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Monday, November 2, 2020

The Day After Tomorrow And Beyond

Even though in all likelihood the final results won't be known, the day after tomorrow could end up being a memorable one. Aside from hoping your candidate prevails, what else do you hope will happen or not happen on the day after tomorrow and in the weeks to follow?

* I hope the winner and loser accept the results with grace. I hope supporters of both, including myself, do the same. 

* I hope the winner sincerely vows to seek common ground with the opposing party over the next four years. If the next President gets a split Congress, I hope whichever chamber is the opposing party works in concert with the President and its sister chamber. If both chambers of Congress end up being the opposing party to the new President, I hope Congress does not reflexively obstruct everything the new President proposes. 

* I hope the consistent message the winner delivers in the weeks ahead is the need for unity and what we have in common as Americans. 

Is anyone else on the bell curve as weary with our broken system of governance as I am? Although the last four years have been hard, our slide toward demonizing the opposition and legislative entropy didn't begin in 2016. I remain convinced term limits for all members of Congress, combined with strict oversight over the influence of lobbyists, would be two big steps in the right direction. But I'm not naive. I'll settle for what I hope for in my three bullets above. What are your hopes for the day after tomorrow and beyond? 

8 comments:

  1. I agree with all you have written. Term limits for Supreme Court justices would also be a good thing.....

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    1. Ines; Thanks for comment and your support for my hopes. I'd like limits on Supreme Court justices as well, although their long tenures bother me a great deal less than the "drag-me-out-when-I'm-senile-and-incontinent" crowd occupying the Senate and House. Add in the perks many of them get from those smarmy lobbyists and it's easy to see why so little gets accomplished in Washington.

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  2. With Mitch McConnell still in charge there is little hope for anything you outlined above, even if Joe Biden squeaks out a win. I'm very discouraged.

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    1. Keep the faith, sweetheart. And thanks for your comment, even though you're feeling discouraged.

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  3. Wow, Pat. Thank you. I could not have expressed what I wish/hope for any better than what you have written. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but it's also very possible. And I remain hopeful.

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    1. RRGRMG; Thanks for the comment. I'm pleased to know I captured your hopes with some of my words. I also hope you're right that what I wrote is possible.

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  4. Thank you Pat for offering up thoughts and hopes with which I can perfectly agree. I thought the Vietnam war era was the weirdest time I ever lived through but this election takes first prize, no contest. As I write this my home state of Nevada is, well, counting votes. It's freaking Thursday night at 10 p.m. two days after the election and we're still counting. Fingers crossed. Our county, Clark, is very blue in Las Vegas (many liberal minded union hotel workers) and pretty red in the outlying retirement communities but I hope the VP prevails. If Biden succeeds in winning AND is able to prevail on the current occupant to vacate on January 20th, he and Kamala will face a pretty hard core of Republican senatorial opposition led by Mr. McConnel. Maybe by the 2022 mid-terms, the Senate majority will swing back to the Dems and Biden will have a chance to keep the country on an even keel. I think given the state of the world and the pandemic, a bit of peace and quiet on all sides would be a relief.

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    1. Steve; Thanks for comprehensive comment and your unwavering support of my blog. As I write this reply it looks like your (now) home state, and Clark County in particular, is going to Joe. As long as the legitimate votes keep getting counted, it's looking like Biden is going to accrue 4 million or more votes nationwide than the tweeter-in-chief. The fact that the election is still "close" because of the totally antiquated Electoral College, even with this huge disparity in the popular vote is yet another reason I'm astounded at how broken our system is. In 1787 (and maybe for a century after, if I'm being kind), the Electoral College MAY have made sense. But in the 21st century, with the way population is distributed - and the fact that non-white voters and women are actually now able to exercise the constitutional right those groups were finally granted in the mid 19th and early 20th century respectively - the Electoral College has become OBSOLETE without question. I have zero hope this will change soon given the current leadership of the Republican Party. Add in the fact that few, if any, Republicans have yet stepped forward to denounce the tweeter-in-chief's baseless and desperate claims of election fraud, and I'm even more despairing. When Biden wins, I pray (and I don't ever pray) that his first words to Republican voters are conciliatory, healing, and hopeful.

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