Like everyone else, I'm exhausted tonight. Exhausted but relieved. Last night at this time I was a nervous wreck, certain Trump had won but not knowing anything because I had turned the TV off early on election day. Once I heard the morning reports of super long voting lines in the battleground states, and the commentators' remarks that they were made up of likely Trump voters, I just felt sick. "Here we go again", I thought, and I turned the news off. After that, I assiduously avoided a tv set all day, and the only site I used on my computer was Amazon. I just didn't want to hear a thing about the election, for fear of having a stroke.
I even went to bed at 11pm, unheard of for me. Before I did, however, I wrote a tirade of a blog, decrying the pollsters, predicting a Trump win, and just generally venting my spleen. Like you, I despise Donald Trump. And I still decry the pollsters, particularly Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight, whose word on anything in the future won't be worth a plugged nickel. But I'm glad I didn't publish that blog, because......
I couldn't sleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night, sometime during the wee hours, I decided I had to know. So, I did what I always do when one of my teams is playing in a big game, say the Super Bowl. If the game is close, or my team is losing, I always turn it off. I'm like Jerry West, who used to leave the building during Lakers games when he was general manager of the team. He said it stressed him out too much to watch, so he'd get in his car and drive around until the game was over. Then he'd come back to The Forum and find out who won. I'm the same way. If the Rams, Dodgers or Lakers are winning a blowout, no problem. But if it's close or they're losing? Off goes the tv set. Like Jerry West, I just can't watch.
So you can imagine how much worse it is with a Presidential race, when Satan is in the White House. The pollsters have all predicted a blowout. "Everyone will vote against Satan". Right? Only - as of yesterday morning anyway - it wasn't turning out that way. Almost half of American voters love Satan, or at least the privileged minion who serves him from the White House. Pretty spooky, eh?
But late last night (or early this morning, still dark outside), I woke up, came out to the living room, and turned on the tv. I muted it right away, so I wouldn't be able to hear any bad news. I also closed my eyes. I knew it was already set for MSNBC, so after steeling myself, I opened my eyes for a quick peek, expecting to see American flags waving like crazy at a Trump victory celebration. Instead, I saw James Carville sitting in his living room, wearing an American flag shirt. He was being interviewed, and speaking, so I dared to unmute the remote. Here's what I heard :
"And I'm confident enough with where we stand now, that we'll have enough to win when the other states report. I've waited four years for this, I can wait another four days".
And with that, the weight of the world fell from my shoulders.
It's not just that four more years of Trump would've killed me (and all of us), it's that four more years of Trumpism would've killed America. This past summer was crazy. Citizens fighting each other in the streets? With assault rifles? This is something we've never seen before, and it very well could have led to a mini-civil war. But now, as it is clear that Joe Biden will win the Presidency, we can slowly begin to reinstate law and order, to once again have a legitimate justice department, and to reduce chaos all around. Joe was exactly the right candidate to defeat Donald Trump, calm, experienced and running from the center. I've heard some complaining today that he didn't have a blowout. Well hey, he was running against the most meat-and-potatoes, drink raw blood son-of-a-bitch the Republicans have ever nominated, not to mention The Biggest A-Hole Who Ever Lived. The Right loves him for those very reasons! He's their #1 guy, he's Satan. So of course the pollsters were wrong! Of course the Repubs were gonna turn out in record numbers. They freaking worship Trump.
But look what Joe Biden did : he not only beat Trump in the popular vote by an even bigger margin than Hillary Clinton did, but he's gonna win the electoral college, too, and therefore the Presidency. He might wind up with 290 or even 300 votes if he can win Georgia and Pennsylvania.
He got more votes than any Presidential candidate in American history, even more than Obama, his former boss. And think about it : Joe was running against Trump, the Republican equivalent of Satan. Obama had it relatively easy in comparison. His opponents were McCain and Romney. Repubs don't like it when their nominee is a gentleman, and/or a R.I.N.O. They see those qualities as wimpy. That's why they didn't turn out for those guys. But give them a dirty rotten bastard for a candidate, a sociopath and a mean mf-er, and they'll show up in droves.
