Reflection on the US Presidential Election 2020
Q. Mr.Biden won at last. How dou you feel about this result? A. Much relieved. When, at the first phase, the media transmitted Mr.Trump’s advantage in some states, I was feared to death as if something horrible were going to happen. Q. Could you specify that feeling of yours a little more? A. Before the election started, Mr.Trump said: if I should lose, that will be brought about by a fraudulent vote. He denied the possibility of his losing based on a fair vote. What he said is virtually equivalent to saying: I will not step down even if defeated. And true to his words, he has not conceded defeat yet. As long as the majority principle favors him, he takes advantage of it but if not, he thinks little of it. That has been a basic stance of Mr. Trump’s both before and after the election. Q. But, in reality, more than 70 million people voted for him, didn’t they? A. Exactly. And that is why, during this period, I didn’t feel so much anger or complaint as anxiety or fear. I have been thinking of my inner common sense as being exposed to a serious challenge. Q. Inner common sense? What is it? Majority principle? A. Yes, in a sense. But there should be another principle working among members of the political community, which assures the majority principle from the depth: to obey to the decisions made by the majority vote. That contract, which J.-J. Rousseau called “volonté générale (general will)”, ought to have been made not by the majority but by the unanimity. The democratic society is ultimately supported by that will. Such has been my inner common sense. Q. And it narrowly escaped the challenge... A. Yes, narrowly. Q. What would you like to say to the people who voted for Mr.Trump? A. I can’t say in a word, because there must have been a large variety of motives by which they voted for him. But, at least I would like to say: the game called democracy can only be played based on its rules. When the rules were ignored, the game itself would be destroyed. Q. I hear that you wrote to Mr.Biden. A. We did. To tell the truth, we were so delighted with his victory that we could not help writing it on the instance. In particular, we commended him to have long addressed the climate change and, as well, to have set up the team to tackle the Covid-19 immediately after he won the election. Both of the two issues, climate change and pandemic, are the threats to humanity overpassing the borders of individual countries and their individual citizens. His early remarks on them permits us to predict the universalistic approach of the upcoming administration. We, in the letter, remarked that the war and armes race is another threat to humanity, which is ancient as well as very actual. And we introduced ourselves as a Japanese civic movement which aims at realising genuine Collective Security system by using Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution as a spearhead. Q. Have you received any reply? A. Not as for now. We sent it to his home in Willmington because we heard that, even if sent to the White House, every message to the president elect will be blocked by the present staff. It is quite probable that it has been lost in the mound of the cards ane letters from individuals and organizations worldwide similar to ours. We have usually sent a tremendous amount of letters to ambassadors, foreign ministers and UN missions but received scarecely any answers. That is the way it is. So we we are not so disappointed with not receiving the answer but very eager to hear it by chance.