Dr Giada Lagana, Cardiff University, Visiting Scholar at the Institute of European Studies at UC Berkeley
It is 8.25 pm in California. The Institute of Governmental Studies’ (IGS) library at UC Berkeley is packed to capacity. On the screen, the map is increasingly red. People tell me:
‘It always starts like this, but it changes. Keep faith.’
IGS faculty members and postgraduate students start using an interactive software to draw possible scenarios in which the Democrats hold-on to the ‘Blue wall’. I might be too European, as many have liked to say since I arrived a month ago, but I am not optimistic. Inside, I think people are just oblivious, or they simply do not want to accept the reality. It is something I understand.
It is 10.00 pm when the Blue Wall officially turns red. Everyone is silent. I see two women crying in the back of the room. I decide to head back home to Oakland – ironically the birthplace of Kamala Harris – still reflecting with my European mind on what we are urged to learn from this election. Political events in the USA often set powerful global trends able to shape the future of democracies around the world. This is particularly true for Europe. Perhaps, we still have time even if, at the time of writing, Germany’s normally stable government has collapsed.
Obliviousness seemed to characterise the UC Berkeley campus in the weeks preceding the Presidential elections. KALX Berkeley, the campus radio station, gave a lot of attention to Vice President Kamala Harris’ journey from Oakland to the White House. I like to call it ‘the narrative of the first timer’: the first woman, the first Black, and the first Asian-American Vice President. Moreover, the first woman of color to be a major-party nominee for President of the United States. However, beyond the radio and newspapers, the conversations I had with the Cal Berkeley Democrats always left me unclear on the detail of Harris’ vision for the country: what are the points of the new way forward she is presenting to the electorate? What is her ‘American dream’ beyond protecting fundamental freedoms and strengthening democracy? Certainly, all one needs to know is available on her website. Nonetheless, in the era of social media when people have a very short attention span, I wondered if I was not the only one left with questions.
To get a comprehensive viewpoint of the political landscape on campus, I also attended (at the end of October) a meeting organised by the Berkeley College Republicans. This is one of the largest and most active student run organisations at UC Berkeley and is the principal College Republican organisation in the state of California, which after all the political home of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. I had the chance to have several informal discussions with students attending the meeting and they were able to describe Donald Trump’s vision very vividly, leaving aside the usual campaign tones (e.g., the vulgar misogyny, the racism, and the violence in the language):
‘He will secure our cities and he will lower inflation. And … you can understand that with these priorities, we can overlook the convictions and scandals: you had Berlusconi…’
In response, I pointed out that the geopolitical weight of the Italian Prime Minister is not exactly comparable to that of the President of the USA. Moreover, I emigrated when I was 19, having lost faith in my home-country at a very early stage.
This is a very preliminary reflection to be made on my experience, notwithstanding they are coming from the ‘bubble’ of UC Berkley, located in a state that for over 25 years has been a Democratic stronghold. While the narrative of the first timer was very powerful, it was probably not enough to alone convey a clear idea of the future. On the other side, the idea of Donald Trump, while representing his brand of vulgar misogyny, racism, and violence, was clear and clearly recognisable. The blue were ironically more detached from the people than the Republicans have been.
If we look at the exit polls, it is possible to extend a similar reflection to the whole of the electorate, but especially to those sections which had traditionally supported the Democrats in the past (e.g., Biden had won an overwhelming majority among the Latinos). There are certainly answers that the Democratic establishment has not been able to provide to the citizens in the past four years. It is also possible that those same people disillusioned with current politics recognised the priority of ‘more security and less inflation’ as something they could empathise with, and they disregarded how these were expressed. Let’s not forget that, in the USA, the conception of ‘the working class’ is very different from what we mean by it in Europe. The American working class, completely removed from the higher levels of the society, might very possibly have been the substrata of the society which most had to face the decline in the security of their neighbourhoods, and the decline in the purchasing power of their salaries. Busy in the daily task of putting food on the table, these people have become deafened to debates on the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, the environment and birthright citizenship (of which I am certainly not questioning the essential importance). I think it is consequently necessary to ask ourselves, alongside everything else, the following question: why should have these groups kept voting for the Democrats, which they felt disconnected from?
This certainly not to say that all leftist and more moderate political parties in the world – and in Europe! – should become anti-environment, anti-immigrants, racist, misogynistic, or protectionist. Those same voters who have chosen Donald Trump to get better security and improve their everyday economy will probably end-up regretting their choice if their home is destroyed by a ‘freak’ wildfire or hurricane. Or when they will realise that the main consequence of protectionism is inflation. Or when they will have to face an even bigger wave of immigrants escaping the desertification of the south. However, if we can talk about ‘lessons’, maybe one is the importance of remaining connected to the whole of the electorate. Not all political priorities have the same weight, but all need to be communicated effectively. Otherwise, the danger is to go to bed with a clear conscience, but with the ballot boxes empty.
I woke-up on the morning of the 6th November with a new email from UC Berkeley International Office. The object was ‘The U.S. Political Landscape’. The text said:
‘Your presence here contributes to the mosaic of cultures that makes Berkeley an enriching environment and is all the stronger because of it […] We remain committed to providing you with the latest updates and analysis related to any potential regulatory changes that could impact you. We will make every effort to support your continued success through advocacy for policies that reflect your importance to higher education, our economy and workforce.’
The future has never seemed so gloomy.
Dr Giada Lagana is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of European Studies at UC Berkeley and Lecturer in Politics in the department of Politics and International Relations at Cardiff University.