제 8 호 U.S. Presidental Election
Kicker: WORLD (ELECTION)
U.S. Presidential Election
The Importance of the U.S. Election to Korea
Yeong-Jin Choi, Reporter
The presidential election* of the United States of America has always been a very important issue to Korea. The present president of America, Donald Trump, was elected four years ago, which was November 8, 2016. Like it or not, America and Korea have had a very close relationship since 1834, under the reign of Sun-Jo, the 23rd King of Choseun. America is the second largest trade partner of Korea, which means that America carries a big portion of Korea’s finance. America has two powerful political parties*, which is the Democratic and the Republican Party. Those two parties share very different ideas, which can cause major change between the relationship of Korea and America.
*Election: A time when people vote in order to choose someone for a political or official job.
*Party: An organization of people with particular political beliefs that competes in elections to try to win positions in local or national government.
Two Different Political Parties of America
Since the 1850s, America has had the Democratic and the Republican Party. Though there are minor parties like the Libertarian Party, Green Party, American Solidarity Party, and Constitution Party, everyone agrees that America is led by the two major parties I have introduced above. The Democratic Party was found in 1828 by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, and their philosophy* of modern liberalism has been blended with civil liberty and social equality with support for a mixed economy. The working classes of America like who live in urban areas, women, college graduates, millennials, as well as sexual, religious and racial minorities tend to support the Democratic Party. In 2018, roughly 60 million members were registered in the Democratic Party. The most prominent* Democratic presidents of America are Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama.
*Philosophy: A particular system of beliefs, values, and principles.
*Prominent: Very well-known and important.
U.S Presidential Election Map
The Republican Party, however, was founded in 1854 by Northern anti-slavery activists and modernizers. The Republican Party is also well known for its nickname, ‘Grand Old Party’, which is abbreviated as GOP. The GOP supports classical liberalism* and economic reform. The GOP also supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, restrictions on immigration, increased military spending, gun rights, restrictions on abortion*, deregulation and restrictions on labor unions. The party’s 21st-century base of support includes people living in rural areas, men, the Silent Generation*, and white evangelical* Christians. The most prominent Republican presidents of America are Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, George Bush, and the latest president, Donald Trump.
*The Silent Generation: The demographic cohort following the Greatest Generation and preceding the baby boomers.
*Abortion: The intentional ending of a pregnancy.
*Liberalism: The political belief that there should be free trade, that people should be allowed more personal freedom, and that changes in society should be made gradually.
*Evangelical: Belonging to one of the Protestant Churches or Christian groups that believes that the teaching of the Bible and persuading other people to join them is extremely important.
Trump and Biden
U.S. Presidential Results
The U.S. Presidential Election was held on November 3, 2020. The results showed that Joe Biden will become the 46th US president, defeating Donald Trump by over 2.9 percentage points. There is a concept called ‘The Balance of Power’, which means that someone must earn 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, and each state carries a specific number of the electoral votes. Experts had different opinions about who would be elected between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Allan Lichtman, professor of History at American University, Washington, D.C., has correctly predicted all presidential election results since 1984, and forecasted Biden would win the Presidential election held in 2020, which turned out to be correct. Though Donald Trump continues to question the result of the election and proclaims that he cannot accept it, the General Service Agency (GSA) recognized Biden’s win, and has allowed the presidential transition* to go ahead, with Trump saying he will leave the White House if the electoral college votes for Biden.
*Transition: A change from one form or type to another, or the process by which this happens.
How Does the Election Work?
The winner of the election is determined through a system called the electoral college. Each of the 50 states, plus Washington D.C., is given a number of electoral college votes, as I have stated above, adding up to a total of 538 votes. More populous states get more electoral college votes than smaller ones. The candidate who achieves 270 electoral college votes wins the election, and in every state except two, which are Maine and Nebraska, the candidate that gets the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes. For instance, Joe Biden won all of Georgia’s electoral college votes by just getting 0.2 percentage points higher than Donald Trump. Georgia has 16 electoral college votes, so winning a state increases a candidate’s possibility to win the election.
Due to these rules, a candidate can win the election without getting the most votes at the national level. This happened at the last election, in which Donald Trump won a majority of electoral college votes although more people voted for Hillary Clinton across the United States. Therefore, it is possible to say that what really matters in the presidential election of America is not the total number of people who voted, but the electoral college votes that are measured by how many people live in the state.
Useful Terms Used in Presidential Election
The term I want to introduce is the ‘red mirage*’ and the ‘blue mirage’. Red mirage is also called a blue shift, which is an observed phenomenon* under which counts of in-person votes are more likely than overall vote counts to be for the Republican Party, whose party color is red, while provisional* votes or absentee* ballots*, which are often counted later, are more likely than overall vote counts to be for the Democratic Party, whose color is blue. To paraphrase, this means that election day results can initially indicate a Republican is ahead but adding provisional ballots and absentee ballots into the count can eventually show a Democratic victory. The blue mirage is the opposite of the meaning of the red mirage.
*Phenomenon: Something that exists and can be seen, felt, tasted, etc., especially something unusual or interesting.
*Absentee: Someone who is not at school or work when they should be.
*Ballot: A system or occasion of secret voting.
*Mirage: An image, produced by very hot air, of something that seems to be far away but does not really exist.
*Provisional: For the present time but likely to change.
Koreans were really following the results of the presidential election of the United States with such care. Some predicted that Trump would win, and some were sure that Biden will become the 46th president of America. The results turned out that Biden has won the election, and the press is criticizing Trump for not conforming to the results. I hope for the best that the new president of America forms a stronger relationship with Korea and brings good results.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)
https://edition.cnn.com/election/2020/results/president
https://www.voanews.com/2020-usa-votes/who-will-win-2020
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/nov/29/us-election-results-2020-joe-biden-defeats-donald-trump-to-win-presidency
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_shift_(politics)
http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?art_id=202011012046015