Tayhana Taylor, World News Editor
Chaos, changes, and uncertainty are just a few words to describe political events that happened in 2021. Here are the top five political stories in the United States during 2021:
1. The political turmoil from the U.S. 2020 presidential election rolled over into 2021. On Jan.6, Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill, intending to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results.
“Trump made a fundamental mistake by pushing members of the Republican Party to delegitimize the votes from the presidential election, but they refused to do that,” Dr. Marco Rimanelli, a full-time professor of politics and international security and diplomacy at Saint Leo University.
The Democrats suggested that this riot was incited by the words of past President Donald Trump.
“Trump did a goodbye rally with over 1000 people, and he contested that the election was stolen from him. This is not the first time a political candidate outspokenly claims that an election has been stolen from them; the democrats did it in 2016,” said Rimanelli.
Like in the past, the media plays a significant role in shifting the story about political occurrences.
“The Democrats have a significant tool, and that is the fact that the media supports them,” said Rimanelli. “Democrats can push a lot of propaganda that the media may use to delegitimize Trump.”
Regardless of how the media may want to shift the narrative, the Democrats still managed to take advantage of the words of Trump during his goodbye rally. Democrats saw this is as an opportunity to get Trump impeached for a second time to prevent him from running in another presidential election.
“The bigger political question that remains is how should those involved in organizing the rally be prosecuted and the extent to which former President Trump and others be held accountable for this riot,” said Frank Orlando, a political science professor and director of the Saint Leo University Polling Institute. “This will certainly be an ongoing question throughout this year, especially with the Jan. 6 Commission that is going on in the House of Representatives, and it will have an impact in 2022.”
This Democrat-christened insurrection may or may not negatively affect Trump’s future political career.
“We will see how much voters still care about this issue,” said Orlando. “Voters tend to have a very short attention span, so we will see if something that happened over a year ago is still relevant to voters or have citizens moved on to other issues?”
2. A few days later, on Jan. 20, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated. President Biden became the 46th president of the United States, and Harris became the first female vice president from an Asian and Caribbean ethnicity.
Biden winning the election with Harris on his political ticket may be another step toward less male-dominated U.S. politics.
“There has been evidence that women have been successful when they run for office through the ’90s, 2000s, and 2010s; whether it be in the House of Representatives, the Senate, or for governor,” said Orlando. “This shows that the country is becoming more open to having female representatives in politics than in the past.”
Harris being the first female vice president shows that voters are open to electing a woman to such a high position. In addition to Harris, Biden’s cabinet included 11 women who were appointed to high-level cabinet positions. Janet Yellen became the first-ever female U.S. treasury secretary.
Furthermore, when former President Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett as an associate justice in the Supreme Court, it increased the number of female associate justices from two to three. In 2020, Barret joined associate justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, appointed by former President Obama in 2009 and 2010.
“The biggest roadblock to parity in politics for women is convincing women to run for office because statistics have shown that women tend to do just as well as men or even slightly better,” said Orlando.
3. In 2021, one of the longest wars in U.S. history finally ended. In 2001, a series of terrorist attacks organized by the militant Islamist terrorist group, al-Qaeda, caused the deaths of over 2,500 Americans. The conflict began when former President George Bush sent military troops to Afghanistan to avenge the attacks on the World Trade Center.
After two decades, the U.S. military troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan. While this was a joyous moment for Americans in the United States, it was quite the opposite for Afghans. Subsequent to President Biden’s announcement of withdrawal, the tyrannical Muslim group called the Taliban regained control over Afghanistan as the Afghan government crumbled. CNN reported that during this time, over 60 Afghans died and 140 ended up wounded. In the midst of the withdrawal, 18 U.S. service members were injured.
Currently, those in other countries are unable to gauge how things currently are in Afghanistan, because of the restrictions on media coverage.
“Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, it has been hard for people outside of the country to know what is going on over there because there has been a massive decrease in press freedom,” said Orlando. “A lot of the places we would get information from has been silenced or shut down.”
Despite a change in leadership within the Taliban group, the tyrannical Muslim ideologies of this group remain with regards to how women, young girls, and vulnerable groups like members of the LGBTQ+ group are treated.
“There has been a recent rule about women being prohibited from driving a vehicle without a man present,” said Orlando. “This invasion has led to a massive setback for young girls having access to education in Afghanistan.”
4. In 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbot, signed the Texas Heartbeat Act, which prohibits abortion once the fetus’ heartbeat can be detected (typically after six weeks).
The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public media organization, reported that out of fear of financial consequences, abortion providers have decided to conform to the law. After the first month, the law become effective, the amount of abortion procedures was reduced by half. This was one of the biggest wins for anti-abortion supporters in recent history.
“States like Texas and Mississippi are passing more abortions laws with hopes that the Supreme Court allows them to make these laws, or the Supreme Court overrules Roe vs. Wade in its entirety,” said Orlando. “This would place the issue of abortion into the hands of the state instead of the federal government.”
Roe vs. Wade is a pivotal ruling made by the Supreme Court 1973 which states that the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to decide to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.
“There are currently more conservative justices in the court in comparison to the past, so there may be a higher likelihood that the court may rule in favor of the conservatives,” said Orlando.
The Supreme Court is yet to make an official ruling on whether abortion laws will be placed in the hands of the state. This decision may not have a vast future implication for states changing their verdict.
“If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, then practically it will be up to states. In states like California, New York, and other Democratic states, abortion will still be legal, and the opposite would happen in more conservative states,” said Orlando.
5. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, more voting accommodations were made for Americans to cast their votes in elections during that year. But in 2021, 19 states passed a collective 34 new laws that made it harder for people to vote.
“Some of these 19 states opened up new avenues of voting during the pandemic, and they are now closing those avenues back to the way they were before the pandemic,” said Orlando. “I believe that they should let as many people vote in as many ways as possible because I like absentee voting and voting by mail because of the convenience.”
According to CNN, the trend of voting laws becoming more restrictive will continue in 2022. Lawmakers in four states have pre-filed at least 13 bills for the 2022 legislative sessions that would make it more challenging to cast a ballot.
There will be stricter voting ID requirements in some states. The Brennan Center for Justice reported that in Kansas and Iowa, residents may face criminal charges for returning ballots on account of voters who may need assistance, such as voters with disabilities. Georgians may now be penalized by the law for providing snacks and refreshments to voters who are waiting in line.
In Texas, election officials may face criminal prosecution if they encourage voters to request mail ballots or regulate poll watchers’ behavior—this may open doors for voters being harassed by poll watchers. The consequences of these new restrictive voting laws will certainly transpire into 2022.
It can be said that 2021 was yet another eventful year in politics filled with ups and downs, but there are undoubtedly many fruitful things to look forward to in 2022.
