Daily US Times: A presidential election can be revealing moments that convey the hopes and wishes of the American people to the next wave of elected officials. The big reveal in the contest between former Vice President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump is the extent of the cavernous divide between Democratic and Republican America, one that defines the nation, no matter which candidate ultimately wins.
Voters from both sides turned out in droves to pick the next president, but as they did so, they found little agreement between them about what that president should do. Republicans and Democrats lived in different communities, prioritized different issues and even voted on different kinds of ballots.
Whoever wins the presidency, that division ensures that the next president will face significant gridlock in Congress, skepticism about the integrity of the vote and an agitated electorate increasingly divided by race, geography and education. Even the vote count of this election itself threatens to further split Americans.
Two days after polls for the presidential election closed, neither Biden nor Trump has earned the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. The Republican incumbent is encouraging his supporters to protest outside counting locations still sorting through mail ballots, while pursuing an aggressive legal strategy that could lead to further delays.
Historian Barbara Perry, the director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said: “Except for the Civil War, I don’t think we’ve lived through any time as perilous as this in terms of the divisions.”
Even after the 2000 election, when the US Supreme Court ultimately intervened on Republican George W. Bush’s behalf, Al Gore, Democrat, quickly conceded and congressional leaders found areas of agreement on Capitol Hill.
Perry said: “To come out of something like this, you need to have a leader who can lead and willing followers. I just don’t see willing followers on either side.”
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