According to recent estimates by US media, the US Democratic presidential candidate Biden won more than 270 electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election. The Republican presidential candidate and current President Trump subsequently stated that the election is far from over.
The latest election has made the American people “some people are happy and some are worried.” Biden supporters in some areas took to the streets to celebrate, and Trump supporters took to the streets to protest. Many foreign media believe that the election has exposed the fact that the United States is becoming increasingly divided and will have an impact on the United States’ international status.
Divided American people: broken friendship and indifferent affection
The general election vote highlights the differences in American public opinion. The New York Times reported on November 8 that rifts in the United States still exist. In the past few years, political disagreements have led to the breakdown of friendship between the people and the cooling of workplace relations. Some trivial matters may even trigger a political quarrel to some extent.
Dustin Mick of Kentucky is a Democrat, but her family lives in a city in the eastern part of the state that supports Trump. Mick said she spent a lot of time trying to resolve political differences with her family. “We usually say that we won’t discuss politics tonight, but maybe after a joke or something happened, everyone started stabbing the knife. This makes family relations tense.”
Mick said that because her family pays attention to right-wing news sites and she prefers traditional news media, she and her family cannot even agree on what is fact. She decided not to allow politics to become a factor that hinders family gatherings in the future, but she also admitted that “some family members may stop participating in some family activities because of my husband and I being present.”
Austin Garrone, from Pennsylvania, said that he and his ex-girlfriend broke up in 2016 due to political differences, because in the presidential election that year, he voted for Trump, but his girlfriend could not understand this. This year, his ex-girlfriend has been calling him, texting and posting messages on social media, trying to persuade him not to vote for Trump. Garone said that he felt exhausted at the thought of telling his ex-girlfriend his vote result.
US media: The current US is like two countries
At the time of the US election, the new crown pneumonia epidemic was still raging in the United States. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, on the 7th, a total of 126,000 confirmed cases were reported in the United States, and the number of newly confirmed cases in a single day exceeded 100,000 for four consecutive days. However, the people have expressed different views on the issues that the country must solve first, showing the tearing of public opinion.
According to a survey conducted by the Associated Press of more than 133,000 people across the United States, about 60% of voters who support Biden believe that the epidemic is the most important issue facing the United States. But among voters who support Trump, half believe that the most important issues are the economy and employment.
In this regard, the Associated Press commented on the 8th that at present, the United States has never been more like two countries than it is today, and everyone has their own views on politics and the epidemic.
The Associated Press previously reported that the election revealed a huge difference between the two parties in the United States, which even defined the entire country.
The report quoted the University of Virginia scholar Barbara Perry as saying, “Except for the Civil War, I think we have never experienced a period of division like this.”
In addition, the US “Time” weekly website recently published an article that the differences among American voters are more structured and deep-rooted than many experts expected. This “most divisive” election will also have an impact on America’s global status. No matter who wins the election in the end, it means that the domestic politics of the United States will be more chaotic, and the position of the United States in the world will be weaker than that of the past 50 years.
The article predicts that the debate on policy issues such as free trade and immigration will continue and lead to more divisions in the United States. Social media will also continue to promote the polarization of American political factions. This dysfunction in the United States will in turn make it difficult for the United States to lead by example on major issues such as climate change.
