Down to four days... and down to rock bottom

At this point, the firehose of arguments and craziness and news events and assorted bizarre pronouncements blurted by various geriatrics (I include Biden here for his fumbling remark responding to some unknown comedian insulting an entire island and then Trump refusing to take any responsibility or even acknowledge knowing any details) has reached peak nuttiness.

I just heard a women someone at CBS discovered who claimed to not want to vote for BIDEN but not liking Trump... so she's not going to vote. Well, that seems like her best choice. We don't need morons to mark their ballots. 

Or maybe the poor soul is just frazzled and has lost any semblance of rational thought. Covering our ears and eyes until, say, December might be the most rational choice we could make. 

I am going out on a limb and saying Harris will win, in the end. I have no logical support for that other than preferring to cling to the idea that most of our neighbors are, well, OK. I often quote Seinfeld's famous statement: "People. They're the worst." But the nihilistic appeal of that claim ultimately doesn't quite work for me. 

I'm not sure America is broken but I am quite certain that American politics is broken. We are entering unknown territory, where half of voters will feel aggrieved whatever happens next week and an additional 80 million Americans who could have voted will not do so. Well, that's how many did not vote in 2020 and that election featured record turnout.

That means that we have about a third of Americans of voting age not being able to muster the energy to participate in the looming "most important election of their lifetime." And then a third will vote for Trump and a third for Harris... and a small number of white women in Pennsylvania will determine the Electoral College winner. 

The only consolation I have right now is that Trump will be gone in four years, even if America's broken system permits his appalling return. I happen to think that he is a cult leader and unique. There will be no successor who can captivate the genuflecting masses. 

If I am right that Harris ekes out a win, Trump and minions will wail and protest and sue, well, everyone. But he will eventually run out of gas and retreat to his grotesque palace. He won't disappear but his increasingly bizarre and obscene ravings just won't matter.

I often note that big changes don't come until we hit rock bottom. We are almost there. My hope is that there may be opportunity for a large and complex nation to focus on the future, even as we shake our heads thinking about how a decrepit man has led us down.

Next time I blog, perhaps we will know a bit more about what sort of society we want to be.