On 3rd of November 2020 the 59th US presidential election took place. This presidential election was dubbed by many as being the most important presidential election since the inception of the United States by its founding fathers in 1776.
2020 was a tumultuous year and this was especially the case in the United States. Throughout the year America saw mass unemployment, mass deaths resulting from the coronavirus, as well as rising social tensions due to racial discrimination. Racial inequality has long been an issue in America, often ignored by politicians’ lax approach in resolving the pressing issues of structural racism embedded within its culture. The date of 25th of May represents one of the many low points for America in 2020. On this day, a video surfaced on many social network sites of the arrest of George Floyd, an African-American. In the ten minute video, we can see police officers detain George Floyd. Moments later a scuffle ensues and the arresting officers push Floyd to the ground. Whilst he is on the ground, the arresting officers handcuff him and one of the officers places his knee on Floyd’s neck, until he eventually passes out and later dies. In the ensuing days the video spread like wildfire, sparking worldwide protests. The fallout from this video highlighted the deep racial divides within the United States. In the following weeks, the social movement Black Lives Matter garnered a lot of attention. The Black Lives Matter movement, founded in 2013, called for accountability of the police officers that were responsible for the death of George Floyd. The Minneapolis Police Department was very slow to act on this public outcry. It wasn’t until several weeks later that the officers were charged with second-degree manslaughter. This provoked further unrest with many individuals demanding the charges be upgraded to murder. The African-American community had little faith in the criminal justice system, referring to other instances where police officers had killed black Americans. The shooting of other unarmed African-Americans such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice were cited as examples of police officers escaping punishment for the crimes they had committed (Tolliver et al, 2016). Bruno Latour’s controversial claim that, most advanced societies have never been modern, is especially appropriate in this situation, where African-Americans are still very much second class citizens (Samayeen et al, 2020). In the following months, previous incidents of police brutality towards people of the African-American community came to light. The killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were used as cases of extreme police negligence and highlighted as examples for police reform and the disinvestment in police services (Galea & Abdalla, 2020).
The Black Lives Matter slogan used throughout the protest sparked confusion amongst a number of the US population. People that identified as being politically on the right of the political spectrum felt as if this slogan was placing increased importance on black people’s lives. As a counter-movement to this the All Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter were founded and people of both movements often collided over the issues at hand. As a result of this, many felt they had to protect their cities from looting and rioting. Militia groups such as the Proud Boys and other local militias said it was their duty to protect America from the BLM movement and Antifa, which they claimed were trying to implement socialism into America and ruin American traditional values.
Throughout the summer and leading up to the general election, the militias became more assertive and their activities ranged from intervening in protests to organising kidnapping plots targeting elected officials (ACLED, 2020). The belief that the Black Lives Matter protests were the root of all the evil ongoing in the United States was further reiterated by President Donald Trump. Throughout the summer, he constantly referred to protestors as ‘the radical left’, refusing to downplay the violence that was caused by the militias who were often acting in his name. This came to a head during the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. At this debate various topics were discussed including Donald Trump’s failure to condone white-supremacy and militia groups. The moderator of the debate, Chris Wallace, directly asked if Trump would denounce the actions of the militias and especially the actions of the Proud Boys. To this Trump replied “Proud Boys, Stand back and Standby”. This response was widely condemned by politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. In right-wing online chat forums however, the delight could not be contained. This was seen as a direct seal of approval from the President. Parler, a platform alternative to Twitter that is used by the Proud Boys, experienced an increase in traffic after this debate. The message forums used by the Proud Boys were inundated with messages such as ‘Standing by Sir’ (Times, 2020).
