I was asked to write something about Super Tuesday and the current Presidential race, and I’m afraid I don’t exactly have anything helpful to say. I was asked to write something because I served as the official Norton vote reporter for Edison Research on Tuesday. They gave me pizza, I wrote down some numbers, and I went home. Aside from a small mistake with displaying the vote counts that seemingly only I noticed (You’re welcome, Democracy), everything went smoothly.
The results of Super Tuesday were not at all surprising, to say the least. It’s clear that voters will once again have to choose between Trump, who is currently facing 91 felony counts across two states and federal districts, and Biden, an “elderly man with a poor memory” (as per special counsel Robert Hur), who is seemingly more interested in sending arms to Israel than he is with fulfilling campaign promises.
There was no world where this wasn’t going to happen. The Republican Party obviously doesn’t care about having a twice-impeached, currently-on-trial charlatan as their representative, and the Democratic Party seems convinced that Biden’s “At Least I’m Not Trump” routine will be enough to carry him to the finish line.
Spoiler alert: it won’t.
Maybe I’m being pessimistic, but Biden is doing little to mobilize or even interest younger voters, who are increasingly becoming disillusioned with the current political system. If Biden wins, he will be 85 by the end of his term, compared to Trump, who will be 81. Many voters, particularly from younger generations, feel as though their voices and best interests aren’t being heard or represented by the current crop of politicians. The Democratic Party is aware of this, and instead of finding a candidate with the power to mobilize this large, powerful base, they have chosen to once again offer Biden, the ultimate “take it or leave it” candidate.
Who knows what will happen come November. Maybe Trump will succumb to the “fire and fury” of the American judicial system. Maybe Biden will summon the charisma of a young Jack Kennedy and idealistic Americans will swarm the voting centers like ants to honey. Maybe Trump will claim victory no matter what, and we’ll see what an actual insurrection looks like when it’s called for by a man with nothing left to lose. Maybe it’ll be a nice, normal election, or maybe it won’t. At least if there’s an insurrection we’ll get a half day out of it or something. It’s the little things that count.
So, this November, be sure to rock the vote and choose the lesser of two evils. At the end of the day, Biden isn’t Trump, but what does it say about the Democratic Party if that’s the best thing he has going for him?