By Toluwani Osibamowo
President-elect Joe Biden campaigning in August 2019 (Facebook)
On Nov. 7, days following the nationwide anticipation of the results from Election Day, former Vice President Joe Biden was projected by the Associated Press to win the presidential election, defeating Republican incumbent President Donald Trump.
In the weeks leading up to the election, voters and political experts across the political spectrum had to look closely at what political and social issues would be of most concern to Americans once the president was elected. The economy, health care, Supreme Court appointments, and the coronavirus outbreak were the top four important issues for registered voters in this election, according to the Pew Research Center.
Texas Tech Assistant Professor of Political Science Kevin Banda said the Supreme Court nomination was a reasonably important issue for Americans given the implications it had for which party would have more control in the judicial branch; however, Banda said many people thought Congress should be less focused on judicial nominees and more on COVID-19.
“I think it’s hard to make a compelling argument to most people that a judge is more important than coronavirus aid,” Banda said over Zoom. “And I think that’s reflected in the public opinion data. I think that’s why people think about the Supreme Court as being such a salient issue right now.”
A Gallup poll conducted shortly after the announcement of Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett showed 51% of Americans polled would have liked to see Barrett serving on the Supreme Court, while 46% would not, and only 3% of those polled had no opinion on the issue.
Locally, the conversation surrounding COVID-19 occurs with very little middle ground, Lubbock County Commissioner Jason Corley said, and it all depends on who one asks.
“I would say honestly it just kind of depends where you’re at personally, on whether or not you think the response has been good or bad,” Corley said over Zoom on election night. “Because you’ll talk to some people, and they’re more upset about how it’s affecting their business, and then you talk to the others and they will say, ‘Well, I don’t really care about your business, I’m more concerned about, you know, trying to make sure that nobody dies.’”
Tom Rohrig, associate librarian at Texas Tech, said he became a registered Republican after moving from Colorado to Lubbock 40 years ago. As co-president of the League of Women Voters of Lubbock County, a nonpartisan political organization of citizens active in local government, Rohrig said the League supports universal, inclusive healthcare.
Tom Rohrig, M.A.,
associate librarian
Research, Instruction & Outreach (Texas Tech)
“There are problems with Obamacare, and there are problems with what other people have suggested,” Rohrig said over Zoom. “I’m hoping people will continue to work together. I have not heard a lot about alternatives, and I think it’s interesting that we haven’t been able to go to another system.”
According to a survey done by the Pew Research Center, there has been a two percent increase since 2019 in Republicans and Republican learners who support the idea of a single, national government healthcare program. During his speech at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year, Trump cited infiltrating American healthcare as one of the goals of far-left radicals who are aiming to negatively transform the United States.
“(They want to) impose a fanatical code of political correctness, bombard our citizens with fake-news propaganda, and implement policies that would turn America, very quickly, into a large-scale Venezuela,” Trump said in his speech, met with boos after his mention of Venezuela.
A Gallup poll found that 39% of Americans have a positive opinion of socialism, while 57% have a negative one. Lubbock Democratic Party Chair Gracie Gomez said the increasing association of the Democratic Party with socialist ideals is rooted in fear mongering.
“The whole deal of socialism, it’s been a big fear push, and it’s not true,” Gomez said over Zoom. “We have had so many Democratic administrations, and this country is still not a socialist – and will not be a socialist – country. It’s been used as a fear tactic, and here we are with people that, you know, might believe and that… it holds no one. I mean, there’s no truth to that at all.”
Even with the 2020 presidential election being one of many firsts, Biden will still inherit a wide variety of issues brought forth by Americans who were satisfied with his win over Trump – and those who were not.
About lucindaholt
