Recent analysts point out that the votes of educated whites were a key factor behind the historic victory of Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the United States presidential election. This certainly reflects the high sense of democracy shown by the Americans in evaluating and rejecting the current president.
The latest reports indicate that Joe Biden’s popular vote is approaching 80 million. This is the highest number of votes a presidential candidate has ever received in the history of the United States. He continues his lead of 290 electoral college votes against 232, and could increase his lead to 306 if he maintains a 0.3 per cent lead in Georgia.
Biden’s last-placed Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and Winkonsin ‘Battleground States’ took a sharp lead. In the early stages of the vote count, election observers predicted that Trump would continue in office. But in areas where more educated whites live, the turnout in favour of Biden.
The assumption that these white people, who supported Trump in the last election, would continue to support him turned out to be wrong. Assessing the pattern of the vote count, it is clear that they voted en masse against Trump.
At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, it was estimated that disgruntled and frustrated black voters would support Biden. But it was the democratic consciousness of educated whites rather than black protests that led to Trump stepping down from the White House.
Professional and decent whites have slammed Trump, who was running for a second term in office, using the politics of racism as a weapon. Despite the support of whites who are lagging behind in education, another large section who does not accept racism and inhumanity has rejected Trump. Biden was backed by professional whites when he failed to get the vote he hoped for in some black-majority areas.
They rejected Trump even though he did not take any action that would affect their financial status or job security. Despite leading the country to growth and formulating business policies in their favour, they took into account Trump’s other vices in the polls. It shows the strength and balance of American democracy.
In a telephone conversation with Biden, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the election was a testament to the strength of the democratic tradition in the United States. It should be noted that Modi is still in power because India has given up the strength of its democratic tradition.
The only reason why Modi is still the almighty Prime Minister despite his extreme anti-minority and anti-people measures is the polarisation centered on Hindutva. Modi would not be in power now if educated Hindus in India had voted against his, as white professionals in the US voted against racial polarisation. The recent elections do not bode well for the readiness of educated Hindus to regain the strength of their democratic tradition.
There are no signs that Hindus here are ready to reassert the strength of democratic tradition in any recent elections.
