Biden Takes Leads In Pa., Ga., Putting Him On Cusp Of Electoral College Win

Speaker 1: 00:00 Joe Biden is planning a primetime speech to the nation tonight, as his leads appear to increase in the battleground States of Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, the presidential election may be called in his favor by various news agencies as early as today. But that doesn't necessarily mean this election is over. Donald Trump has already launched legal challenges to the vote count and tensions are running high among some Trump supporters who believe the election is being stolen. Joining me is professor Carl Luna, director of the Institute for civil civic engagement at the university of San Diego and a political analyst. And Carl, welcome back to the show. Speaker 2: 00:41 Thank you for having me now Speaker 1: 00:43 In the weeks before the election, you joined a group of academics, warning about the potential for violence after this election, has that concern changed in any way? Speaker 2: 00:54 It's still a major concern because we don't know where we're going with this Marine. We brought together just in very short order, a couple of dozen people from elected officials, offices, uh, Sheriff's departments, uh, um, the ADL league of women voters. Uh, the union Tribune KPBS has been monitoring, looking at how can we share resources and information to help direct people's rightful concerns on either side of the political spectrum into effective political participation to avoid anything that could escalate into violence. Cause once it turns violence, you've ended the conversation. It's still a very limited threat. San Diego has been blessed if you will, that we've had very little disruption in around the country. There's been very little, really big over disruption, but this is going to drag on this election for days, weeks, maybe months. And every day it does is the possibility for something to escalate. That's what we're trying to help our community come together to avoid. Speaker 1: 01:52 Trump has stated his belief that the election is being stolen and he will not concede. Do you consider that a dangerous situation for the nation? Speaker 2: 02:02 It's certainly unprecedented and given that the presence propensity for the way he sees the world, I basically see it as highly unlikely he's ever going to concede at noon on an inauguration day. If he is in fact lost the election, I don't think you'll get a concession even then, but sometimes he can be surprisingly gracious. So we'll have to see how that plays out. But statements like that can be taken by people who really don't have Goodwill in their heart as authorization to go out and start to seriously disrupt to cause significant issues across communities. You're seeing a little bit of that with people, with weapons, showing up outside of voting counting centers in a couple of places, you don't want it to become widespread. You don't want protest and counter protest to erupt in a blood in the streets. As we've seen a little bit in a couple of cities on a smaller scale with recent protests. Speaker 1: 02:51 Now, Joe Biden has been making statements as well. He's been advising calm and patience and pledging to be a leader for the whole nation. Not the people who voted for him. Can that message make an impact? Speaker 2: 03:03 It can have an impact to a degree with his own supporters. The problem is when people take to the streets, so they're not happy. And they run into people with that opposite viewpoint, you have to have good resources in every community available to reach out to leaders to say, Hey, talk to your people, keep people apart, let people express their opinions and don't let it escalate. Uh, it does help from the top down to have that as a common message. Joe Biden tends to come across like a nice cup of hot cocoa Trent urgent calm. The president of the other hand is more of a, more of a big red bull kind of urging action Speaker 1: 03:36 Should other national leaders be doing at this time? What kind of message should they be sending? Do you think? Speaker 2: 03:42 Well, historically in America there was only one message. Any, uh, political leader should be sending during the process of counting on election ballots. It is patience and it respect the system. Uh, the system is legitimate. Our democracy works and Hey guys, if we lose this election, there's another one in two years for the house. Uh, and part of the Senate for years for the presidency elections come around like taxi cabs was an Uber's. Uh, no one election determines the fate of anything. You have another chance at it. So chill a little bit until, you know, what's going to happen. Speaker 1: 04:16 Twitter is flagging misleading election information. Even now, when it comes from the president and Facebook is taking down groups, calling for violence, is that going to help keep violence from spreading? Speaker 2: 04:30 It is a contributor to help, but, and that's the problem that with social media, it can be both the cure and the disease. So many things are being posted so rapidly by a small portion of the social media ecosphere on the left, more of the violence apparently is being posted from people that would be clarified more to the heart rights. Oh, we'll see how that plays out over time. Uh, but you, you it's one thing to take it down, but even getting an out there in the first place, hundreds of thousands of views are going to occur. And that helps to build a sense of isolation, of separate communities. Seeing the world very differently. Those who are saying, Hey, we've got another election, like I'm saying, life will be okay. And then those would say, it's the end of the world. We better act now. And that will take out a section of the population and radicalize it, which is not what we want to see in a democracy. Speaker 1: 05:18 Now, if the election is called for Joe Biden, the reality is we are still a divided nation. Is there any path for healing and reconciliation? Speaker 2: 05:28 There is Marine, but it's a long-term path. We didn't get to the situation of such a, a rigidly divided society overnight. It's been the product of 20, 30 years of some areas of the country doing Burwell, rural areas, and particularly not doing well. People feeling marginalized because of demographic shifts and then people living in communities, which are not very diverse, who then look at people who are coming from more diverse communities as somebody, they don't have a frame of reference with. In some ways I wish we could all be ordered to get up and move around and reshuffle America. So we all live by other people because once you get to have somebody as your neighbor and get to talk with them, they may have political views that you don't like. They may come from a culture that you're not familiar with. Next thing you know, though, you're all sharing stuff on the backyard at a barbecue and you're living together as a community, but it's going to take until this election is settled and well into next year to really begin the hard process of healing for now. We're just trying to keep it from escalating as a nation. Speaker 1: 06:27 I've been speaking with professor Carl Luna and Carl. Thank you very much. Thank you, Maureen.