Joe had to beat Donald F. Trump, who was so much worshipped by the Republican party that every single one of their Senators and Congressmen bowed down at his feet, even guys he had belittled during the campaign.
And Joe did it. He beat this monster. The world is now rid of Donald Trump. So what's not to like? I say "Hallelujah"! and "Three Cheers For Joe Biden"! Three cheers for all the young people, also, who helped put him over the top. Three Cheers to the Midwesterners who helped restore the Blue Wall. Way to go Michigan, way to go Wisconsin! Good job, Elizabeth! And thanks to Bernie, also, for giving his endorsement to Biden. He wasn't my guy, but I know he was for a lot of Democrats, particularly younger folks, so Three Cheers to him also. I'm sure he will be rewarded in some way by the Biden administration.
And finally, Three Cheers for the African-Americans who always come up huge for the Democratic party. They might wind up being the final nail in Trump's coffin if we can overtake his rapidly shrinking lead in Georgia, and win that state tomorrow.
I'll be honest, I wasn't a huge Joe Biden fan going in to this election season. I was hoping Hillary would run again, defeat Trump and get sweet revenge. I love the Clintons, and it would've gotten Bill back in the White House, too, as First Man. But when it became clear she was not gonna run, I began to listen to what the pundits were saying about the crop of Democratic candidates, and I started to watch Joe Biden. And by last March, when we had our primary, I was ready to vote for him. He looked like a good old fashioned American political candidate, steady and experienced. And he turned out to be pretty energetic, too, not the senile old fool the right tried to paint him as.
Way to go, Joe. You rock, as far as I'm concerned.
Now, I know I need to add the disclaimer that it's not officially over. In fact, there is still at this hour a horrific scenario in which Trump could overtake Biden in Arizona, and also hold on to his leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia. The cable news networks, especially MSNBC, like to keep everyone on tenterhooks, because it keeps viewers watching and raises ratings. But at this point, I am trusting experts like David Plouffe and James Carville, who were respectively Obama's and Bill Clinton's campaign managers. They are not mere pollsters - who as we now know are a joke - but real, on the ground right hand men to former candidates, both of whom became President. I trust what they say.
As you know, I don't like politics, so you won't be hearing from me on that subject during the Biden administration. My life is about a thousand other things besides politics, and even when George Dubya won the most contested election in history, and beat Al Gore (who I think would have been our best President ever), I eventually got over it. I knew Bush was gonna beat John Kerry and got over that, too, even though I certainly did not like George W. Bush. But I got over it because, in the final analysis, even though he sucked, he was from a professional political family and he at least tried to run things in a semblance of a dignified way, even if it didn't seem so at the time. But now, compare Dubya to Donald Trump, and you can see what I mean. I can accept a Republican presidency, if the President carries himself in a reasonably decent manner, and if his administration is not a complete circus. Even with Dick Cheney as his vice president, and a bunch of evil neo-cons as his henchmen, I could still ultimately forget about George Dubya Bush, and his Presidency, and live my life while it was happening. Because at least they were professional.
Not so with Donald Trump. I was never able to forget about him, not for one single day for the last four years, because he was in our face the entire time. He was not only The Biggest A-Hole In World History, but also The Biggest F*** Up, and The Biggest Liar. He very nearly destroyed our country, and Good Lord may we never forget that.
But soon he will be gone, and I hope we will forget him as a person, after he taxed so much of our attention on a daily basis. I hope he winds up in prison, where he belongs, in a cell with William Barr. There, they can line up for chow and sit on their bunks and reminisce about the good old days, locked down 24/7 like the children they caged, and we will never have to think about them ever again. Good effing riddance. /////
No comments:
Post a Comment