Friday, November 6, 2020

Election Day 4: The Voyage Home

 So, yeah: Election Day is still lumbering onward, like the killer in an 80s slasher flick.It started simply enough back on Tuesday with our screening of Election Day 2020, but then Wednesday rolled around and we had to watch Election Day 2: The Quickening (and they didn't even bring Sean Connery back for this one!) and then yesterday followed up with Election Day 3: Dream Warriors. 

Today? Who knows. 

(I'm hoping for Election Day 4: The Voyage Home, but we're not there until we get there.)

I note, again, that to the apparent shock and surprise of the media and the political establishment, President Trump has done exactly what he said he was going to do: set things up so that the mail-in votes (which weigh heavily Democratic) would get counted after the in-person votes, so that it would look like he was ahead... and then try to get the rigged Supreme Court to invalidate those late results and declare him the winner. So far, at least, the rest of the world doesn't seem to be playing along (to my considerable relief, I might add). I suspect a lot of state officials aren't even remotely willing to let things get that far, especially since the President has to blame their processes in order to make that trick work. As defenses of democracy go this isn't great, but at this point I'll take it. 

It pleases me that every time President Trump tries to declare himself the winner, people keep blowing him off. It pleases me somewhat less that the news media have only now, finally, in the last couple of months of his motherfucking presidency figured out that they can cut away from his lies and correct his misinformation. I'm not even ready to say "but at least it's a start," because evidence suggests that they'll revert to type in a heartbeat. 

If you've been following along with this whole thing in a flurry of stress and anticipation, well... it's probably time to stop. Are your shoulders up around your ears? Relax them. Get some water. Stop for a shower and nap; hell, even if this is all still grinding on this evening, get a good night's sleep. Unless you're actively involved in a vote count, your presence and your attention are not necessary to the process; you're not going to save the world by staying on Twitter. 

(I... might be telling on myself, right there.)

It looks like we're going to have a couple of really critical runoff races in Georgia; get ready to help out with those, because they could make the difference between McConnell being able to block the incoming administration from being able to do anything (including, perhaps especially, appoint judges) and us having a working government again. But otherwise? Sit back. Be patient. Read a book, watch a show, take a bath. Pet a cat. Walk a dog. Get some work done, if you can. (Ha!)

The world will grind relentlessly along without your attention; you might as well let it get on with it.

Besides, we all know the waiter never delivers the food until you finally decide to stand up and go use the restroom, right?

The Void is full. Please stop screaming into it.

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