Well, I predicted Trump would win and I was wrong! Probably. There’s still a legal route to re-election, where votes counted after and even before Election Day are thrown out, but it’s a long shot at best.
I’m proud of my track record- I’ve been right about every election, including midterms, since Obama took office, as well as party strategies and outcomes. But I was wrong about this one. I’ve got lots of ideas of how the future looks, but obviously my credibility is a bit shaken at the moment, so I won’t talk about the future as much as I will about the past and present.
When Gore lost against Bush, I was furious. I know many on the Left say Bush stole that election but he didn’t win so much as Gore lost. It never should’ve been close enough to depend on Florida. Bill Hicks said that George Bush was a wimp until the first Gulf War; well, GW was an idiot until 9/11.
If I was hurt by GW being elected, I was devasted by his re-election. That influenced, in no small part, my decision to move to Sweden.
When Obama won, I celebrated and gloated with all my friends! A Republican acquaintance of mine accused me of being a sore winner, said I should be focused more on unity and understanding the people on the Right. I, in turn, accused him of hypocrisy. Now it was my turn to be just as smug as he had been for the past eight years.
What did we win? I’ll give credit where credit is due: we got a man who was truly Presidential. He improved our standing with our allies, he got a health care plan through that, while flawed, succeeded where the Clintons had failed in the 90s. Although there weren’t many other progressive moves on the Federal level, quite a bit was allowed to happen on the State level.
We didn’t win the change we hoped for, though. The status quo reigned supreme, including a War on Terror without end. The Democratic Party remained static, despite calls from within to move farther Left. Meanwhile, we as a people became more polarized, making the Media more polarized, making us more polarized… a vicious cycle that continues to this day.
When Hillary faced Trump, the slogan was, “Vote Hillary- She’s More of the Same!” It didn’t work. On the Left we hoped for something more, on the Right they wanted the opposite. Trump took office and the gap between Left and Right turned into the Grand Canyon.
As I (correctly) forecasted years ago, the Democrats spent so much energy attacking Trump for his win, there was no time to reflect on why they had lost. No energy for change or any meaningful growth. Leading to this year’s slogan of, “Vote Biden- He’s Not Trump!”
And it worked! Kind of. With a popular vote of 75 million people, 4 million more than Trump, that’s a historic win. Except only 57% of Biden voters say they strongly support him. It’s less a popular vote and more a meh vote.
It’s not that 75 million people wanted Biden, it’s 75 million people didn’t want Trump. And why didn’t they want him? Of all the reasons to not re-elect him, the one thing that truly made a difference was his handling of covid. I completely agree that just that is reason to throw him out, but it feels a little tasteless to celebrate a victory built on the corpses of a few hundred thousand and counting. Like throwing a blowout bash for the maiden voyage of the Titanic. “Hey, not everyone died! If that’s not a successful voyage, I don’t know what is!”
I understand and agree with this year’s election process, but having one side on the lead on Election Day and then the other winning days later… it’s not a good look. Certainly allows the conspiracy theories to flourish. Like Flat Earthers who say they’ve looked around and the planet looks damn flat from where they’re standing.
Biden has called for unity and I applaud him for that, but, right now, 75 million Americans are screaming, “HAHA, WE WON, YOU LOST!” at 71 million Americans screaming, “FUCK YOU, WE WON, YOU STOLE!” Biden doesn’t even unity in his own party, a party that is perfectly content to be so Center they drift to the Right as often as they do Left.
Trump’s rhetoric inflamed his base, which in turn inflamed his opponents. Biden isn’t likely to host rambling, hateful rallies, so maybe things will calm down. I’m afraid, though, that people are more likely to dig in their heels than build bridges.
Biden could be King Solomon for all I know, but it won’t matter. Democrats lost seats in the House, Republicans still own the Senate and Supreme Court. He won’t have the votes to get much through, so expect Biden to take Trump’s lead and rule by Royal Decree… er, Executive Order. Dems bitched about how many Trump signed, forgetting that Obama was quite liberal with Orders himself, no pun intended. They’ll look the other way now as well. This is the new normal- each new President signing Orders to erase their predecessor from history.
Sorry to be such a downer. When Biden officially takes office I’ll party with the rest of you! It’s the hangover I worry about.