You are turning this blog post in the night before the last day of voting in the 2020 election. What has the experience of living through the election been like for you? How do you think we might view this election historically in the future? How have you seen history evoked in order to explain the election, candidates’ platforms, or to predict outcomes? Another cool way to approach this blog would be to identify one or two sources that you think would be critical for a future historian to look at in order to understand this election season. If you were to study the election in the future, what historical questions would you ask?
My experience throughout this election has been tumultuous, stressful, hopeful, crazy, heart-breaking, concerned, and finally hopeful again. It’s been absolutely insane. I voted in September for Joe Biden, and I have been vocal on social media about my political views, since I love politics. This election is something nobody has ever heard of before. It has been incredibly stressful, some of the Trump supporters on my social media would call me names, say I “won’t get smarter by looking into things”, and other nonsense. My boyfriend is a conservative. So this election has been very, very, very stressful.
I believe we will look at this election in the future as a mistake and hopefully the future is normal, but it will be remembered as an election surrounded in controversy and scandals. Cheap shots by our candidates, the growing fear of “fake news”, COVID-19, BLM, and the progressiveness of our nation is what makes this election different from many others. Plus, our president has not clarified whether or not he will commit to a peaceful transfer of power, which is something that has been done all throughout American history. I just hope the future is in a much better place than we are right now, and everyone is civil towards each other.
I have seen history come into play numerous times throughout this election. First, we have the people who compare President Trump to Hitler, citing the almost-concentration camps at the border, his call to bring jobs back is similar to Hitler’s platform in the 30’s, when he ran on bringing Germany’s economy back, and the way they both said “make _______ great again!”. History also has a part in this election because there have been few presidents that have only served 1 term, and there is doubt as to whether or not President Trump will join them. History says it is unlikely.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/covid-19-latest-news-2020-11-03/I think an article giving future Americans a sense of this election would be this article on COVID-19 and how it impacted the nation, thus greatly impacting the method of voting in the United States.
Another article would have to be this BLM article from the New York Times. You cannot talk about the 2020 election without talking about the social momentum of the country and the response to injustice. This, alongside the Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett confirmations, Trump’s House impeachment, and Russian meddling/Facebook misinformation spread would also help give future Americans a sense of the political and social climate in 2016 and 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html
If I had to study this election in the future….. I believe I would ask “why was the 2020 election of _____ so controversial?”. And I’d probably research each candidate’s stances and their supporters. Just try to figure out a question that I cannot even answer right now; “Why?”