Introduction

I am not an American but I love the US political system. I love the fact there is a term limit for the President of the USA. I also love the fact that there is an established date for elections in the US unlike the Turks and Caicos where the incumbent Government has the advantage of setting the day for election and in so doing can manipulate the process.

Another aspect I like about the US politics is that there are fundamental differences between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Unfortunately in the Turks and Caicos, there are really no differences between the main political parties

The United States Election has been an interesting one in that the process was very lengthy before confirmation of President Elect. Now that the election results are over, there are some lessons that we can learned from it.

A vote against Trump

I believe the election was a vote against Trump not necessarily a vote for Biden and Harris. I believed no matter who the Democratic nominees were, they would have won because Trump has been portrayed as being racist and a divider. He also was criticized heavily for his handling of COVID 19 and was blamed for the thousands of Americans that died.

Even prominent Republicans crossed the party line to vote against Trump. How many of us in TCI are willing to cross Party lines? Many of us would rather stay home then to vote against our party.

Voter Turnout is important

If there is one thing that we learn from the US elections, is that one vote matters. There was a high turnout resulting in Biden receiving the highest amount of votes in the history of the US. He received more than 75 million votes. In 2016, even though Hillary Clinton received the majority of popular votes, she did not receive the majority of electoral votes and it is believed because the turnout was not great.

In the Turks and Caicos Islands, many people are fed up with the politicians and political process and therefore do not intend to vote. However, if you do not vote then you may end up with no change. Your vote is important. It was demonstrated in the US elections. Everyone thought that Trump was winning in Pennsylvania but when every vote was counted, Biden became the winner.

Polls can be misleading

In 2016, the polls predicted that Hillary Clinton would win. In 2020, the polls predicted that Biden would win but with double digits over Trump. While Biden did win, it was a close and so the polls were wrong just like they were wrong in 2016.

There are many people who silently supported Trump which was evident in the results. He got more votes in 2020 than he got in 2016.

The lesson learned is that there are people who are not saying anything about who they will vote for until they marked that x and when the votes are counted, the pollsters are surprised with the outcome.

People will still vote for who they want to vote

Millions of dollars were spent on campaigns. Despite that, people still voted for who they wanted to vote for.  People will still vote for their party because they believe in their party no matter who the candidate is. We see that African Americans continue to vote largely for the Democratic Party even though there was an increase in African Americans voting for Trump this time than last time. Also Trump said he did more for African Americans than most other Presidents.  Of course many people do not support that opinion.

Some people vote for the Republican Party because they feel that the values of the Republican Party line up more with the values of God. They feel that the Democratic Party is too liberal. Despite this, Christian people still vote for Democratic Party as they believe not all Democrats are liberal.

Conclusion

One thing I can say is that politics is politics no matter where you are or no matter who you are. If there is one thing in common among politicians is that they play on the emotions of voters to gain their trust so that the voters can vote for them. They say the right words. You see them so much during election time but once you vote for them, it seems they only remember you and see you when it is time for elections again.

Do not take people for granted because when people reach a point in their lives where they had enough, they will vote you out.