Quardricos Driskell, Contributing Writer
Election 2020 has been a very long, intense, and crazed election season. Tremendous efforts to “get out the vote” were launched into high gear; we became accustomed to the political propaganda streaming across our televisions, computers, and mobile devices. Now, those messages are joined by a sigh of relief that the chaos Donald Trump ensued is now over. Or is it?
If nothing else came from a Trump presidency, he got America to recognize a truth long ignored in American politics: that a competent government at all levels is important. Be clear, Joe Biden won the presidency, but Trumpism populism and his empowered supporters along with the true mastermind, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), are here to stay. African Americans have been fighting — literally —saving America from itself for hundreds of years, and in many instances, saving white people from themselves in trying to make society better.
There are many takeaways from the 2020 Elections, mainly Democrats don’t understand how to campaign to win, nor do they understand how to legislate. Trump used the same message in 2016 and somehow managed to expand the base because the people who support him feel bonded to him, his identity is theirs and their identity is not necessarily grounded in race, but also class.
As such, Democrats have a demonstratively weak standing with the general public and unfortunately, they will probably blame others besides their weak party leadership. The party’s poor performance on Election Night sets up a gridlock presidency, with faint hopes of achieving liberal policy aspirations. A Biden presidency will face the prospect of gridlock. As such, he would become the first president since George H.W. Bush to enter office without control of both the House and Senate — promising him at least two years of stasis and gridlock.
The Democrats need a winning strategy. But more importantly African Americans need a winning strategy. My interest lies in how the average American, most especially Black Americans, sustain the focus and the level of engagement beyond the 2020 election. For we need to understand that we can argue about policy; we can argue about programs, but we don’t get to have the luxury of those arguments if we don’t win.
It is incumbent upon Black Americans to sustain their engagement long when this election season comes to a close. And given the slim margins of power in both the House and Senate, it will be difficult for lawmakers to send any major legislation to the president’s desk during the 117th Congress. Furthermore, Americans must continue their political and civic engagement beyond voting. We must participate in town hall meetings. There must be an increased effort to write our lawmakers, to hold them accountable about issues that are important to us, and to connect with organizations and nonprofits that support issues and policies that we care about. I tell my students that everybody has a lobbyist, someone, or organization representing their interest at the state or national level. Thus, connecting with varied organizations, even political action committees that support your interests is critical for political engagement. Yes, pundits and politicos bemoan the lack of political activity and interest after every election season especially among the Black community, but after a Donald Trump presidency more is required of us after the votes have been tallied. No longer can we sit back and allow lawmakers to make decisions without our increased participation. The American people, especially Black people, must keep their feet to the fire on issues vital to them at every level and vote them out of office within the next four years if they do not deliver on the promises.
It is going to take some time to undo some of Trump’s policies, more so his rhetoric – if it can be undone. It is going to take time to restore American’s international reputation, but we can start by realigning ourselves with the Paris Accord and the World Health Organization to which President-elect Biden has always promised. A Biden and Harris administration will also prioritize passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Madame Vice-President-elect Harris undoubtedly will also promote the appointment to the federal courts of fair-minded and visibly diverse judges. Overall, I expect the vice president-elect to frame and seek solutions to problems that disproportionately affect women and communities of color in ways that promote winning legislative coalitions, such is my hope. But aforementioned, the makeup and openness of the 117th Congress will largely determine the success of the Biden-Harris administration’s legislative agenda.
Democrats must be willing to move past symbolic gestures of representation without substantial policy action. Our earthly salvation is in our hands and cannot be based on who wins a presidential election every four years; nor can our only solutions simply be to encourage people to vote. Both health equity and economic freedom are needed and requires pressure from us.
The country can breathe, as we elected ‘character’ and basic human values of civility, but political sectarianism is where we are regrettably mired. Elections will come and go, but the impacts of the policies enacted by public officials remain for decades and shape opportunities and welfare for coming generations. Voting is only the beginning of our work and now comes the hard work of continued sustained political engagement. Many Americans have lost the comfortable bliss of not paying attention to politics, now we must.We cannot afford to be politically idle for, if we do, we again could end up with another Trump-like pseudo-autocratic reality.
Quardricos Bernard Driskell is a federal lobbyist, an adjunct professor of legislative politics at The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management
