11/4/20: Leading up to
Election Day, I pored over opinion polls relentlessly. In mid-October, I was
thrilled to see Joe Biden had a sizeable lead. In the last week before the
election, I noticed it start to shrink.
That worried me a little.
Still, I understand how numbers work. Pollsters
said the former vice president had a 6.5-point lead.
I assumed pollsters were generally right.
 |
Ohio goes to Trump easily, again. |
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On
Election Night, I admit I went to bed depressed.
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Besides, I assumed most Americans were smart
enough to see through the president’s swindles.
Now I feel dumb.
I couldn’t imagine anyone would want to give
Trump four more years to ruin the country. I like facts. So, I looked at the
facts the Bureau of Labor Statistics posts every month. I knew this president had “created the
greatest economy in U.S. history” by not adding a single job to the U.S. economy
so far.
I did the math. I figured Trump supporters could
do the math too. If you take jobs added in Trump’s first 37 months in office,
and jobs regained since the pandemic began, and subtract jobs lost once the
virus exploded – which he swore it
wasn’t going to do – he’s 3,903,000 jobs in the hole. If the unemployment rate was 4.7
percent in January 2017, when Trump took over, and the rate now is 7.9 percent,
I thought it was clear the economy wasn’t doing so great.
Yes, yes. I know. No president could have dealt
with this pandemic without there being pain.
Still.
Here we had a president who kept telling us we
were turning the corner on the virus, and we should vote for him again. I couldn’t
believe anyone would fall for that line. Instead, I trusted scientists, not the
guy we know lied to three wives in a row. I checked out the CDC website to be
sure.
I believed it when experts in infectious diseases
said we had 86,190 cases on November 2, another 88,427 on Election Day, and
that 231,988 Americans were dead. If people who study disease for a living said
we had had 604,450 cases in the last week, I was sure Trump fans would realize
their orange hero was blowing smoke when he claimed he had done a great job
handling this crisis.
I
thought people could count the felons.
I couldn’t imagine Trump winning a second term. I was sure the American
people would realize how dangerous it was to have a president calling members
of the free press “the Enemies of the People.” I thought Trump supporters would
hear the echoing roar of the Hitler crowds.
(Some Trump supporters who
did were secretly thrilled.)
I had to think that even the president’s
fans were going to realize he was a carnival barker, promising a new and better
healthcare plan, but not showing it to anyone except Jared and Ivanka in four
years.
I thought by now they’d understand how the
whole “my taxes are under audit” spiel made no sense.
As a former Marine, I was positive they’d see through Trump’s patriotic
charade. The guy doesn’t pay taxes if he can avoid it, and usually does. I
assumed his fans would realize that what George Washington said might still
pertain: “In
modern wars the longest purse must chiefly determine the event.”
I assumed the American people would reason
it out. They’d realize that if the fat cats avoid paying taxes, maybe we can’t afford
all the bombs and bullets we need in a pinch. I was sure good citizens would notice
that the guy with imaginary bone spurs, talked a good game, but see that his
patriotism ended at his wallet and lips.
By the time Election Day rolled around, I was
almost sure Biden would win. I thought if scientists around the world said 2020
might end up the hottest year on record that Trump fans down in Texas would
feel the sweat dripping from their brows. I gave the MAGA-hat crew the benefit
of the doubt. I never thought they’d put faith in some orange-tinted clown who once
ran a scam university and warned –
while serving as
president – that windmills
cause cancer.
I checked the NASA website to be sure. I like
facts. I saw all kinds of warnings about climate change. I believed experts at NASA
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration when they pointed out that
the ten hottest years on record (so far) were: 2016, 2019, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2014, 2010, 2013
and 2005 (tied), and 1998.
What a numbskull I was! I believed the people at NASA were right.
I thought if Trump said in the summer of 2018, that North Korea was no
longer a nuclear threat (and bragged about winning the Nobel Peace Prize), that
his supporters would notice that North Korea is still a nuclear threat.
And Mexico was going to pay for the wall! I couldn’t believe anyone
would fall for that. But people did.
I thought more Americans would read the Mueller Report. I thought they’d
find out that it says, specifically, that the evidence compiled in no way exonerates
the President of the United States.
I would see stories about people who worked in the first Trump campaign,
and got accused of lying to investigators about contacts with Russians and then
went to court and got convicted. I thought Trump fans would be keeping track. I
assumed all Americans cherished the rule of law.
I figured people couldn’t be blind. They’d have to see Michael Cohen and
Roger Stone and Paul Manafort get hauled into court and convicted by juries or watch
them plead guilty and cop pleas. I believed voters could add 2 + 2 and not get 7.
They’d see Flynn and Gates, Patten and Zuberi, van der Zwaan, Papadopoulos and Nader
all slapped with felonies of some kind. Voters would know – because they’d be informed
– that Sater
was a felon when he went to work for Trump. Then they’d notice that Bannon got
indicted for wire fraud. And Broidy pled guilty for influence peddling. They’d read
about Rudy Giuliani and his shady pals. Two have been indicted and a third took
a plea deal and agreed to cooperate with the feds.
