Lessons from Election Day
By the time you read this column I imagine many of you will either be high-fiving your friends or wringing your fists and grumbling about voter fraud.
It would seem my wish last Sunday in this very space, that we have a definite winner by the morning after Election Day was indeed wishful thinking. Putting aside the big race and what happens next, I thought it would be a dereliction of duty if I didn’t pause just a moment to talk about what lessons we might take away from this election.
I can state the obvious, which is if we never hear of the word “COVID” or if that terrible virus had waited another year to cause such devastation on this planet, Donald Trump would be a much happier man right now. The virus, beyond how he handed it, knee-capped the economy and I would think even the most devoted democrat would admit, if this election were last November Trump wins in a walk.
People often vote their wallets and things were chugging along nicely before the virus.
That’s not an excuse for Donald Trump just a reality. It is also a reality that if James Comey hadn’t called a press conference in the summer of 2016 to announce he was taking another look at Hillary Clinton’s emails, she very well could have won. They say that fortune favors the bold but unexpected bombshell favors politics and no candidate can control the unknown landmines that have their names on them.
So what can we conclude about what has concluded?
Let’s start with the pollsters. I gave them a pass four years ago, assuming that Trump voters were just harder to sort out and find and that’s why they were so horribly wrong and left Hillary’s supporters crying at the Javits Center. Now I can see that wasn’t the case.
After getting so many important races wrong again, I can only conclude that it is deliberate. Telling you the lines at Disneyland are three hours long and everything is overpriced could be true but perhaps the reason I’m telling you is so you won’t go and I’ll have an easier time getting on all my favorite rides. I have to believe some of these pollsters are trying to depress the turnout for certain candidates by telling their supporters there is no sense voting because the race is hopeless.
If someone hands a polling company millions four years from now when we do this again, remember they might not be paying for accuracy.
I think we can also safely say that Donald Trump was his own worst enemy. The constant tweeting and swinging at pitches in the dirt that a president should be above, left many moderates looking for an alternative. Perhaps Joe Biden wasn’t their first or perhaps fifth choice but he wasn’t Donald Trump and that was enough to pull the lever for Joe.
Trump got the same gift the first time he ran from voters who just didn’t like Hillary.
We know now, without a doubt, that Twitter has chosen a side in politics and is not afraid to flex its muscle and muzzle people it disagrees with. You don’t mind when your candidate wins but boy can these things come back to bite you. I really don’t care what Twitter does but if they want to edit content they should be held to the same standards as this newspaper your reading.
We also know now why the GOP was so eager to get Amy Coney Barrett on the high court. Remember when Chuck Schumer was urging everyone to slow down and hold a hearing after Election Day. Can you imagine what that would look like right now if they tried to push her through?
We know the people who want to legalize drugs in this country are very clever. Remember when it was just about marijuana for the sick? Then it was keep it illegal but decriminalize it. Then it was, just make it legal but tax it. Now, we have the state of Oregon voting to decriminalize small amounts of cocaine and heroin.
I’ll bet you missed that one didn’t you? Yeah, that happened while everyone was watching Pennsylvania and Nevada count votes.
Last but not least, I think we learned early voting and mail-in voting is easier on the electorate and a nightmare for the people counting votes. I know it was pushed this year because of the virus but don’t be surprised to see a big push to make it a permanent thing.
I was happy about one thing on election night. It was clear more Americans voted than
ever before and that’s not a bad thing. Whomever you wanted to win in whatever race, the more of us that get engaged, the better for our nation.
If the person you wanted did not win, try to remember the world keeps spinning and you’ll survive this. Every voter, from the early days of this magnificent experiment, has felt the sting of defeat.
I can only tell you what George Washington might have said, “Shake it off.”