In the days leading up to the election, the United States was anxiously waiting to see who would be tasked to bring some normalcy to America in what had been a very politically charged year. Due to coronavirus, and the risk of infection, the election was different than usual in that a large number opted for postal ballots. In previous presidential elections, the American public would have had a clear idea as to the winner not long after polling booths had closed. This year was different due to the sheer number of people posting in their ballots, with many experts predicting that it could potentially take several weeks in order to establish the president-elect. Nonetheless, on the night of the 3rd of November Trump held a press conference declaring himself as the winner of the election. Throughout the press conference, he boasted how millions of millions of people had voted for him. Despite millions of votes still not being counted yet. As was the norm during his four-year reign as president, this move was castigated by politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. At this press conference, he planted the seeds of the voter fraud conspiracy. He declared that he wanted the supreme court to stop the count as he didn’t want “… them to find any ballots at four o’clock in the morning and add them to the list (Burns & Martin, 2020)”. Over the course of the next week, Donald Trump and the people close to him kept spewing the false narrative that there had been widespread fraud in the election. Once it became abundantly clear that there would be no way that Trump would win the election, he ramped up the narrative that the government had plotted against him. Donald Trump’s loyal followers accepted this narrative and it wasn’t long until unfound conspiracies surfaced of Joe Biden and the Democrats ‘stealing the vote’ made mainstream headlines. The allegations of voter fraud have been amplified on the internet by the President himself as well as a group of loyal right-wing online influencers. They present false data with doctored or out-of-context videos and charts which portrays the Biden campaign in poor light. This has fuelled militias such as the Proud Boys who were told to stand by. Shortly after the election the chairman of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio said on his social media profile that the Proud Boys “are rolling out. Standby order has been rescinded” (Forbes, 2020).
At the beginning of October, the FBI had called ideologically lone motivated, lone offenders and small groups the biggest terrorist threat to the United States (U.S Department of Homeland Security, 2020).
Following Donald Trump’s groundless claims of election fraud, the threat of terrorism by white supremacists peaked. Moreover, soon after the election, the Proud Boys faced some disruption amongst its members. One of its former leaders, Kyle Chapman, stated on one of their official social media channels that he had taken over the Proud Boys in a coup. He further declared that he was steering the group in a new direction that would be focusing on ‘the issues of White Genocide, the failures of multiculturalism and the right for White men and women to have their own interests written into law and part of the body politic’. Only time will tell whether the Proud Boys will opt for more draconian ways of operating.
As Trump promised, he filed several lawsuits declaring that the Biden campaign had rigged the election. Parallel to this, the American far-right became increasingly agitated through the denial from Donald Trump’s team to condemn his actions and debunk the notion that widespread voter fraud occurred. On the 14th of November, a protest march took place, demonstrating against the election results. Two-hundred and fifty members of the Proud Boys took part in this march alongside members of similar militias (Reuters, 2020). Throughout the course of the march ten arrests were made. Four of those arrests were related to gun charges and one stabbing was reported. Furthermore, poll workers faced the brunt of the rage from the right-wing. Widespread physical as well as sexual harassment was reported by poll workers as well as local election officials. The voting system implementation manager for the state of Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, pleaded for Donald Trump to squelch the rumours of voter fraud for the safety of those involved in counting the votes or else “someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed”
As long as Donald Trump parrots the narrative that voter fraud took place, the far-right in America will continue to flourish. It is imperative that he extinguishes this conspiracy in order to diffuse the tensions that are brewing amongst far-right militias. It is clear to see that racism still flourishes within the United States. Getting rid of Trump won’t solve any of the deep cultural issues that the American government needs to address. However, it is unquestionably a step in the right direction towards erasing the hatred that is embedded within the United States of America.
References:
ACLED (2020). Standing by: Right Wing Militia Groups and the US Election. British Journal of General Practice, 58(548), 189. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp08X277348
Burns, A. & Martin, J. (2020). As America Awaits a Winner, Trump Falsely Claims He Prevailed. NY Times (2020) retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/04/us/politics/election-trump-biden-recap.html on the 8th of December, 2020
Cooke, K et al (2020). As Trump refuses to concede defeat, far-right groups plan show of support in Washington. Reuters.com retrieved on 8th of December, from https://in.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-protest/as-trump-refuses-to-concede-defeat-far-right-groups-plan-show-of-support-in-washington-idUSKBN27T2VV
Galea, S. & Abdalla, S. (2020). The growing gap in life expectancy by income: Implications for federal programs and policy responses. The Growing Gap in Life Expectancy by Income: Implications for Federal Programs and Policy Responses, 02118, 1–167. https://doi.org/10.17226/19015
Samayeen, N., Wong, A., & McCarthy, C. (2020). Space to breathe: George Floyd, BLM plaza and the monumentalization of divided American Urban landscapes. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 0(0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1795980
Tolliver, W. F., Hadden, B. R., Snowden, F., & Brown-Manning, R. (2016). Police killings of unarmed Black people: Centering race and racism in human behavior and the social environment content. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26(3–4), 279–286. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2015.1125207
U.S Department of Homeland Security. (2020). Homeland Threat Assessment October 2020. October.
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