Before the first ballot box was opened on the official day of the democratic holiday, Tuesday, November 8, more than 42 million votes had been cast in the 47 states of the country that allow early voting or voting by mail.
Those millions of voters, who ignored disinformation campaigns, who ignored intimidating messages, who turned voter suppression strategies into an incentive to reaffirm their civic duty, who dedicated time and effort to consecrating the political process, are the winners of the democratic party.
Of course, it will also be necessary to include in that list the millions more who during the civic day braved the sun, the rain, the wind and the long lines to cast their vote in person.
All those millions of voters gave a great civic lesson to the members of the army of extremist candidates who are unaware of the legitimate victory of Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections and who seem unable to recognize the legality of the electoral process unless they are winners.
These include 300 denial candidates, including 22 candidates for governor, 12 secretaries of state and 10 for state attorneys. All of them have something in common: they were supported in their candidacies by former President Donald Trump, the main promoter of the “Big Lie”, the alleged electoral fraud of 2020.
The good news is that, due to their extremist characteristics, many of these unpresentable candidates have lost. The bad news is that it is enough for some of them to win the popularly elected positions so that from their state offices they manage to do incalculable damage to American democracy.
What I mean is that some of those candidates would have the possibility, from their positions, to carry out the qualification and certification of the presidential elections of 2024.
America at a crossroads
That is why I believe that President Biden is right when he affirms that the United States is at a crossroads, or marginalizes those extremist candidates from power or the country would probably be on the brink of chaos.
The United States was already on the brink of a constitutional crisis on January 6, 2021, when former President Trump’s supporters came close to derailing the democratic process for qualifying election results.
As many countries can confirm, especially on our continent, democracies do not have a guarantee of lifelong continuity. Or perhaps we have already forgotten about the military junta and the dirty wars in the southern hemisphere.
Democracies must be cared for, safeguarded and nurtured in order to endure. And the antidote to chaos is a well-informed civil society, judicious and willing to responsibly defend its vote and the democratic process.
