Down the rabbithole

        Rabbits everywhere are probably tired of the metaphor we use to explain a ridiculous situation.   Sorry guys, but blame Lewis Carroll for the problem.   In the meantime, it seems one of the two political parties in the country is bound and determined to drag us down an increasingly chaotic course for as long as possible in an attempt to delegitimize a  lawfully conducted election.

     Aside from appeasing the president*'s wounded fee fees, the other harm this strategy does is to allow some people to feel Moscow Mitch and the Republican senate have every right to block any legislation on the part of the Biden administration to deal with the nation's problems.  Meanwhile, they can keep the base riled up and ready to vote in 2022.   Cynical and destructive you say.   That's your present Republican party and that is what it will do if allowed to.

A new day dawns

      It took a while and it was messy, but that is one of the enduring traits of a democracy.   Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been elected the the presidency and vice presidency of the USA.   Propelled by a coalition of black, brown, yellow and whites, Biden overcame Trump and Republicans as well as an alarming number of white nationalists and cultists who cobbled together over 70 million  voters in opposition.

      While most Democrats and independents heaved a sigh of relief, the election was not as close as media made it appear.   This has encouraged Trump and some other dead enders to continue to challenge the results.    After a weekend of golf and twitter, Trump is threatening to go with more rallies in  disputed states.   

      Personally, I am more than ready to put this sordid chapter of American history behind me, but I think we all need to keep Trump and what he represents  in mind as the calendar rolls around to 2024.

More tired than Godot

        Still waiting for a definitive result from the last few states still counting every vote so Joe Biden can put bandage on the wounds inflicted on American democracy over the last 5 years.

        This election has proven that tribalism has superseded patriotism as the number one driver in our politics.   Political polling has taken another hit, perhaps more devastating than it did in 2016.   Pollsters are obviously not catching the political zeitgeist as we sort ourselves into 2 very different tribes; one, the Democrats who for the most part have embraced a multicultural democracy and two, a Republican party which longs for a return to a rose colored 1950s America where everyone knew their place and white men stood at the apex of the patriarchy.   What happens next is up to all of us.

Still waiting

       We continue to wait for results in the presidential election.   The consensus is Biden still has a 90% chance of winning.  That is the equivalent of having a 10% chance an asteroid destroying the earth, but a 90% chance it will miss.

       Win or lose, as many on the left have said, the Democrats need to do a thorough soul searching regarding the meaning of the election.   Republicans have settled on the strategy of becoming the party of white grievance, much as racist Democrats in the south controlled national politics during the Jim Crow era.  Since whites will remain the dominant race in America through the middle of the century, they can effectively kill progressive reforms through legislative or judicial means for the forseeable future. 

      Democrats have chosen or have had thrust upon them the mantle of the "big tent" party.  With a small percentage of  college educated whites making up about 20% of the party and people of color with various ideologies making up the balance, it seems the party continues to misread the mood of the country.  Much of that is attributable to the right wing media distribution of "alternative facts" which have contributed to an alternative universe for those who want reassurance that we truly live in a 1950's bubble where white supremacy is unquestioned and "those people" know their place.

      The Dems undoubtedly have the right strategy in the long term.  However, as Keynes' said, "In the long term, we will all be dead".  We need something in the short term that will prevent President Tom Cotton from taking us to the apocalypse in 2024.

Are we broken

        I know, virtually anyone reading this blog will agree with 95% of what I believe regarding politics.  Most of us are liberal democrats of a certain age.   We mostly believe in progressive programs including racial and economic justice.   We also believe, somewhat naively it would appear, a majority of our fellow citizens feel the same way.  That seems to have been disproven across wide swaths of the country last night.

       Bidding to become the first impeached president to be re elected, Donald tRump played to another inside straight.   He won most of the former confederacy by appealing to the many racists who still worship the stars and bars.  He also appealed to the prejudices of the vast swath of rural America which retains outsize political power in states like the Dakotas and Missouri.   It was a pure politics of grievance campaign and as we roll into the day after election day this racist, misogynistic, ignorant buffoon is within a few votes in Pennsylvania of another 4 years of misrule.

      I don't know what to say, but to me it feels like the instant between when a plate drops and hits the floor.   Can we catch it before it breaks?  I surely hope so.

Today and tomorrow

       No matter what happens today, the sun will come up tomorrow and the day after.   We may not know who our next president will be until later this week, but whoever it is, we must continue the fight for equal rights, economic justice and progress.   It will be harder under the present administration, but it must continue.   

       However, first things first.   If you are reading this blog, you have probably voted already.  If you haven't, please do.   Join the rest of us in exercising our most basic right.

Homestretch

      Sorry about the lack of blogging for the last 10 days.   Having your knee replaced with plastic and titanium is not the most pleasant way to spend a day.   Feeling much better 10 days out, so on to more important subjects.

       In a normal world. Joe Biden would be measuring the Oval Office for new drapes.  Unfortunately we don't live in a "normal" world and an increasingly desperate tRump campaign is pulling out all the stops with incidents of voter intimidation are multiplying by the hour.   Many voters tomorrow will be voting literally under the guns of so called militia members in states like Michigan.   I think most of these ploys will be unsuccessful.   I'm doubting many of the so-called Proud Boys will be showing up in Detroit to intimidate voters.   They will be sticking to areas where there is an overwhelming white electorate.  

      The far more insidious and out in the open strategy for tRump is to wait until tomorrow night and as soon as he has a lead in enough states, he will declare victory and try to shut down vote counting.  This is the real threat to our democracy.   We will need republicans to stand up and rebuke the president*.