I wasn’t thrilled with some of the antics Hunter Biden pulled. Still, I thought
his dad would win because I assumed everyone could count the felons in the
paragraphs above and sniff out a criminal trend.
I thought Trump fans, such as the Tea Party
crew, would be upset about the massive deficit spending that had occurred under
his hand.
I felt if the President of the United
States called other Americans “scum,” and “animals,” and “psychos,” and “sick,”
and “treasonous,” voters would notice the dehumanizing language. I thought everyone
would be appalled.
I was sure Trump fans would scratch their heads
and stop chanting, “Lock her up!” And “Lock him up!” And “Lock them up!” I
thought they’d come to their senses and realize: Hey, have we gathered
evidence that would stand up in court? Have we indicted these people we so
happily say we want to lock up? Are we going to pretend the IV, V, VI, VII, VIII
and XIV amendments no longer apply?
I thought more Americans would catch a
glimpse of the Statue of Liberty now and then and remember our heritage of
welcoming all kinds of immigrants in our proud past. I thought, if your family
had Irish or Cuban or Slovenia roots, you’d have
sympathy for people “yearning to breathe free.”
I feel stupid now. I thought people would notice,
when not listening to Trump howl about the fearful dangers of “chain
migration,” that the First Lady, her sister, her mother, and her father all
managed to enter the United States in a chain. Good for them, by the way. I’m a
fan of immigration under most circumstances.
And I was positive voters would notice the
president’s hypocrisy on this issue, and thought they’d get wise.
If we kept seeing reports, and those
reports were proven, if by no other means than Eric Trump’s own words, that the
Trump Organization had employed undocumented workers for many years, I thought people
would pay attention.
“The most difficult
country to deal with is the U.S. It’s not even close.”
I absolutely thought the American people
would hear what Trump said last week. When asked by the hosts at Fox &
Friends, which country had been the hardest for him to deal with during his
first term, this was his response. He said friends would ask, “They’ll go, ‘Mr. President, tell me,
who’s the country that’s most difficult to deal with? Is it Russia? Is it
China? Is it North Korea? Sir, is it North Korea?’ And I go, ‘No. Well, by far,
the most difficult country to deal with is the U.S. It’s not even close,’” he
continued. “And they all say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ And I say, ‘No, I’m
actually probably not kidding.’ We have very, very deceptive people.”
That’s right.
The President of the United States told the Fox &
Friends fools that the hardest country in the world to deal with was…the
country he was chosen to lead. And that country was chock full of “mean” and “horrible people.”
And I said, “John,” speaking to
myself, because I’m a good listener, “This is a disqualifying statement, even
for Trump fans.”
I thought if Trump said he was having
a harder time dealing with Rep. Adam Schiff and called him “sick,” the
president’s supporters’ eyes would bug out. They’d wonder why Trump never calls
the murderous Kim Jong-un a “sick” person. They’d ponder the fact that he failed
to mention Putin and Russia as a threat. They’d realize that Trump never condemns
the Saudis for carving up a journalist with a bone saw. I was sure they’d wonder
what kind of president – even what kind of man – would label Americans
the biggest problem he had to face.
Any
other outcome than a victory for him…
I thought, if Trump said – before a single vote had
been cast – that any outcome other
than a victory for him would be proof the election was shot through with fraud
and stolen from the start, that his fans might awake. I thought they’d notice
the authoritarianism in what he said.
On Election Night, I admit I went to bed
depressed. It looked to me as if Trump had won again, although millions of
votes remained to count. I knew states allowed people to vote by mail in
huge numbers.
So, I had a sliver of hope.
Then Trump said early the next morning,
around 2 a.m., that he had won, and counting should end.
How dumb I felt, then. I believed we lived
in a free country and even those who love Trump would say, “Wait. We need to
count every vote.”
I believed that almost all Trump fans were
good Americans, just like almost all of us who aren’t his fans.
*
I ROSE WEDNESDAY MORNING, after a fitful
night of sleep, and I watched all day as more and more returns poured in.
The trends in almost all the battleground
states were now running light or dark blue. It was clear we had a real chance
to win. I knew, for example, that in Pennsylvania at least a million more
Democrats voted by mail than Republicans.
That meant, while Trump had a lead of 700,000
in the Keystone State, that as the ballots were opened and tallied, his lead
might evaporate.
Late returns from Milwaukee pushed Biden
into a lead in Wisconsin. The “red mirage” faded in Michigan. Trump voters had
showed up at the polls in person and their votes had been counted first. Now,
as blue mail-in votes were recorded, the “mirage” of a Trump win in Michigan
died.
Biden also built a lead in Arizona – and
Fox News called the state for Biden. President Trump was livid.
I was worried the call had come too soon;
but I knew we’d keep counting the votes until we found out if Fox was right.
Biden got beat in Florida. Texas remained red.
Nevada was trending blue again. And Georgia? Georgia was the palest pink, when
the day started, not red at all. Those who studied voting numbers pointed out
that almost all remaining votes were going to be reported out of the heavily-populated
blue areas in and around Atlanta.
When I went to bed Wednesday night, I was
no longer depressed. I was fairly sure we had the votes to win.
We’d just have to keep counting and find
out for sure.
