also had decreased support this year, mostly because Trump appeals to those who felt past Republican presidents were too moderate.
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As for 2024, Trump could try again! After Grover Cleveland had 2 non-consecutive terms as president, and Trump could try to do that! Hopefully, the Republicans could have a bold challenger that could weaken him in the primaries.
For the Democrats, Joe Biden promised to be a one-term president who will pass the torch to Kamala Harris. She will then have to find a VP that could unite both the center-left and radical-left members of the party. As we saw this past campaign, that will be easier said than done.
If the major political parties don't have polarizing candidates, this will allow people to feel free to experiment with third parties. We need the third parties to push for ideas that the major political parties are reluctant to touch.
