The Opening Gambit

There was a range of ways I'd been thinking about for how to begin today’s article, looking back at Tuesday's presidential election.  Because there were so many options, I decided to go with them all – but still, I need some place to start.  So, this is what we’re going with as the lede:
 
The best way to describe the election result may be what’s not there.  What is not there is that there’s no noise crying about a rigged election.  There’s no noise about filing 65 lawsuits.  There’s no noise about the election being stolen.  There’s no noise about refusing to certify results.  There’s no noise about lists of fake electors challenging the results.  There’s no noise about getting together in Washington where it will be wild to block Congress.  In fact, the only thing that is there is something that was missing four years ago – a concession speech.  That's today's Democratic Party.  It's not the MAGOP.  But that’s how democracy is supposed to work.  Cherish it, because it’s light as gossamer feather and can float away.
 
Other ways I was thinking of opening –
 
“Goodbye, Ukraine.”  I hope that the Biden Administration can put together some large, aide package that will be able to last a long while, along with guarantees of assistance from NATO nations.  (Though, “Goodbye to our participation in NATO” is also balancing on the table.  Happily, Congress foresaw this and with a bipartisan vote actually passed a bill that bars any president from exiting NATO without congressional approval.)  But even at that, Putin now pretty just has to wait things out until Ukraine is no longer able to defend itself.  And then, in the words of Trump, Russia can go and do whatever it wants to because they let you when you’re a star.
 
Somewhat similarly, “I hope that all those protesting the Biden Administration who withheld their votes against the Harris campaign because of Palestine and waiting for peace talks to begin any time soon, because that’s not happening.”  Trump has already told his friend Benjamin Netanyahu to do whatever he wants against Palestine.  And so however bad it was before, it’s going to be worse.  Not just for those in Palestine, but Palestinian-Americans and all Muslims in the U.S. who Trump has long stated he wants to keep records of them in the United States and even deport them, if he can.
 
And similarly, “For immigrants wondering where their status stands now, to quote from the end of Fiddler on Roof, “We’ll have to wait for the Messiah some place else.  Meanwhile – let’s start packing.”  I don’t think the Trump administration is going to deport 40 million illegal immigrants.  First of all, there aren’t 40 million illegal immigrants.  And second, just trying to report the 15-20 million who are in the U.S., that would be a hellish, unmanageable problem, not to mention it would have a devastating affect on the U.S. economy.  Trump has insanely convinced the MAGOP base that non-documented immigrants are taking all the new jobs that were created during the Biden years.  Actually, they do the menial, back-breaking work that U.S. citizens have no intention of doing, starting with the fieldwork in farms picking fruit and vegetables.  Good luck filling those jobs if you deport the workers doing them.
 
Another way I was thinking of opening was – “It turns out that the Founding Fathers, wise as they were, weren’t infallible when they came up with the Electoral College.”  This has next-to-nothing to do with the results yesterday – readers of these pages know that I have repeatedly written about the National Popular Vote Compact since 2020, and even after Joe Biden won, as a way to work around the Electoral College without a Constitution Amendment.  They’re close – they have states with around 207 of the 270 Electoral votes needed, but there’s still an uphill push to get there.  And they have to get there, because the Electoral College – which perhaps made sense in 1787 – is unsupportable today.  I live in California, the largest state in the nation, 39 million people (that’s 11% of the country) – and the votes here make almost no difference when deciding who the president will be.  It’s unsupportable – ludicrous – that people’s votes in California and New York basically don’t matter in electing the U.S. president.   Or that in six of the seven most populous states in the country – California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois and Ohio -- making up 155 million votes (44% of the country, almost half the United States), the votes of Americans who live there don’t really matter when electing the president.  That everything balances things out, and you need to win in just seven Swing States, including North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and New Mexico.  That’s it, that’s what decides who will be President of the United States, commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, the most power man in the world.  Totally unacceptable.
 
I also considered titling this article, “President JD Vance”.  That’s because it’s not unreasonable to recognize that it might seriously be who was elected. Trump is 78 years old. He is having a serious cognitive breakdown.  Not normal aging issues like Joe Biden, but dementia, which is not normal, as psychologist Dr. Jack Gartner has extensively written articles and in books (like The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, along with 27 other psychologist, psychiatrists and mental health professionals) about Trump’s early dementia.  As Gartner says he tells people, “Look at Donald Trump now, because it’s the best you’ll ever see him.”)  Gartner has said that the way dementia, which is degenerative, works, he wouldn’t be surprised if elected again that in two years Trump would be found wandering around the White House grounds in his pajamas, spouting nonsense.  So, the concept of “JD Vance” being sworn in as president after the 25th Amendment was invoked is far from improbable.  Trump already shows regular signs of paraphasia (making up words that sound similar to those he can’t think of) which is a sign of dementia, danced for 39 minutes at a Town Hall rather than answer questions, talked about Arnold Palmer’s genitalia for 10 minutes.  And sadly, so much more.
 
By the way, I’m glad I didn’t defer to the Washington Post for what headline to go for.  Because they won the day with the most infuriating one.
 
"How Donald Trump found his footing and fought his way back to the White House".
 
I wrote a tweet about it.  “Seriously, WaPo?? You, of all papers?  Give my best to @jeffbezos.  How Trump found his footing??! The man has DEMENTIA. He danced for 39 minutes and lied about Haitians eating pets!”
 
