The Election
What a ride it's been.
One thing I've noticed in my circle of friends and family is how many people weren't voting for someone, so much as they were voting against the other candidate. Sure, we've had a long history of "voting for the skunk that stinks least," but this year it seemed that the main qualification for "stinks least" often was NOT $OTHERCANDIDATE.
I'm relieved to see that evidence of shenanigans at the polls was dealt with promptly, including insisting that poll workers continued counting throughout the night in a key state where there'd been problems in 2020. This year there would be none of the mysterious pauses in counting and sudden jumps after it resumed, which invariably benefited the Democrats.
I'd been very concerned about the possibility of a Harris Administration being such a horror show that it could lead to the perception that women are by nature incapable of high office (or even that women should have no voice at all in politics -- there are people, including some women, who believe that women as a category are incapable of the necessary objectivity for exercising the franchise, and admit no possibility of statistical outliers, even resisting the very concept of population thinking) I do hope to someday see a woman President -- but I want her to be someone who has been chosen for competence, not to check the boxes.
And most of all, I'm glad that there has been no outbreak of violence as the results came in. I'd been worried that, no matter who won, things would get sporty. Either anger at losing, or celebrating by trashing and torching their neighborhoods.
Our biggest question now is whether Biden will be able to make it to January 20. Already he's in such poor shape that Harris has been Acting President in all but title. If some medical misfortune were to befall this frail octogenarian, it's possible that there could still be a Harris Administration, however brief, with the possibility for disastrous mistakes.
One thing I've noticed in my circle of friends and family is how many people weren't voting for someone, so much as they were voting against the other candidate. Sure, we've had a long history of "voting for the skunk that stinks least," but this year it seemed that the main qualification for "stinks least" often was NOT $OTHERCANDIDATE.
I'm relieved to see that evidence of shenanigans at the polls was dealt with promptly, including insisting that poll workers continued counting throughout the night in a key state where there'd been problems in 2020. This year there would be none of the mysterious pauses in counting and sudden jumps after it resumed, which invariably benefited the Democrats.
I'd been very concerned about the possibility of a Harris Administration being such a horror show that it could lead to the perception that women are by nature incapable of high office (or even that women should have no voice at all in politics -- there are people, including some women, who believe that women as a category are incapable of the necessary objectivity for exercising the franchise, and admit no possibility of statistical outliers, even resisting the very concept of population thinking) I do hope to someday see a woman President -- but I want her to be someone who has been chosen for competence, not to check the boxes.
And most of all, I'm glad that there has been no outbreak of violence as the results came in. I'd been worried that, no matter who won, things would get sporty. Either anger at losing, or celebrating by trashing and torching their neighborhoods.
Our biggest question now is whether Biden will be able to make it to January 20. Already he's in such poor shape that Harris has been Acting President in all but title. If some medical misfortune were to befall this frail octogenarian, it's possible that there could still be a Harris Administration, however brief, with the possibility for disastrous mistakes.