In a few days (or so) will come the event we've waited four years for. Will President Donald Trump win another four year term in the White House? Or will defeat at the polls to former vice president Joe Biden finally do what scandal, impeachment, Covid-19 and just plain buffoonery could not--remove him from office? If that's the case, will Trump do so gracefully?
Most of the polls nationally and in battleground states indicate that Biden has a sizable lead over Trump. But no one, not even Biden, is convinced that the Democrats have this one in the bag yet. Remember 2016? Or even 1948, if you've done your research? Those elections taught us that polls and the popular vote doesn't matter. Only the Electoral College matters, and a few votes in the right places is Trump's best hope for defying the experts once again.
Trump's (mis)handling of the coronavirus crisis has led to (as of 10/29) nearly nine million cases and over 227,000 deaths, including himself and most of the White House staff. And the worst is yet to come as winter approaches. Yet he insists on jetting around the country to rallies attended by thousands of supporters who don't mask up, spreading disease wherever he goes.
Lacking a real plan to control the virus without hurting the economy, the President tells anyone who'd listen that we're "rounding the turn" in developing a vaccine that won't be available to everyone until next summer. Trouble is, it sounds like what President Herbert Hoover kept saying as the Great Depression got worse: "Prosperity is just around the corner".
It also doesn't help that the Trump administration has all but surrendered to the virus, offering scant suggestions that don't involve mask wearing and social distancing while muzzling the experts, who have a better idea of what's going on than the politicians do.
The U.S. Senate's confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett as the newest Supreme Court justice, so soon after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Americans are voting early, is a clear indication that Trump and Senate Republicans are imposing their will on the country long after they're gone, leaving hot-button issues like abortion and the Affordable Care Act at the mercy of a conservative-majority court. The Democrats, if not Biden, are screaming about the GOP's "court packing" and vow revenge. But any attempt to do some of that themselves, including adding two more seats, will likely result in leaving the Court's conservative majority intact.
In spite of the millions of people who waited in line for several hours to vote in a shrinking number of polling places across the country, and in spite of all those who wanted to avoid getting sick on Election Day by voting early by absentee ballot (your Postal Service mail delivery might vary), the winner might be determined by six conservative justices and three liberals if the totals between Trump and Biden are close enough, and Trump demands a recount If there's interference by a foreign government, that's another story altogether.
So yes, we're "rounding the turn" all right. Do we really want to know what's around the corner?
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