Election Day

November 2, 2020

Election Day: Here We Are!

Election Day

Mark Rubin

The angst drives me nuts, but I was blessed with a solution: a one-day trial on Election Day. I’ve spent most of Monday doing trial prep, and I will be blessedly oblivious until the trial ends on Tuesday afternoon.

I am very optimistic about election results and deeply pessimistic about our nation. Donald Trump represents the ugliest of the ugliness that we have adapted to. One example: Trumpers have been out in force for the past few days, messing with traffic by taking all lanes, driving slowly and, in Texas, trying to force a Biden bus off the road. POTUS cheers, but when I heard about these Jackasses hiding their license plates, I lost it. Big man, screwing around with civil society and lacking enough courage to pay the piper!

Ugly aside, let us not forget these facts:

  • Hillary Clinton received 3M more votes than Donald Trump.
  • Less than 100K votes in three states accounted for Mr. Trump’s victory.
  • Millions of people did not like HRC and did not like the notion of a woman leading the nation.
  • Trump had no record four years ago, people really believed he had the Midas touch, and lots of people had Obama fatigue.

Today? Demographic shifts help Mr. Trump not at all. Joe Biden competes in plenty of states – Arizona, North Carolina, and Texas, to name three – where Ms. Clinton had no meaningful chance. Further, polls in Michigan and Wisconsin show Biden ahead. (Mocking Michigan and its popular, threatened governor helped Mr. Trump not at all.)

People like Joe Biden. The guys who stop traffic, not so much, but lots of people who did not like Ms. Clinton like him. Flaws and all, the people I know who know him tell me decency pervades. (By the way, I am not a physician or a health care worker, but my practice involves contact with a decent number of demented people. Biden senile? No. Slower than he once was, for sure, but that accounts for me and many others who ace the Mini-Mental exam.)

Finally, we know Mr. Trump now. Better than we ever wanted to. I like to avoid name calling here, mostly, but: Bad Man. Evil incarnate! Rotten to the core!!!

So, if people vote and other people count their votes, Mr. Trump loses. I appreciate both the voting and counting challenges, but the early voting numbers give me lots of comfort.

Optimistic though I am about the coming days, I worry greatly about the United States of America. Elected Rs, with a very limited number of exceptions, represent and reflect what we never were. And, clearly, roughly 40% of us complain not at all. He tells it like it is, they say, although they’re quick to add, He doesn’t really mean all that much of it. They fear The Other and this Know Nothing Gasbag honors their fear.

An old friend told me, several days ago, that education cures all. Sadly, the Rs have done whatever they can to make our nation dumber. Less money for schools. Treating teachers poorly. Denigrating science. (Who, thinking a president’s words matter, would choose a career which depended on scientific knowledge.)

Worst of all, though, Mr. Trump destroyed the notion that facts matter. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D – N.Y.) told us, 20 years ago, that we can have our own opinions, but we cannot have our own facts. Senator Moynihan’s gravesite must be hotter than Hades, what with the energy his spinning body must be generating in this Alt-Facts era.

Mr. Trump, his fellow R elected and appointed officials – and that includes too many federal judges, sadly – and those who willingly accept the lies own a share of what we have become: a stupider, more fearful nation. Less than what we once were, for a long, long time. No easy fixes here, and everything we read tells us a President Biden and a D Senate will, still, have a fight on their hands.

Be well, stay safe, and if you haven’t voted yet, Vote.

 

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