2020 Election

It is 5:00 a.m. on November 4 and I am wide awake. I spent most of the night after my stint as a poll worker trying to avoid watching the election results, but failed miserably. Just as I have failed in my attempts to go to sleep. At this juncture the final tally has not been recorded, or a winner declared, but it is clear that the results will closely mirror 2016. Regardless of how the few remaining states play out, there is no doubt that Donald Trump remains immensely popular, and any thought of a blue wave is gone.  

I know that I said that this blog would not be political, but, as Bill Murray said in Ghostbusters, that is more of a guideline than a rule. Anyone who knows me knows that I am bitterly disappointed in these results, and will be even if Joe Biden manages to eke out a victory, which, frankly, I doubt will happen. However, if you are looking for a screed against Donald Trump or those that voted for him, you will be disappointed. I believe that it would be misplaced. 

After the 2016 election I was among many who dismissed the results as stemming from a hatred of Hillary Clinton, or people not appreciating who Donald Trump really was. I was wrong to do so. We have now had four years of Donald Trump, so people know who is and what he stands for, and Joe Biden is not Hillary Clinton. And yet his support has not waned in the least. If anything, it has strengthened. It is time to admit that Donald Trump won in 2016, and has made the showing he has in 2020, because many people in this country like him and his positions.  

I totally fail to see the allure of Donald Trump, and could not disagree more with what he stands for, but that is immaterial. Clearly millions of people in this country do think that he should be our President. There is no Russian interference, or voter fraud behind that. It is not a matter of Democrats being complacent. It is the reality of our electorate. 

At this juncture, as painful as it is for me to say it, we have to accept this reality. We are where we are because we live in a democracy and the people have spoken. I have joined the chorus deriding Donald Trump for undermining democracy, but I cannot have it both ways. I cannot attack those who seek to dismantle our system and at the same time refuse to accept the results of the democratic process.  

Nor can I continue to bemoan to electoral college. It is a waste of energy. Yes, it is antiquated and anti-democratic (with a small ”d”), but it is not going anywhere. There is no chance of achieving the consensus needed to alter this process in the foreseeable future, so we better learn to live with it, for better or worse. 

Does this mean that we roll over and play dead? Of course not. We still need to agitate, and then agitate some more, for what we believe in until we are blue in the face (pun intended). If Donald Trump is the ultimate winner, we need to call him out on every policy and every pronouncement we disagree with. We also need to strengthen and hone our positions to convince more people that we have the better vision for this country and not get sidetracked by minutiae.  

Turning this around is not as farfetched as it seems. We have to remember that half the voters in this country voted against Trump in both elections, and want to see change. Further, many of the same states and counties that supported Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 supported Barak Obama in 2008 and 2012. (Don’t ask me how that’s possible, but it’s true). Politics in this country goes in waves, and the tide will shift again.  

Well, it’s 5:45. Little has changed on CNN. There is no way that I am going back to sleep, so I am going to make myself some coffee and start reading a book that has nothing to do with politics (The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, if you must know). Please forgive these early morning ravings. I promise that going forward I will rarely go down this path again (emphasis on rarely).