Defying speculations and “headlines” about this being a tight, close-fight, full of suspense as well as tension, Republican candidate Donald Trump has won the White House race with a good lead against his Democrat rival Kamala Harris. Results are certainly surprising in view of the impression created by numerous outlets of media as well as observers about this being a tough battle between the two. Of course, he hasn’t won with as good as a margin of electoral votes as President Joe Biden did in 2020 but a victory is a victory even if it is marginal. The question is not simply of his returning to office for the second term after a gap of four years because of failure of Harris to defeat him, but also of her not being as strong a rival as she was projected to be?
Undeniably, there can be a major difference between speculations, expectations, analysis and so forth given extreme importance ahead of the polls and what the results indicate. Earlier this year, the same phase was witnessed by difference in various opinions, etc. about expected results of Indian Parliamentary Elections as well as recently held Haryana Assembly Polls and the actual results. Nevertheless, this does not reduce relevance of questions regarding Trump’s victory and defeat of Harris. One is naturally tempted to raise the question that would she have won or given a stronger fight if she were not a woman? The question of her not being able to give a strong fight also implies that she has not received as strong a support from American voters as she and observers expecting it had thought she would. Let us accept it, the issue is not simply of her having lost but that of American voters choosing not to support her strongly. The same point is indicated by popular votes received by Trump.
Well, to date, USA has not had a woman president. It is possible, gender bias is partly responsible for defeat of Harris. True, USA is supposed to be the most advanced, liberal, democratic and so on country in the world. But at the same time, the fact that conservatism still prevails there cannot be sidelined. This was fairly evident in a comment made by Trump during his campaign, on his being ready to “protect” American women. So the American men still think of women as “weak” who need males to protect them. Or that of made by another Republican leader on Harris being “trash.” If leaders at the top view women along such lines, what can be said about American public in general? The probability of their being skeptical about having a woman as their head cannot be sidelined.
It may be recalled, Hillary Clinton tried her best to be a Democratic candidate for the White House. But she was defeated by Barrack Obama. Obama, a colored individual, succeeded against a White woman. This point is being deliberately made to point out that it seems, gender bias in US seems stronger than that of color. It is prevalent not just in politics. In Hollywood, male actors are paid more than female actors. Understandably, gender bias prevails in most parts of the world, so there is nothing surprising about it being there in USA too. Besides, the hype raised about “modernity” and “liberalism” in American society clearly isn’t reflected at all levels. Certainly not, democratically speaking.
There is yet another side to electoral race. Color as well as gender bias may be held as partly responsible for defeat of Harris. At a greater level, this also spells failure of Democrats to return to White House. Where did they err? It is possible, Biden’s term in office hasn’t left American voters willing to give Democrats another chance. In addition, Democrats as well as Harris (individually) barely got much time to campaign for the latter. In contrast, Trump and his team seem to have been at the job for the past four years, from the day he lost the 2020 elections to Biden. Trump’s campaign has included substantial negative campaign against his rivals. Four years of aggressive campaign against those who barely got enough time -not even half a year- to make Americans familiar with Harris and her party’s “promises” cannot be expected to fair too well. Besides, as mentioned earlier, four years of Biden in office may have left them fairly dissatisfied with him on several issues. This also suggests, even if Biden had not backed out in favor of Harris, Democrats would have probably met the same fate.
One key issue which Harris repeatedly talked about was that of her favoring abortion. She has been criticized for giving it too much emphasis. Interestingly, all party members- including Republicans and Democrats- don’t hold the same view on this issue. It is possible, her emphasis on this issue didn’t appeal to those differing on this. This may be partly reflective of Democrats lacking intra-party uniformity on certain issues. The situation may have been different if they were not faced with their having no option but lack of substantial time leading to limited attention apparently paid by them to present united front before voters. Here, it may be pointed out, the results should not be viewed as just defeat of Harris. It would be more appropriate to understand them as defeat of Democrats on more than one front. In this context, a different picture was projected by the rival camp. Trump was going overboard through and through, leaving his party members and supporters, with no option but to favor him or at best not oppose him. Strategies exercised by him were not confined to just probably attracting “sympathy” votes following an alleged “assassination” attempt. Besides, the reality that he also won popular votes signals the strong message of his campaign having been fairly well received by American voters. The same cannot be said about his rival. Undeniably, both candidates received substantial media coverage.
Interestingly, till the results started coming in, the electoral battle seemed to be close one. But that was apparently as projected by media and not by American voters. In essence, Trump’s victory is certainly a historic one. But why blame only Harris for her defeat? Basically, her defeat for more reasons than one spells failure of Democrats and also to a degree that of Biden’s term in office. After all, Trump’s victory probably (or maybe primarily) rests on American voters’ decision to give him a chance and not risk having a Democrat for another term in White House!
Nilofar Suhrawardy is a senior journalist and writer with specialization in communication studies and nuclear diplomacy. She has come out with several books. These include:– Modi’s Victory, A Lesson for the Congress…? (2019); Arab Spring, Not Just a Mirage! (2019), Image and Substance, Modi’s First Year in Office (2015) and Ayodhya Without the Communal Stamp, In the Name of Indian Secularism (2006).
