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Myelin:

Now, a couple of months after the election, 70% of Republicans still believe the election was rigged. It may be because some Republicans were already suspicious of the Democrats and hearing President Donald Trump say that felt like proof to them. Yet they have no evidence. 

 

During the buildup for the election, multiple things could have influenced the outcome, starting with Black Lives Matter. 

 

July 2013. That was the first time the term #Black Lives Matter was used. This happened when Alicia Garza, a woman who was following the shooting that had happened On February 26th, 2012 when Florida teen Trayvon Martin was shot and killed, while harmlessly walking home after going to the convenience store.

 

 The shooter, George Zimmerman later claimed that he was doing it out of self-defense during a physical argument. Consequently, the police decided not to arrest Zimmerman. Now,  #Black Lives Matter has appeared on Twitter almost 11.8 million times.  With that people have also started using the term #All Lives Matter which has now been used 1.5 million times on Twitter. [Note: #All Lives Matter is a hashtag countering the BLM movement.]

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On the night of the election, November 3rd, 2020, more than 1,000 people protested outside the White House against police brutality and Black Lives Matter. These protests ranged from New York to Seattle, and no signs of violence were reported. Some of them were chanting, “Whose streets?! Our streets!” and, “If we don’t get no justice, they don’t get no peace!” Even some teenagers were holding up signs like, “Trump Lies all the time”. Others saying, “Trump is not my president!” Hundreds of people were also participating in anti-Trump rallies, and sadly, several people were arrested. In many ways, this could have affected not only black voters but also the many other people that believe all lives matter. [Note: further reporting clarified that "All Lives Matter" is countering the BLM movement--the reporter expresses her regret for the error.]

 

Next, we’ll look into how Amy Coney Barrett could have affected votes. Amy Coney Barrett has currently replaced Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. She was sworn on the court on November 20th as the ninth justice, her oath managed by Chief Justice John Roberts. Amy Coney Barrett was nominated by former President Donald Trump, who, at the time was trying to build up his reputation by saying he was going to pick a woman. 

 

Amy Coney Barrett was among many nominees including Bridget Bade, Daniel Cameron, Paul Clement, Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Ted Cruz, Stuart Kyle Duncan, and more. Knowing that Trump had to find someone to replace RBG on the Supreme Court I find it a bit unusual that he found someone that was so different from Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

 

This year the global COVID-19 pandemic has affected many countries and civilizations. One of the main ones is the U.S.A. Trump’s first response to COVID-19 wasn’t great. After the first couple of cases, he said to his country that he had everything under control, and to make matters worse, one of the things on Trump’s list of science and technical achievements is “ending the COVID-19 pandemic”.  

 

On October 8th, 2020 more than half a million COVID-19 cases were reported in just that week. Most of the cases came from restaurants, gyms, stores, parties, etc. and even after the U.S.A. exceeded 12 million COVID-19 cases, Trump went golfing. And the whole time the U.S.A. just hoped that the pandemic would just go away.

 

On July 28th, 2020 Alex Azar listed the steps of containing the virus: identify the cases, isolate them, treat them, and track down the people they have been in contact with recently, then tell them to quarantine. Yet, they missed one part: Testing them. Still, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) read the script at a press conference that Alex Azar wrote, who sent the message, “We got this”.

 

Over time Trump has pitied science more and more, while only really trusting himself the whole time.  He has even been doing this before he was president. On January 25th, 2014 Trump had said that NBC had just called it great freeze-coldest weather in years. Later saying, “Is our country still spending money on that global warming hoax?” For one thing, this already could have affected voters who care for the environment and people who are scared for the wildlife, as they see how Donald Trump doesn’t believe in that. This is alone is proof that Trump refuses to believe in science nor others who will tell him things he doesn’t want to hear.

 

Coming back to COVID-19, Trump had chosen Alex Azar to lead the Coronavirus task force, and most people there had little scientific experience too, they were mostly businessmen and lawyers; for example, Robert Blair, Ben Carson, Joe Gorgan, and Chris Liddell. 

 

When Obama had to deal with the swine flu and Ebola. Obama was able to construct fifteen Ebola treatment units in the region, he also made sure to find and identify travellers that may have left the country with Ebola or the Swine flu by working with international partners. He even specifically said, “Let science do the work.”

 

I believe that these things have impacted the election a lot, in both good ways and bad. Over these months we've all heard about these topics, COVID-19, Amy Coney Barrett, and Black Lives Matter. Although these may have impacted different people in different ways, I'm sure, in one way or another that these three things (topics) have influenced the next four years and more. Now we can see how these events have shaped and created history for not only the U.S.A. but the whole world.