As always: many of us get too many emails already, even before this pandemic. So, if you would like these to stop, please feel free to say so. (No reason needed; and you won’t be the first or second or third to do so.)
Election night, 2000:
I was driving home from work, about 6PM CA time, listening to the returns on NPR. The announcer said it appeared that Gore had won Florida. From what I had heard up to that time, that meant that Gore would most likely be the next president. I felt relief and optimistic.
I arrived home about 20 minutes later, and we turned on the returns, probably on PBS. Shortly, they announced that their call of "Florida for Gore" was being rescinded; that it appeared much closer than before. Thus began weeks of agonizing over the election results, the courts, the lawyers, and deploring our constitutional vestige called the Electoral College. Aided by the US Supreme Court, W became the next president.
Fast forward 16 years. If the next anecdote sounds familiar, it's because I have told it before.
Election night, 2016:
Nadine and I invited two other couples to come down to our apartment to watch the election returns. Of course, we all expected Hilary to win. One of the men has done a lot of political work in the past, and was quite familiar with things election, including the Electoral College. As the night wore on, and the returns looked less promising, at one point he announced: "Well, that's it. Trump will be the next president." He understood before the rest of us, and before it was "called" on the TV station, that Trump had enough electoral college votes. I was stunned. We all were. The impossible had happened.
Recently, Rabbi Lebovitz was teaching about the miracles reportedly performed by the prophet Elisha. He said one definition of a miracle might be when something very good, that was previously thought to be impossible, actually happens. What do you call it when something very bad, that was previously thought to be impossible, actually happens? An "unmiracle"? A trauma?
After the shock phase, before the inauguration, pundits consoled us that Trump's ignorance and narcissism would be "contained" by Republican wise men (and by his daughter Ivanka) and our country would survive. I wanted to believe this, and to a certain extent bought it.
Election RunUp, 2020:
Now, after these two recent elections where the “winner” did not get the most popular votes. Now, after almost four years, we fully understand how traumatic this event was. Impossibly bad things can happen. Polls can be misleading. "Wise men" and family members have done little to contain Trump. Sean Hannity has his ear.
And this. Bad as Trump is, he is not the worst of it. How could it be that so many Americans came to vote for an obvious con man, and many will do so again, knowing much better now what and who he is? This is very discouraging to me.
I have no confidence about the integrity of the upcoming election, based also on the dirty tricks already happening: USPS services being downgraded, voting places being limited, Russian social media meddling, etc.
For most of you, I know I am preaching to the choir, but: Especially if you did not vote in the past, whatever your reasons were then. Please register and vote. But especially if you are young, poor, or non-white; our politicians need to hear from you. (Thought about including women in this list, but have read that voting participation is higher among women than among men in this country).
Thanks for reading.
Stay safe and masked up and sane. The next two months may be worse than the last six months…or the last four years.
Coleman
and now, for a little humor on YouTube, “Vote Him Away":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkU1ob_lHCw