2020 Election Week

Election week of 2020 was filled with a lot of emotions such as doubt, fear, bewilderment, frustration and ultimately some relief. As I was looking at the votes being counted during the poles for each presidential candidate it was interesting to see how many voters (a small percentage) chose to vote for third party candidates. In Chapter 7 of the text it talks about the United States perpetuating a two-party system, a precedent that is believed to be a result of the first major political division that happened between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The two-party system that continues to prevail and prevailed this past week is also influenced by election laws and institutional barriers. This election week was not different from previous elections in the fact that the focus was on the democratic candidate and the republican candidate. The shocking part to me during the election this week was how close the popularity vote percentage wise were between the two candidates especially in the swing states. To me it was shocking because for me this election was beyond politics, it felt like to me people’s votes were also a reflection on how they felt about sexism, systematic racism and honestly human decency. I was relieved by the results. Historically, this election was a big deal because our first woman Vice President was elected and she is also the first person of color to be in that position. Her speech last night was amazing and all I can say is she opened doors for lots of future girls. She also brought hope to women such as my grandmother that the future will be brighter. My grandmother is an immigrant from India who has dedicated her life to making a better future for her own three daughters and six grandchildren. After hearing Kamala Harrris speak last night, she cried with happiness seeing a half indian, half aftican american woman be elected Vice President. When it comes to California state props, I was thrilled that prop 17 passed and that felons can vote once again. I do not believe in stripping human rights away from criminals. Felons in particular never made sense to me because once they have served their time in jail or prison there is no justification to continue to be punished once “justice has been served”. I was disappointed to see prop 22 pass that allows Uber and Lyft to classify employees as independent contractors. This was very frustrating to see because it allows the companies to be exempt from California Labor Laws and not give their employees health care benefits etc. I was not surprised by the outcome because this prop was backed by business oriented liberals and the commercials for this prop blasted every tv channel and media suggesting prop 22 was in the drivers best interest. The commercials advertised that if the prop passed it would allow drivers to continue to “work on their own time” but the truth is that was just a distraction. These commercials were funded by companies that had a personal interest in not having to provide benefits to employees. The five topics I would like to talk about in my final project for this class would be: The electoral vote and how it works Systematic racism within the history of our government Separation of church and state regarding the public school education system Why the United States is a democracy (historical information) What is federalism?