Trump declared victory in the wee hours of the morning. We all knew that he was going to do that. And if you think that is what he will limit it to, then get ready for how much bragging he will now do for the days to come. And that is not even saying anything about his supporters, who will clearly be more emboldened than ever.
Despite the fact that, once again, Trump lost the popular vote by a considerable margin. Some democracy.
Four more years of King Con Don and his Legion of Mindless Morons.
That was bad enough. There were other factors that made my night less than pleasant, and which made it, in fact, one of the most aggravating nights in recent memory. An argument with my ex. Then, hearing a bunch of Pro-Trump coworkers basically enjoying the night, loudly joking about all of the newscasters and such. My job seems divided between those who like Trump, and those who cannot stand him, but it seemed that the pro-Trump contingent is much louder. Surely a surprise, right?
Then, the job was unusually busy, at least for a couple of hours. That led to a lot of paperwork, and it took hours for me to catch up, all while trying to keep an eye on the election results, even though I was not certain that I really wanted to keep up with it, you know? Just like in 2016, I had that all too familiar sinking feeling for some time now.
So, not a pleasant night.
Electoral dysfunction…again.
Yes, that word…again. That seemed to be the theme for last night. A delusional faction of the country – not a majority by any stretch – manages to elect a man so far removed from reality, that you just do not know whether to laugh or to cry. Four more years of more lies, more self-imposed deception. Four more years of serious decline for our nation and for it’s democracy.
Yes, at least four more years.
Once again, the pundits were wrong.
Back in 2016, I began to suspect that they were wrong on Halloween night, when in my childhood hometown, there were flags and banners and bumper stickers that were pretty much all pro-Trump. Yes, it was at that point that I recognized that Trump not only had a very real chance, but in fact, I had a sinking feeling that he was going to win, regardless of how convinced everyone was about the inevitability of a Hillary win.
So this time around, I was not even bothering paying attention to all of the polls. Yes, once again, all of the Trump haters were absolutely convinced that Trump would get trashed, even though the polls in the key states in our arcane and frankly embarrassing Electoral College system showed that Trump was very much in the race in terms of the most important swing states. Yes, he could (and probably would) win in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan, as well as North Carolina. Biden managed to flip a couple of states, sure.
But some of those supposed swing states were not actually all that competitive, right? Pennsylvania went decisively in favor of Trump. So did Ohio. And Wisconsin. And Michigan, of course, which Michael Moore warned us about both in 2016 and again in 2020. Ignore those warnings at your peril, because he was right twice now. Georgia was supposed to be a swing state, but why? Trump won that decisively, too.
Again, there were shocked responses. Shocked! Because 2020 was basically a repeat of 2016. Trump is the monster, the candidate who, at best, represented Fascism-light, and who had actively attacked American democracy for four years now. The most polarizing politician in recent American history – and that’s really saying something! – yet people are flocking to him, left and right. In particular, he seems to have a message that resonates with white working-class voters, particularly the men.
And once again, the Democrats shirked a major candidate who was in favor of those workers, who championed policies that would benefit the middle class. Just like in 2016, Bernie Sanders seemed to offer the Democrats a chance to return to grassroots politics, and integrity. They could have had someone who recalled their past, their middle class, working-class roots. He was in favor of Medicare for All, of course. He also favored a Green New Deal, which would have at least have brought the United States back within the realm of a realistic view of science, instead of thinking that they were above the laws that govern all of humanity.
Indeed, once again, also just like 2016, the Democrats could not eliminate him from the race fast enough. In 2016, of course, Hillary was the giant in the room, or seemed to be, and had assumed she would get the Democratic nomination easily, in a rollover. But instead, she struggled, because for the most part, her platform was morally bankrupt, and people just did not feel like they could connect to this elitist with a false sense of entitlement. The Democrats scoffed at this notion of Hillary being an elitist, and low and behold, they were shocked – Shocked! – when Hillary won the general election, largely because much of the country did not trust Hillary, viewing her as an arrogant elitist with a false sense of entitlement. And once again, when it seemed that Bernie was on the cusp of becoming almost an unstoppable force en route to the Democratic nomination. But Obama, another obviously establishment Democratic figure, stepped in. Suddenly, within days of Super Tuesday, one mainstream Democrat after another dropped out of the race, leaving Joe Biden as the main guy, the heir apparent to…Hillary Clinton.
So yet again, Bernie was forced out of a race where the polls had him doing better than the establishment figure. And then, here we go again: Biden is projected to win, even to win big. Many of his supporters try to tell anyone who is not a big fan of Biden to be quiet. Do you want another four years of Trump? No? Then keep your mouth closed, hold your nose if you need to, and support Biden. Blue no matter who, right?
Only later did we find out that Obama said (privately, of course, most certainly not on the record) that we should not underestimate Joe Biden’s capacity to, in his words, “fuck this up.” And sure enough, here we are, with another close election. And it appears that Biden won the popular vote, just like Hillary did. And also, it appears that Biden lost the general election, just like Hillary did. And it looks like the establishment Democrats lost the overall election, just like in 2016. They were almost promising a Blue Tsunami, also just like in 2016. And just like in 2016, the results proved disappointing, to say the least. No major tsunami. In fact, they lost the key elections. Mitch McConnell? He hangs onto his Senate seat. Lyndsey Graham? He hangs onto his Senate seat. Surprise, surprise, right? Once again, the polls that were suggesting that this would be a decisive win for the Democrats across the board, across the country, were wrong. Surprise, surprise.
Once again, their fans are devastated. I remember being one of them in 2004, when everyone seemed convinced that Bush was going to lose, and probably get trounced. But the polls showed otherwise, and in fact, he won that election convincingly, as it turns out.
Then 2016, and Trump. No, he did not win in a blowout, despite his claims that he did, that it was a historical landslide, in fact. But officially, he won.
And surprise, surprise, he won again this time, too.
Surprise, surprise.
Are you tired of this repetition?
So the hell am I.
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