No Outcry For Irregularities?
By: Martin Barakov
Tags: World, Media, Elections, United States, Politics

No Outcry For Irregularities?

The United States is not getting international condemnation or large-scale sanctions despite reported electoral irregularities.

The 2020 Presidential election was lackluster for many, considering the strong sense of disenfranchisement with both the political and economic status-quo within the United States. Having to choose between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is, largely, a farce, as they both represent the interests of the establishment, that being the capitalist class. The decision matters even less for those located in the over-exploited world, as they will still bear the brunt of American imperialism and hegemonic control, regardless of the candidate that wins.

Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash

That being said, this election has also just generally been handled in a poor manner, perhaps due to the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic within most countries around the world, but especially in the United States. Allegations of fraud, deception, early declarations of victory, and more are typically associated with those nations who are considered to be “moving” or “developing” towards becoming full-scale liberal democracies, whatever that might mean.

The current Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, even tweeted a condemnation of perceived electoral irregularities within Tanzania, only a day before the elections in the United States. The following is Pompeo’s tweet, with ‘Tanzania’ being replaced by the ‘United States’:

“We are deeply concerned by reports of election irregularities, politically motivated arrests, and violence during [the United States’] elections this week. We urge authorities to fully address concerns of irregularities and will review allegations of the use of force against civilians.”

As expected, it largely makes sense, given the severe level of unrest that is present around the country.

Most liberal and conservative think tanks across the United States and — more broadly — the Western world, feel as though liberal democracy is the best form of governance for individual liberties, alongside economic prosperity. Of course, this is primarily rooted in decades of bourgeois scholarly work detailing the supposed benefits of modernization theory, a conceptual foundation that seeks to “modernize” post-colonial and non-Western states.

Since the end of World War II (WWII) and especially after the end of the Cold War in 1991, American liberal democracy has been treated as the “gold standard” for governance forms and styles, while typically rejecting any other form of democracy, including grassroots and revolutionary forms of the system.

Electoral Irregularities:

From allegations of fraud due to mail-in ballots to premature declarations of victory, the election in the United States has been a disaster. Trump openly calling for votes to stop being counted and even appealing to the Supreme Court to “throw out mail-in ballots received three days after Election Day” are just a few examples detailing the calamity of the election still taking place at the time of publication of this article.

According to coverage by The Washington Post, both the accusation of fraud and the claiming of victory by President Trump is illegitimate:

“With millions of votes yet to be counted, President Trump falsely asserted election fraud, pledged to mount a legal challenge to official state results and made a premature claim of victory in a bitterly contested race that may take days to resolve. In remarks at the White House early Wednesday, Trump claimed that he won several states that are still counting ballots, including Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.”

Additionally, comments made by Mimi Mefo Takambou for Deutsche Welle highlight what the foreign policy objectives of the United States have been since the end of the Cold War:

“Practically every aspect of US foreign policy in the last few decades, whether good or bad, has been dominated by two ideals: The establishment of America’s liberal order and the promotion of its democratic values. The United States justified its wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and its involvement in Libya by claiming that it is the arbiter of democratic values, which it has a duty to promote and protect across the world.”

Takambou then proceeds with stating how those “same democratic values” are now being threatened within the United States, primarily through Trump and his disregard for said values. It is also imperative to state that this assumes that the United States was a democracy before Trump, a claim that has been contested time and time again due to the influence that capital itself has within political systems in bourgeois societies and structures.

The Predetermined Lack of Objection:

Outside of liberal circles within the United States and around the Western world, there has been little to no sense of condemnation put forth towards the irregularities that have been and are continuing to occur within the United States. Obviously, this is to be expected, as smaller nations are unable to combat the United States in any meaningful manner, due to their position of subjectivity to the imperial core.

This is a perfect demonstration of the divide between the Western world and what is typically shown as “the other”, that being the developing world, the over-exploited world, the Third World, or however else one wishes to describe countries that are not in North America or Western Europe.

It goes without saying that if the aforementioned irregularities were to take place — or only be accused of taking place — in a country with a left-leaning government, then sanctions would be supported, the introduction of peace-keeping forces would be supported, and even outright coup d’etats would be supported. Ironically enough, people do not have to wait for such a scenario to take place, as it already has, on numerous occasions!

Bolivia’s election last year which oversaw the reelection of Evo Morales was described as follows by an article done by The New York Times, citing a report by the Organization of American States (OAS), which was later found to be inaccurate in their conclusions by two separate studies:

“Bolivia’s general elections on Oct. 20 were marred by “a series of malicious operations aimed at altering the will expressed at the polls,” auditors from the Organization of American States said in a 100-page final report released Thursday. Deliberate wrongdoing by election officials, combined with a series of errors and irregularities in the vote count, made it impossible to validate the results, the auditors added.”

Following the coup d’etat against Morales by the military in Bolivia, lawmaker Jeanine Áñez stepped up and assumed the Presidency without any legal grounding to do so. Of course, the United States supported Áñez in her proclamation of leadership, despite not obtaining power through any legitimate means.

Another example includes sanctions against Nicolás Maduro and other Venezuelan officials following the 2018 elections which oversaw the reelection of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and Maduro. After the election, the Canadian government placed “targeted sanctions on 14 Venezuelan officials” following what the foreign ministry had deemed to be “illegitimate and anti-democratic presidential elections”.

If one were to try and imagine Morales or Maduro placing sanctions on Biden or Trump for the irregularities that are occurring within the American political process, it would be rather difficult, right? How absurd would it seem if regional organizations were to unite with one another and attempt to deploy a peacekeeping force in the United States due to civil unrest and brutality committed by both police and the military?

The point is not only to show how unlikely of a scenario that obviously is, but instead to highlight the inherent divide that is present between the over-exploited world and the imperialist powers that rule the world. It is deemed normal to assume hostility being pushed by the United States outward is correct, but never the other way around.

The lack of outcry for irregularities in the American election is to be expected, as it is the norm, not an extremity.