Time to Take a Breath, Not Relax

I was able to relax a little by the end of this week.  Basically take a quick breath.  But I don’t think it’s over.  

The election results were close to what I wanted.  There was no “Blue Wave,” but I wasn’t expecting one.  I suspected that the pollsters still hadn’t figured out what they got so wrong last time, and that turned out to be true.  Something about Trump supporters defy information gathering.  Perhaps its a penchant for concealing the truth.  

That last sentence was my one and only political shot in this.  I promise.  

But the ticket I picked, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, won.  It’s not official yet.  There is still the need to complete the count, certify the vote, send delegates to the Electoral College, all the normal steps that take place at the end of each election.  

And another process that is becoming a common feature of the process: the lawsuits that are getting filed to change proscribed process into one more favorable to the side bringing the lawsuit.  And this is the part that makes me feel that I can only expect a brief respite.  

What has encouraged me is the news about how the election was handled.  Every state seems to have taken steps to make sure the votes that were supposed to get counted did, and that it was done fair and openly.  Several states, Pennsylvania being the most notable, even put video of their ballot counting rooms online so that anyone that wanted to go to the state’s website site and see how the votes were being handled.  Unlike the infamous Florida situation from years ago, the quality and condition of the process has been well documented.  It gives me hope that when these lawsuits come to court they will be, or should be, quickly dealt with and determined.  

Also an encouragement is the margin of victory in these states.  Numbers in the thousands or tens of thousands.  I heard one person interviewed on the radio who makes a career out of studying these things say that the average change in votes after a recount is somewhere around 200 hundred votes.  That was for all the elections going back for decades where the results were reviewed and a recount was called for.  The final number may change, but it’s outside of the margin of change that normally takes place.  

“Normally.”  That is a word that gives me pause.  Normal is no longer normal.  Normally, were it not for one of the candidates in this year’s contest, results like this would have one candidate conceding the election, calling the other to congratulate them, and promising for a smooth transition, a praised hallmark of our election process up until now.  

But that’s not going to happen. At best, and this came to me from one of the news shows I watch on Sunday morning, where a supporter of the current president said that they thought, “in a few days,” after Trump’s inner circle talk with him and calm him down, he’ll give a speech conceding that the election results would indicate that the presidency was stolen from him.  

Not a concession speech by any stretch of the definition.  Not one meant to heal at all.  Not one to get us past what we’ve been going through because the man who would give it doesn’t want us to get over it.  His political rise was born from chaos and it is in chaos it thrives.  

And supporting his efforts beyond his campaign are those politicians who have gotten used to doing so over the last four years.  The ones going on the radio and TV to say it’s not over.  That the nation gave Al Gore 37 days to contest that election and Trump should be granted the same consideration.  Never mind that the Gore campaign was contesting a difference of 500 votes in one state, not thousands and thousands in five or six.  The politicians that refuse to say that Biden has won the election, something they would have under those fondly remembered “normal” times.  

I heard one commentator, talking about how the number of Republican leaders actively supporting the President efforts vocally were relatively few, say that Trump has always motivated with fear, not affection.  And being fearful is a hard habit to break.  

But it can be.  And hopefully will be.  And as the reality of the situation starts to sink in, the objective reality of what actually happened and not the personal reality of what we want that drives the thinking of too many people in our country these days, I’m expecting, hoping, wishing, even praying in my heart, that the fear will lift and a more…  Yeah, I’ll say it…  normal and peaceful transition of power will commence. 

And when I see that happening, I’ll take another breath.