Trump, Biden and the purple states
- 82newsbulletin
- Sep 10, 2020
- 2 min read
Written by Guignard Nicolas
The presidential campaign in the United States is in full swing as both parties now have selected their candidates. However, if the election is a stake for the entire country, it will be decided in a handful of states.
Maps of US presidential elections results between 2004 and 2016. Deep blue states were democrat all 4 times, light blue 3 times, purple were won twice by each party, light red are GOP leaning, and red ones saw 4 republican victories
Image Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states#/media/File:Red_state,_blue_state.svg
The maps of the results of the last four presidential elections depicts the gap that exists between red and blue states. The west coast is blue, meaning that they consistently voted for the democrat nominee, while the Midwest is red because they voted for the Republican one. Some states are purple, neither fully won to any party. Those are swing states. Among those is Florida, a traditionally disputed and key state, but this year the focus is elsewhere.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the election in spite of winning the popular vote. One of her big mistakes was to campaign heavily in states such as Arizona or even Georgia, which she thought might earn her a larger victory, while neglecting the ‘blue wall’, which Trump, in a moment of political brilliancy, tore down.
The ‘blue wall’ refers to states in which the democratic candidate consistently won from 1992 to 2012, among which Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Those states belong to the rust belt, an area left devastated by decades of deindustrialisation, and whose traditionally democrat-voting electorate of blue-collar turned towards Trump in the last election. Winning in all three of those states would have been enough for Clinton to be elected.
The blue wall, states consistently won by the Democrats between 1992 and 2012
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_(politics)#/media/File:Blue_Wall_states_1992-2012_map.svg
Joe Biden faced a choice, between rebuilding the ‘blue wall’, or try and contest traditionally Republican states such as Texas or Georgia, in which the midterm election only gave a narrow advantage to the GOP. He himself is a man born in Pennsylvania, and whose long political career always had a faithful base of blue-collar supporters, and he appears to have chosen the former of the two options.
If he wins back those states, and does not lose any of Clinton’s, Biden would achieve only a narrow victory, heavily imputable to the current pandemics, in a country split in half. He would be left with little legitimacy, his country facing its worst riots since the Civil Rights movement, and a shattered economic situation. He who built a solid reputation for achieving middle grounds would be left with his biggest challenge yet.
Click below for Further Reading!
For even further reading -
Angry White Men by Kimmel, Michael S - published by Nation Books, 2013.
DISCLAIMER: The contents of this website are solely owned by the author of each article and does not represent the views of the Awareness Committee or the Editorial team.
Comments