Nine a.m., Wednesday, November 5, 2020.
The votes are still being counted in those highly anticipated swing states that DJT carried and rode to victory in the electoral college in 2016. Biden is carrying a two million plus vote lead in the national popular vote, but who cares about that any more?
The outlook now is not good. Although I support Biden and most folks say the tea leaves favor Biden (the notable exception is DJT who has already tried to claim victory), I think we are probably in for, at worst, another four years of Bad Trump Government, or at best four more years of gridlock. It appears the congress will continue to be divided and give either executive a difficult time in passing any kind of legislative program. And a President Biden with a Republican senate led by McConnell will likely find the Republicans banking Supreme Court appointments until they can elect another president who will work from their list of potential appointees.
I don’t know that I have the heart to follow this nation’s politics any longer. The foundational consensus we built for so long after the Civil War seems permanently eroded and, as a nation, we seem unable to address the existential problems of our species. I shudder to think we are passing them off to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping for their disinterested handling.
Still, I will stay engaged long enough to see how things go in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. They offer at least some little speck of hope for a better future. Maybe, at the very least, a president who does his job, one who will develop and execute a plan for confronting a pandemic.
South of Town: Notes and Scenes from Texas' Upper Gulf Coast 