Chickens Take Their Time

Is anyone now counting their chickens? Remember, there won’t be any hatching until November 3.

It is tempting to think that the mood of the country has now finally turned against Dangerous Donald.  All the polls point that way. As of this writing, they have him down by between 8 and 14 points nationwide (the 8-point poll is Fox’s, so . . .).

It has never been much in doubt that Trump would lose the popular vote. After all, he lost by over three million against one of the worst Presidential candidates since Pat Paulsen (you have to be kind of old to get that reference). We all know, though, that the popular vote doesn’t count.  All that matters in this “democracy” is the Electoral Vote – the intentionally un-democratic process set up by our founders. So, the November result will depend on what happens in the so-called, “battleground states” – the ones whose electoral votes are considered undecided. Except now, it seems that even many of those states have also made up their minds, and not in favor of the Liar-in- Chief.

As of July 20, Biden was up by 4 points in Arizona; 5 in Florida; 12 in Michigan; 7 in North Carolina; 11 in Wisconsin; and 9in Pennsylvania .  Maybe most startling, Biden leads by 1 in Texas!

Is this because of his putrid handling of Covid? Or is it because of his increasingly dissonant reaction to the increased uproar for racial harmony? Or is it just because he’s an imbecilic, solipsistic con artist – and that those are his better qualities? Probably, all of the above.

So, should we start planning our “Good-Bye Donald” parties – raising a Diet Coke with an appetizer of Russian caviar and an entrée of Rack of Bull?  Not yet. Too soon.

Too soon for a number of reasons. First, of course, is because there is a lot of time left – four months. A lot can happen in four months under an ordinary President. Can you imagine how much this clown can do?  Think about what he does in any given day. Will he declare a war against someone – anyone? Will he claim that we are under attack by an enemy even worse than the “immigrant caravans?” He has now replaced those mythic invaders with hyperbolic fears of crime in the streets. I won’t even mention that little red button (whoops, I just did).

Any President can control events to influence the election. This time, though, with this guy, multiply that by the size of Obama’s inauguration crowd (not Trump’s). Things will happen this time that would have been unthinkable in the past. 

Trump will obviously campaign with fictions that will make Stephen King jealous. He’ll engage in an underhandedness that would embarrass Charles Ponzi. Look at his team. He made sure he got the convicted liar, Roger Stone, back, and he recently drafted Bill Stepian, the man who Chris Christie, of all people, fired for being unreliable. 

And then there are the Russians and the Chinese. All reports are that they are already heavily into an election subversion effort that the CIA would envy and that our federal government leaders are doing very little about it. My guess is that they will work to make sure that their Orange tool remains in charge. And don’t forget the voter suppression talents of the Republican Party. If you think the Trump-ites created conditions for long COVID testing lines, just wait until you see what they can do with election lines.

Now, we can’t control much, if any, of that. The Trump side will do what they will do. What we can control is what we do. And we can do a lot. We must keep up our vigilance.  We must keep up our anger. We cannot let our guard down. What we cannot ever do is become complacent. We can’t read these polls and listen to the TV airbags and think it’s a gimme. 

Complaisance will kill us. It is a truism in sports that you must always play to win, regardless of the score. This is especially so if you are winning.  If you have a lead and you then just play not to lose, that’s when you get in trouble. We cannot lose this election. 

The title of this blog is based on an old song I wrote about how we, in the sixties generation, thought we would change the world for the better and then never did. Well, this is our time to make up for that. 

We must do what we can to prevent our children and grandchildren from having four more years (or more) in a country led by this abominable President and his ilk. If we don’t, whatever else we may have done, history will look back on us with loathing.