local-politics

After Joe Biden was pronounced president-elect of the United States in November, crowds of students and community residents gathered in the streets outside Columbia’s gates to celebrate. Now, with Biden officially inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, local residents of Morningside Heights and West Harlem say they continue to look toward the future of Biden’s presidency with optimism.

Just after Election Day, I saw room for optimism. Republicans had gained seats in the House, limiting the Democrats’ power to jam through partisan legislation. Many of the newly-elected Republican representatives were moderate ones from diverse backgrounds: Among them were two of the first three Korean American women ever elected to Congress. Donald Trump was defeated, and Joe Biden—a candidate running on a promise to restore the soul of the nation—won.

We are now only a few days past November 3. While the final results of the election are still unclear, it is evident that both parties have a lot of thinking to do. The Democratic post-mortem will focus on the party’s stunning loss of seats in the House and failure to perform as expected in the race for control of the Senate. Similarly, Republicans will have to consider how their party is becoming increasingly reliant on the electoral college and figure out a way to win more suburban and college-educated voters.

While the world remains captivated by the now-famous fly that spotted Pence as the perfect matter of decay to feed on, I pose this question: Can we as Black and Indigenous families, whose lives depend upon policy change, truly expect to see legal justice, neighborhood development, and real community sustainability from either the Republican or Democratic presidential candidates? While close attention must be placed on the 2020 presidential election, our communities need change today. Our attention should be equally focused on opportunities for change at the federal, state, and local levels by electing leaders who prioritize full participatory policymaking, a foundation for social and economic sustainability for communities such as Harlem and the greater New York City, and will not continue to promote performative change without real solutions.

With the upcoming presidential election and voter registration deadlines drawing near Spectrum wants to remind you to register and vote!

While academics often must push for their research to be publicized by news outlets, criticisms of mainstream media and the growth of informal social platforms have broadened the opportunities for academics to enter public discourse on current issues. University professors have accumulated upwards of 3 million followers on platforms such as Twitter—where their controversial ideas garner political attention and even become virally distributed.

Media sources swarmed when a Columbia School of Social Work adjunct lecturer seemed to confirm on video that presidential candidate Joe Biden is a sexual predator. The video was retweeted by a Trump aide, and both left-wing and right-wing media sites began to claim the content for their disparate political goals.

As the 2020 general election approaches—in 47 days to be exact—it increasingly infiltrates conversations, turning playful banter into political discourse. It’s making everyone sit on the edge of their seats as they contemplate how the election results will impact our society. As you consider which clubs to join this semester and prepare to vote in the general election for possibly the first time, here are some on- and off-campus political organizations to keep in mind.

As we lead up to the 2020 election, Spectator’s new series, The Student Vote, will continue to highlight perspectives from students between the ages of 18 to 24 regarding candidates, policy issues, and more. Follow our editorial pages for more content like this.