With the announcement of Joe Biden’s US presidential win, strategists around the world may be considering the latest election as a recipe for political success. Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP), which has in the past drawn inspiration directly from the US Democrats, will court disaster if it deems Biden’s campaign to be worthy of emulation.

Biden’s victory is a cautionary tale. The Democrats faced an abhorrent opponent. Trump’s commitment to government inaction is responsible for over 141,000 coronavirus deaths. He pursued cruel, racist, and xenophobic policies and bolstered white supremacists. His administration was marked by naked graft, cronyism, corruption, and patronage. The election resulted in the highest voter turnout in a hundred twenty years, estimated at 66.9 percent.

And yet, aside from winning the presidency, the Democratic establishment hasn’t benefited. They’ve lost seats in the House of Representatives, and the Senate remains under Republican control. Defeating a monstrous candidate like Trump should not be considered a stroke of strategic genius. Rather, Biden’s victory is a result of negative mobilization: voters turned out, despite voter suppression and a rival Republican vote surge, to deny Trump a second term.