Despite baseless claims of voter fraud, recounts, lies and multiple attempts to challenge election results, Donald Trump’s presidency will be coming to an end this Inauguration Day. The truth of the matter is that Trump’s four years in office has cost the Republicans the house, the senate, the presidency, and has divided the Republican party to a great extent. The Republican party has never seen such a divide, especially in 2020, after countless Republican politicians have spoken out against Trump. Republican groups such as the Lincoln Project worked in 2020 to make sure that Trump was not re-elected. Unprecedented voter turnout gave Joe Biden the clear path to victory, especially in key swing states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

COVID-19 took over the world in March of 2020 and was one thing that our divided nation could come together for, or so we thought. The pandemic was quickly politicized and downplayed by President Trump, even after coronavirus cases and deaths were rising rapidly.  

Calling Covid-19 “China virus” and “Wuhan virus” only perpetuated the idea that Chinese people were at fault for our handling of the pandemic and encouraged racial and ethnic discrimination. The United States soon became a hot spot for the virus, and top doctors even went as far as calling Florida the epicenter of the world as cases reached record highs for weeks. As of Jan. 13, 381,000 Americans have died of COVID and the number continues to rise. Trump trailed behind in the popular vote by about 7 million votes. A poll by Statista shows that 42% of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump’s handling of the pandemic while only 19% of Americans strongly approve.  

America’s moral reawakening in 2020 stemmed from many things, but social injustice and police brutality takes the cake. Following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on May 25, a spark in Black Lives Matter protests took place across the nation, and even in other countries. Voter turnout amongst African American’s saw all-time highs in 2020 after falling in 2016, especially in cities where protests took place, or where other cases of social injustice took place. A poll by the Associated Press shows that about 9 in 10 voters said that police violence was a factor in their voting.  

The 2020 election showed that even in a nation divided by racial and political tensions, empathy will always prevail. A quote by former president Abraham Lincoln can still be applied to our nation today, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”