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Opinion
2020 US election: America’s presidency and its democracy have endured worse
- In the past century, the US presidency has gone through periods of uncertainty, but the institution has always persevered. Faith in the presidency may wax and wane, but one thing is certain: Americans will have the chance to vote again
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Chi Wang, a former head of the Chinese section of the US Library of Congress, is president of the US-China Policy Foundation.
It is clear that the US presidential election is going down to the wire. Until all the votes are counted – which could stretch well into next week – all we can do is speculate. Yet when I look back on the American presidential history I have witnessed in my lifetime, I am comforted that, regardless of the outcome, the United States will persevere.
The very first election I witnessed in the US was the now-notorious 1948 election. Initially, it appeared that Republican New York governor Thomas E. Dewey had defeated Democratic president Harry S. Truman. The Chicago Tribune even ran on its front page the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman”.
When all the votes were tallied, Truman had in fact secured a win, and he posed triumphantly holding a copy of the newspaper with the incorrect headline. The result was not disputed and did not lead to widespread protests or claims of fraud. The American people accepted the result and moved on.
This was far from the most dramatic presidential anecdote of the century: one in which four American presidents died in office. Two were assassinated – William McKinley in 1901 and John F. Kennedy in 1963.
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