Democracy is Worth the Wait

 

All apologies to the late Tom Petty, but I'm not so sure the waiting is the hardest part.

The fact that we have to wait to find out who won the election is nothing new. Over the past two centuries, Americans have waited, week, months, to find out who won.

We've been spoiled in the last few generations to learn who the winner is on election night, due to the magic of exit polling and television.

But like with everything associated with the President, polling too is turning out to be turned on its ear by Donald Trump and the voters who support him.

So it should come as no surprise that a man who has lied so many times in office that there are actual trackers to be found that try to keep track of them all, would call anything that requires delayed satisfaction to be "stealing the election."

As former labor secretary Robert Reich countered in an election night Tweet: "Counting all ballots is not 'stealing' an election. It's having an election."

Please remember that all our troops overseas, whom the President professes to love, all vote by absentee ballot. Why would we not want the troops, whose defense of our freedoms is celebrated on so many of our flags and pick-up trucks. to not have their say in picking the commander-in-chief?

So in a close election, it should come as no surprise that it will take time because we need to count all the votes to know who won. And in an election in which so many voted, that will take more time.

Why is this such a difficult concept to accept?

The answer is because of Donald Trump, the frequently bankrupt narcissistic con man and reality television host whose every waking minute of existence is devoted entirely to himself.

Because he is likely to be in the lead when the tallies of those who voted in person come in, and they will come in first, he wants counting to stop there and because we're so used to knowing the answer on election night, this seems familiar.

(Of course, when its close and he's losing, like in Arizona and Wisconsin, suddenly the White House is all about pounding the table and demanding recounts.) 

But think about it for a minute. The man who awkwardly hugs and kisses the American flag on stage, who claims to be defending the nation's freedoms, doesn't want all the votes counted?

Hugs and kisses aside, the thing that is most American about America is not its flag; not its parades, not hot dogs or apple pies. The most American thing about America is self-determination, the freedom to decide our own course and, collectively, the course of the nation.

As a nation, that only happens one way: Voting.

So take a seat, smoke 'em if you've got 'em, and wait for the count to be complete so we can see how we voted.

It's not that hard.

Of course, there is an easy way to move past this suspense. Eliminate the electoral college.

As writer and documentarian David Gardner Tweeted on election night: "If we lived in a country where the people picked the president, we could have all gone to bed an hour ago. But instead we're still devoted to a system designed by some dudes with wooden teeth who thought owning other humans was cool."

There is no longer any good reason to keep using the electoral college. Donald Trump became the 45th president despite gather 2.9 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. 

But thanks to the Electoral College, a system put in place by a group of white man, many of them slaveholders, who did not trust putting the franchise directly into the hands of the mob (or women), we treat states like voters and allow some to endorse a "winner-take-all" approach which quite literally disenfranchises everyone in that state who voted for the other candidate.

Regardless of its necessity, getting a heavy lift like eliminating the electoral college done in the polarized nation we inhabit today is another progressive fever dream. So instead, we wait.

What is harder than waiting is using that time to think about what we know so far.

Democrats, and the Republicans who remember a time when their party respected the institutions of democracy, harbored illusions that the nation would repudiate Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Many hoped that the basic decency Americans all like to think we posses would reject a man who mocks the handicapped; cheats on his wives (yes wives plural); cheats on his taxes; violates the Constitution; encourages white supremacists; incites violence and calls the free press "the enemy of the people."

But we didn't.

No matter who wins, this election is currently too close to call in many states, including this one.

So there is no escaping the conclusion that a majority of American voters, or a near majority, countenance a leader who does all those terrible things, and so many more. 

Does it really matter whether its a majority, or almost a majority? When its this close I find myself asking is this really who we aspire to be?

We truly are becoming two Americas, red and blue. When even a worldwide pandemic cannot convince us to set aside our differences for the good of the nation, one wonders whether we can ever by a "united" states again.

To be candid, without knowing the results, it doesn't really matter who wins, because we've shown the world the behavior we are willing to not just accept in our leaders, but to champion and celebrate -- well at least about half of us -- and by that measure, we all lose.