Good morning, Quartz readers!
While vote counts are still coming in, the math is pointing to former vice president Joe Biden becoming the next president of the US.
The accompanying emotion for many in the nation, and around the world, is one of relief. Sure, there is some joy, but while Biden appears to be a likeable and decent man, the overwhelming appeal for most is that he is not Donald Trump.
In his four tumultuous years as president, Trump has pushed the democratic institutions of the US as far as they could without breaking (although in some cases they did rupture). There were sound reasons to fear he would do the same to the electoral process as well. His demands of unswerving fealty from GOP governors and administration officials, his eagerness to profit from his office, his embrace of outlandish conspiracy theories, his willingness to stoke division and conflict—not to mention his 25,000 (and counting) lies or misleading claims—all are evidence that he had the means, motive, and opportunity to hijack the election.
Fortunately, the designers of America’s government anticipated such a development. They built a system with checks and balances at the federal level, and devolved power to the states to manage functions like the running of elections. Yes, the US’s system of voting can be a maddening patchwork of local laws and rules (ask anyone waiting for Clark County, Nevada to tally its votes), but that lack of central control means no one authority can pull the lever.
The system worked again, but barely. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, both to ensure US elections continue to be free and fair, and to make sure the nation’s chief executive can’t manipulate them. Preventing voter suppression, eliminating foreign interference, eliminating disenfranchising laws, reducing the malign influence of social media: all should be on the docket for the next president and Congress.
Democracy needs help. At least now we might have a president who understands that. —Oliver Staley
Five things on Quartz we especially liked
How representative are the US representatives? Even though history has done away with laws that prevented younger, non-white, and non-male people from voting, members of Congress have still been most likely to be old, white, and male. Through data visualization and multivariate math, Amanda Shendruk’s interactive piece allows you to see how many members of the new Congress are like you, or anyone else, and lays bare just how poorly both political parties’ membership in the Senate and the House reflect the US’s diverse population. —David Yanofsky, Things editor
There’s a Chinese “proverb” for that. When Jack Ma was summoned by top regulators on the eve of Ant Group’s dual IPO, Chinese social media went into overdrive. Jane Li explains how wordplay enthusiasts turned the fintech giant’s name into a classical-style four-character proverb, warning of regulatory troubles ahead. Rumors have been circulating since last year that the Communist Party’s not happy with Ma, who controls Ant, nor with the company’s dominance in online finance. Soon, news came that Beijing had quashed the monster IPO. —Tripti Lahiri, Asia editor
A phone of one’s own. India is the world’s second largest smartphone market, yet it doesn’t have a single homegrown handset brand that could take on the affordable and feature-loaded Chinese devices. Micromax used to hold a significant share of the market, but ultimately could not keep pace with the Chinese. Now, the company is trying to attach its comeback to India’s growing anti-China sentiment. But Niharika Sharma’s story explains how Micromax may have gone a bit overboard trying to cash in on the wave with a racist ad campaign. —Itika Sharma Punit, Quartz India editor
Can’t touch this. Imagine if Elon Musk were barred from looking at SpaceX’s rocket designs? That’s the unusual predicament in which Momentus Space’s CEO Mikhail Kokorich finds himself. The Russian entrepreneur with powerful Kremlin allies has not been cleared to handle his own company’s products because of US rules to keep advanced space tech away from geopolitical rivals. Tim Fernholz takes a deep dive into Kokorich’s present and past ventures ahead of Momentus’ $1.2 billion IPO next year and the complications cropping up as cutting-edge space technology goes from government endeavor to for-profit private business. —Ana Campoy, deputy editor, global finance and economics
The myth of the Latino monolith. Politicians and political analysis in the US frequently refer to “the Latino vote.” But if the 2020 election proved anything, it’s that that concept doesn’t exist. Latinos are an incredibly diverse group of people across the US; in some parts of the country, like Florida, Latino voters kept states red, while in others, like Arizona, they flipped the results to blue. It would make more sense to examine more specific Latino sub groups, each of which have their own cultures, values, and voting patterns, writes Alex Ossola. —Katherine Ellen Foley, science and health reporter
Two fun facts
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🚁 Flying cars: The Henson Aerial Steam Carriage—a flying car before there were cars—was patented in 1841, and Ford spent two years developing the “Model T of the Air” before the prototype crashed in a fatal accident in 1928. Read more about the history of flying cars, and our possible future.
🎍 Houseplants: The Victorian gaslit home was not a kind environment to plants. Enter the aspidistra, or the “Cast-Iron Plant,” which came to the West from China in 1823 with the attractive quality of being difficult to kill. The aspidistra became a fixture in Victorian households, and British families loved to pose for photographs around their specimens. Discover how to cultivate Instagram-worthy plants of your own.
One membership thing that made us think
The A-Z of the H-1B. As the chorus around immigration reforms grows in the US, one painful touchpoint in the debate is around visas. With a goal to transform how American companies hired top talent, president George H.W. Bush set up a H-1B visa program in 1990. But over the years it became much more. From the rocky process of acquiring the H-1B, to the dark side of the visa no one talks about, to how the US losing out on H-1B aspirants is good news for India, Ananya Bhattacharya explains everything wonderfully in this week’s field guide. —Niharika Sharma, Quartz India reporter
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Five things from elsewhere that made us smarter
Has a long-shot vaccine maker come up with the best vaccine? Novavax was on financial life support before the pandemic came along. Now it’s one of seven companies to have gotten funding from Operation Warp Speed. For Science, Meredith Wadman unspools the history and controversies around Novavax, a tiny operation that says it has a shot against the pharma giants. —John Detrixhe, finance reporter
We are not better than this. On Tuesday night and through the following days, liberal American voters who had hoped to witness a blue tsunami instead saw just enough of a water level rise to give Joe Biden an edge in critical states. In her New York Times essay, Roxane Gay explains how this outcome was a reflection of how racism guides the choices of American voters. With damning, yet hopeful words, she looks in the eye of a very flawed nation and calls its sins by name—but only as a way to show her love for it, her commitment to fighting for its future. —Annalisa Merelli, geopolitics reporter
Breaking the dress code. Restaurant dress codes may seem like an innocuous way for businesses to ensure a sophisticated ambience. But as Jaya Saxena explains in Eater, they are often a not-so-subtle tactic for restaurants to turn away non-white diners without being explicitly racist. Moreover, the rules are at the discretion of the servers or maitre d’, who may bring their own biases when interpreting whether a patron is dressed “appropriately.” It’s time for dress codes to go out of fashion. —Liz Webber, senior news curator
A reputation in tatters. Although he may appeal, actor Johnny Depp has effectively been branded a “wife beater” by a London court and was asked to resign from the lucrative Fantastic Beasts movie franchise. Writing in the Guardian, Hadley Freeman, herself a teenage Depp fan in the ’90s, explains why the actor’s excesses, studied rebellion, and consistent hero worship of deeply flawed characters may have resulted in permanent damage to his career. —Hasit Shah, deputy editor, global finance and economics
Remember Brockway and North Haverbrook? Before Conan O’Brien was a late-night host, he wrote one of the most iconic episodes of The Simpsons, filled with genius musical numbers and one of the best depictions of a grifter’s charm. For Vice, Sean Cole rounds up five key figures to explain how one single episode—in this case, “Marge vs. The Monorail”—can launch a show from good to iconic. —Karen K. Ho, global finance and economics reporter
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, sports jackets, and favorite episodes to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Weekend Brief was brought to you by Oliver Staley, Liz Webber, and Susan Howson.