I'd have added a lot more on his dementia, but the site's character limits prohibited me.  Found his footing???!!

(The sub-headline is almost as bad, not quite, but close – “The inside story of the former president’s messy, offensive and remarkable defeat of Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and his political foes.”  The very wrong adjective to use is “remarkable.”  I understand the point, but “shocking” and “dangerous” are the proper words.)

Still, though I don’t know if they won yesterday’s award for Worst Tone-Deaf Public Statement.  I think that has to go to former President George W. Bush.  After public officials, even former staffers trying to get him to speak out on the election and endorse Kamala Harris on behalf of democracy (like his own vice-president Dick Cheney did – and his Communications Director Nicolle Wallace made a long, public plea to him on her MSNBC show), W. Bush stayed silent.  Until yesterday.  Finally.  The day after the election.  And what did he put out publicly?  This –
​

​Seriously.  In response on Twitter, I repeated a tweet that I’d sent out the morning of the election.  I wrote – “George W. Bush will be remembered for ignoring a presidential daily briefing "Bin Laden determined to attack U.S." with airplanes and also not endorsing Kamala Harris (like his own VP did) against a fascist with dementia.”  And these above were his first words on the election!
 
There was, however, one great quote yesterday.  It came from the wonderful Pulitzer Prize-winning David Cay Johnson.  He wrote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you have done to your country.”
 
I’ll end with a few thoughts.
 
For the past six years or so, when writing about some travesty the sociopathic, pathologically lying, malignant narcissist, white supremacist, anti-Semitic, convicted felon, adjudicated rapist, and fascist with dementia Trump had done, I usually would end by saying, “But this isn’t about Trump, we know who he is.  This is about the elected Republicans in Congress who enabled him.”  Thanks, Mitch McConnell, who we know hates Trump, could have stopped Trump by letting Senators vote their conscience on Impeachment.  And that statement still holds, along with including that it’s about the MAGOP party itself that enables and it all -- from the fascism to embracing the lawlessness to choosing to ignore the dementia as just Trump being Trump.  It is, and that's the problem.  As they too will discover.
 
I also don’t think this is the end of democracy, like many have called out.  I understand the point, and don’t say this with my eyes closed.  They’re absolutely right with their warnings, and the path is leading that way.  But just because Trump says he wants to be a dictator doesn’t mean he’ll get there, and just because there’s a Project 20205 plan, doesn’t mean it will succeed.  He could get there, and it could succeed.  But there are two substantial differences between other countries that went fascist and the United States –
 
First, Trump did not win the popular vote in 2016 when he won the election thanks to the Electoral College.  The majority of the country was against him.  (I don’t know the final popular vote this year yet – California will still be counting for a while.)  He was a minority leader and left office with a 34% approval.  That went up with the passing of years and the campaign, but it was still only just 41% -- his average when in office.  He did win again, but he is not popular at all.  And at 78, he has dementia which is degenerative.
 
And second, unlike other countries, the United States is made up of 50 states.  Each with their own governments.  And Democratic governors are in charge of nearly half of them. The Democrats may re-take control of the House, though even if they don't, problematic as that would be, it causes a big problem for MAGOPs in Congress -- when you control everything, the public expects you to solve everything.  (And since MAGOPs railed and fought against changing the Senate filibuster rule, Democrats will now use the rule to block most everything venal and extreme put forth by the opposition, which given their positions and Trump's campaign will be the bulk of their proposals. And so, although in control of everything, nothing meaningful will get done.  Though MAGOPs in the Senate could themselves now remove the filibuster, they not only are traditionalists, but know in two years Democrats could be back in charge.  Furthermore, if they do remove the filibuster and pass extreme bills, which tend to be wildly unpopular, like a national abortion ban, and which don't actually solve anything, they'll have no one to blame, it's all on them).  Given how dysfunctional and hubristic today's MAGOP is (just look at the House -- with its large, but minority no-compromise extremist wing), the party under Trump always pushes itself to go too far.  (Look at their expected Red Wave in the 2022 mid-terms, after having full control, that got Democrats flipping the Senate and almost the House.)  And there will be a mid-term election in just two years when Trump’s dementia has kicked in more, his tariff “national tax” will cause huge inflation and destroy the great economy he’s being handed if he goes ahead with it (and if he doesn't, it's a broken promise), more women tragically will have died from lost health care, his most violent and vindictive actions will have occurred -- all when more MAGOP senators are up for re-election, unlike this year when more Democrats had to run.  I don’t know what will happen.  I just know these are all realities -- and more will occur, some good for Trump, some horrific, and then Americans will get to vote again in just two years.  When he is 80, more feeble, and his dementia has degenerated.
 
The threat is real.  The concern is real.  And there's a great deal of serious damage that a Trump team can and will do.  But the strong forces pushing back are real, too.  Democrats are not about to shrug, accept the loss and roll over.  Trump may be the Retribution, but Democrats in Congress, Democrats running state governments and Democrats across the country -- half the country -- will be the Resistance.

And for many, it's started on Day One.
 
I’ll end with one of those things I was thinking of opening with, but I think it feels more appropriate here at the end.  It’s repeating what I wrote at the beginning of my article on November 9, 2016, the day after Trump won the election.
 
I wrote --
 
“There are two good things to come out of last night's election.

“The first is that I now have so much to write about in politics over the next four years.

“The second is I'm glad that because my dad passed away six months ago, he didn't live to see this.”
​