Ray Mueller 11/12/20
“I can breathe again,” American democracy tweeted as it learned that the country’s voters had repelled Donald J. Trump’s bid for re-election. But, at the same time, she/it was wary of what more mischief and havoc Trump could cause in the remaining 70 days before he is supposed to leave office.
It is quite disturbing that Trump received more than 74 million votes (plus a 1 or 2 million more on disqualified ballots), which was the 2nd highest ever for a Presidential candidate. Though Trump’s administration has done a few good things, those voters endorsed someone who:
- is a compulsive and habitual liar;
- is a barely veiled racist;
- back-handedly dismissed a virus which has taken the lives of more than 316,000 of his fellow citizens and devastated the livelihoods of millions of individuals, families, and businesses;
- cruelly separated young children from immigrant refugee parents at the Mexico border;
- undermined the integrity of long-standing institutions with top-level appointments based on loyalty to himself only;
- fired federal department employees who spoke the truth and were therefore seen as “disloyal.,”
- knee-capped the postal service in an attempt to slow the movement of mail-in ballots;
- denigrated the vote counting process.
Under the guise of a “free and fair” election, Trump and his allies and sympathizers also tried other ways to suppress the voter turnout or interfere in the election.
In Texas, the Republicans limited the placement of ballot collection boxes to one per county. In California, meanwhile, Republicans set up unofficial (illegal) ballot collection boxes in four counties in an apparent effort to either destroy ballots or alter them.
Two men who were eventually arrested set up a robocall venture (Project 1599) which suggested to Black voters in cities such as Detroit and Cleveland that submitting a mail-in ballot would subject them to police enforcement on outstanding warrants, calls by debt collectors, and being put on a list for a mandatory vaccination.
As the votes were being counted, some Republicans gathered to demand “Stop the Count” while at other places they shouted “Count the Votes.” That dichotomy provides an enlightening insight to the mindset of the Trump voter.
Another phenomenon of the election was how the polls, including in Wisconsin, again wrongly predicted the vote margins. That was probably because some poll respondents deliberately give false info. If I were a Trump supporter, I would do that – “Trump lies, so why shouldn’t I?” Let’s ban the polls.
The national spending for the November election topped $14 billion. Supporting the needy would have been a better use of that money.
Broadcast commercials, printed materials, telephone calls, newspaper letters, and signs did little or nothing to change voter preferences. In Calumet County, for instance, this year’s Presidential vote (70-30 to 75-25 in favor of Trump in many voting districts) was virtually the same as in 2016. The only difference was about a 10 percent increase in voter participation this year.