Thoughts and emotions as of this moment…
It appears that Biden, now that he’s secured Wisconsin and Michigan, will win. What relief I feel is dampened by:
1. the fact that Trump will use all the dark arts at his disposal to corrupt the election, meaning that we’ll, at best, have months of unpleasant post-election drama to suffer through.
2. the fact that the Senate seems like it'll be controlled by Republicans, meaning that, for the next 2-4 years, we'll have to deal with the same old legislative logjams and political rancor.
3. the fact that the Supreme Court will be dominated by conservatives.
4. the fact that this election does not sound the death knell for the Republican Party as we know it. The Party will be less inclined to modernize and clean up its image. Trumpism may well last beyond Trump.
5. the fact that, from 2021-2024, there likely won’t be an ambitious or productive legislative agenda. Just more of the same nonsense where Democrats try and Republicans obstruct.
6. and, worst of all, the fact that almost 50% of the voting public voted again for one of the most rotten, corrupt, untrustworthy, and incompetent conmen who’s ever played American politics. I find this disturbing. I might give the 2016 “blow it up” voters a pass, but these 2020 voters ought to know better. It’s cliche to say that one has lost his faith in humanity, but my faith is truly being tested, even with Biden ahead. I can still think America is a wonderful country knowing that there are a handful of KKK cells out there. No country is perfect and there will always be bad apples. But knowing that half of the voting Americans have learned nothing from the last four years makes me think the bulk of us are either politically deranged, tragically uninformed, or morally stupid. It is harder for me to love my country knowing that almost half of its voters have voted for someone who is, among a thousand other offenses, trying to corrupt an election and corrode all that’s good about our democracy. Why isn’t this offense enough to turn on him?
Lastly... I’m hoping that we all (and I'm including Trump’s supporters in "we all") have reached a point of exhaustion with Trump. I halfheartedly predict that his yammerings and tweets will burn out like a fire without oxygen. We just don't have the energy to pay attention to him anymore. His disappearance will be nice, but there is nothing about the next term that excites me. All of this makes me want to go on a vacation from political news for the next four years.
8 comments:
How about the fact that Trump has received 6 million *more* votes in 2020 than he did in 2016? (Nearly 69M this time round vs. 63M in 2016). Not exactly a repudiation of him! Especially considering the ongoing recession and global pandemic...
I don't disagree with your thoughts, but I have a book recommendation that is really enlightening - Trump & Us by Roderick Hart. I just finished reading it and it was fantastic. Hart is a communication scholar and give data on why Trump has been so successful. It is helpful to understand his base and his rhetoric.
i'm going with tragically uninformed. many i know don't turn away from fox news and won't seek out the truth. i've seen countless examples of potus making a false claim on twitter. cnn, politicl, msnbc, etc. pick up on it and it's crickets on fox.
@Megs Thanks for the book recommendation. I'm going to check it out.
You should definitely go on a political news fast.
I voted for Trump this time because it was a vote against Biden. I believe that many of the people that voted for Trump, like in 2016, didn't for FOR Trump. Most people voted against Biden as many also voted against Clinton in 2016. Was Biden really the best opponent the democratic party could put up against Trump? In Biden's current feeble state he'll be lucky to survive the first year, much less the whole term. Had the democratic party been able to nominate Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, etc. to oppose Trump it would have been a landslide against Trump.
The problem rely lies with our two party system. We don't get to vote for who we want, we vote against the person we dislike the most.
Meg--Thanks for book rec. I ordered it.
Anon--I suppose there are worse reasons to vote for Trump, but I still disagree with yours. Biden is not at his sharpest, but is he any more feeble-minded than Trump, whose speeches are often incoherent word salads, and whose knowledge of history and geopolitics and government 101 are dim at best, and whose behavior is often that of an adolescent? In any case, I'd rather have a feebleminded Biden -- hell I'd take Biden the comatose vegetable -- over a conman who is a threat to our democracy. I do not see why Trump's authoritarian instincts are not enough to get freedom and democracy loving voters to turn on him.
I disagree with your political analysis. Oftentimes nominations aren't about who's most bright or competent (in which case Buttigieg or Warren would have won); it's about someone who a party coalition can gather around. Buttigieg didn't have the support of blacks and Warren wouldn't have had as much support from independents and moderates, who, exit polls show, were hugely influential in winning Biden the election. (See link below.) Biden ended up losing some Black voters; how many more would Buttigieg have lost? Non-Biden candidates, it seems, would definitely not have won in a landslide.
I think there are tons of structural problems with our elections (electoral college, gerrymandering, an unrepresentative Senate, how election day should be a national holiday, how Republicans overstate voter fraud, how former felons are discouraged from voting in some states, etc) but I would not include a two party system at the top of the list. I don't see how having 3-4 competitive parties would ensure that the cream of the crop would be in the fight. I personally liked 2-3 Democratic nominees more than Biden, but I'm pragmatic enough to play the cards that were dealt to me.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/elections/exit-polls-changes-2016-2020/?fbclid=IwAR0vXtvTlNceAs8BJekCsEKuyaMJ3jEf1psT-IDh0Au5vn9zW0rI_WJEKws
^^ hear hear Ken!
Post a Comment