The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
November 14, 2020

(From L to R): President-Elect Biden and VP-Elect Harris

Joseph R. Biden, Jr., the scrappy kid from Scranton has defeated the bombastic New York billionaire, Donald Trump in the US Presidential Elections. President-elect Biden was born on November 20, 1943, in the city of Scranton, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to a working-class family. His father was a furnace cleaner and a used car salesperson.

As a kid, Joe’s dad lost his job in Scranton and had to seek employment in a neighboring state, Delaware. The rest of the family would join Joe’s father in Delaware later. Delaware became their new home and it remains Joe’s home today. Joe Biden remained a member of the working/middle class even while he was Senator of the great state of Delaware. He would commute on the train from Delaware to Washington and back daily.

During Biden’s thirty-six years (36) in the Senate, he was a moderate (center-left) senator on most issues. He was a champion of the middle class in the US Senate. Ordinary Americans (Democrats, Republicans, and Independents) saw in Senator Biden a man who fought for them. He also worked across the aisle and became friends with folks who were ideologically different from him. Biden knew that in the game of politics, even your opponents have to claim a win or victory on some occasions and some issues. Biden’s brand of politics isn’t to demonize the opponent or ostracize him or her but to try and build consensus where consensus can be built. That is why even though he and the late Senator John McCain and Lindsey Graham were ideologically far apart, they maintained a friendship and traveled the world together.

About two years ago, I posted on Facebook that Joe Biden would be the best candidate to defeat President Trump and make him a one-term president. The reason for this call was simple: most people who voted for President Obama and then switched and voted for Trump would prefer voting Biden over Trump in 2020 given all that was unfolding in the Trump administration. When Biden decided to seek the presidency, he delivered his first speech in Pittsburgh, PA. That was politically strategic on his part. Even though Pittsburgh is a city that leans Democratic, western Pennsylvania is not. From the very get-go of Biden’s campaign, he was determined to rebuild the coalition that Barrack Obama built that gave him two presidential terms, but Hillary lost; hence, losing the presidency to Donald Trump in 2016. Therefore, during the Democratic primaries when neophytes like Beto O’Rouke, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, and Amy Klobuchar were seen as folks who could inspire Democrats to victory against Trump, pragmatic Joe Biden simply promised Democratic primary voters that he could rebuild the “Blue Wall” Trump took away from the Democrats in 2016. His pitch was I can retake Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Joe Biden owes a lot to Black voters for his election as the 46th President of the United States of America. When Biden lost the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, he was written off by all political pundits. His poor showing in the first caucus and primary in the country falsely signaled that Democrats were looking for something new. They did not want to return to the same old folks (like Hillary or Biden) who have spent decades in politics. Biden’s little momentum was deflated after those two agonizing losses. His campaign was broke while the leading candidate in the race, Bernie Sanders had won two in a row and raising millions and breaking fundraising records. The wind was surely in Bernie’s sail and it appeared he was on the verge of becoming the Democratic nominee (something he narrowly lost to Hillary four years earlier).

While the political pundits were writing Joe’s political obituary, they remembered that Joe had not participated in Democratic primaries for about twelve years. That means someone like Bernie Sanders had a head-start on Joe because he had participated four years earlier and still had his political infrastructure in place. But what they forgot was Joe had served as the Vice President to America’s first Black President. Not only did he serve Barrack well, but he was also very loyal to President Obama. Biden’s loyalty to America’s first Black President made him a confidant to Obama. Joe Biden’s White family and President Obama’s Black family became one American family.

After Biden’s political obituary was read and his political coffin was about to be interred right by his son, Beau, the South Carolina primary reared its head on February 29, 2020. On the eve of that primary, The Honorable James (Jim) Clyburn resoundingly endorsed Joe Biden and urged his kinsmen and other fellow Americans to vote for Obama’s former Vice President. In his unapologetic endorsement of Biden, Jim said these famous words: “We know Joe. But most importantly, Joe knows us.”

Buoyed by Jim Clyburn’s endorsement, Joe Biden won the South Carolina primary by 256,047 votes (48.4%), gaining thirty-nine (39) out of the South Carolina’s fifty-four (54) delegates. To put this win in a better perspective, Joe beat 11 candidates and walked away with 72% of the state’s total delegates to the Democratic Convention. With the solid Black support for Joe Biden in South Carolina, he was transfigured from an underdog to the lead horse in the race to secure the Democratic nomination.

In fact, Joe was not abandoned by Black voters after he secured the Democratic nomination. He solidified that support. Biden will be the 46th President of the United States in part due to the support he received in cities with a considerable Black population in the country. Georgia, a Red state is in play in 2020 primarily because of Blacks, young, and women voters in Atlanta and its growing suburbs. Michigan came back to the Democratic fold because of Black, young, and women voters in and around Detroit. Wisconsin returned to its Blue status because Black, young, and women voters showed up in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Madison. The biggest prize of them all, Pennsylvania (with 20 electoral votes) finally sealed the rebuilding of the “Blue Wall”; thus, sealing the Presidency and making Donald John Trump a one-term President—only the fourth President to serve one term in the modern era. Thanks to Black, young, and women voters in Philadelphia and its suburbs that sent a clear and unwavering message to Donald J. Trump that you don’t mess with America’s democracy. The American voters also made it unequivocally clear to bombastic Trump that you don’t bully your way to the presidency.

No one situation made Trump a one-term President. Even though I have highlighted a few, permit me to add two other factors that finally placed the icing on Biden’s political cake that has made him the oldest President in America’s history. Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic further exposed his chaotic and erratic style of leadership. He mismanaged America’s handling of the pandemic that has led to the death of more than two hundred thirty-eight thousand Americans. Secondly, Trump’s demonization of anyone who disagrees with him contributed to the Republican Party losing Arizona, a reliably Red state. Trump’s feud with the late Senator John McCain, a beloved son of Arizona (even in death) made some of McCain’s staunch supporters in the state cross-party line and support Biden. When Trump lost Arizona and its eleven (11) electoral votes (as called by Fox on Tuesday, November 3), I knew the election was over and it was just a matter of time for Joe Biden to be named President-elect of the United States of America. The role Latinos played in flipping Arizona and Democrats retaining Nevada is also very laudable.

Congratulations, Joseph R. Biden, 46th President of the United States of America. Your decency, your loyalty, your compassion, your humility, and your courage have brought you this far. Go and Make America Proud Again (MAPA)!

About the Author: Samuel Barbay Gaye, Jr. is a Liberian immigrant, political pundit, and centrist Democrat. He holds a Master of Divinity Degree from Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

 

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