5/5/24

Election countdown
       SIX MONTHS TO THE ELECTION
              What will happen to Thanksgiving?

SOMEBODY MENTIONED THANKSGIVING recently, and a shiver went through me.
      It’s my favorite holiday, and I’m sure that’s the case with lots of people. No obligatory gifts and a lot fewer holiday themed cards and music. Mainly a gathering of family and friends and the year’s best food. It’s a lot of effort for the cooks. Old and repurposed grievances are always on the menu. But on the whole, it’s a day to look forward to.
      Not this year.
      Come Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024, the election will be three  weeks in the proverbial rear-view mirror, so we’ll know whether the United States' future is that of a dictatorship or a democracy.
      It’s not that I think Donald Trump will win the presidency.
      Just that it’s possible he might.
      And that possibility, because it's real, plausible and odds-even, is a nightmare that will haunt the country the rest of this spring, all summer and into the fall.
      For me, anything that occurs after the Nov. 5 election - any holiday, any event, any date, anything scheduled beyond when the votes are all in and counted –fills me with one part dread, one part hope.
      Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy New Year.
      Maybe. Maybe not.

 TODAY, MAY 5, we are exactly six months away from that fateful turning point.
      It means there is still time.
      The question is, is there enough time to affect the outcome?
      Minds still can be changed. Mind you, not many minds, because changing your mind is among the hardest of human endeavors, and few of us are up to the challenge.
      It asks us to admit we were wrong, that we made a mistake, that we hadn’t thought something through.
      It took me a long time to admit that Bill Clinton was deeply flawed, most obviously the way he abused women in a way that called into question any of the things he said and did during his presidency.
      Similarly, it took me a while to admit that Hilary Clinton wasn’t the ideal candidate it thought she was for the Democrats to put up against Donald Trump. In retrospect, she only seemed to be unusually capable, experienced and talented. But she flunked the test, the only judgment that mattered, and the nation has been paying the price ever since.
      So, it’s a big ask to persuade someone who has signed on with Donald Trump to switch to Joe Biden.
      I, for sure, don’t know the magic combination that will unlock the mind of a Trump supporter. In part, that’s because I’m astounded that anyone could find common ground with such a flawed, repulsive person in the first place.
      
A MORE PROMISING use of the  time remaining until Nov. 5 is to persuade people to vote, but who today  are actively or unconsciously planning to sit out the election.
      There are a lot of reasons not to vote.
      I hate politics.
      I hate politicians.
      All politicians are alike.
      I don’t like Trump or Biden.
      I voted for Biden, but he’s let me down.
      My vote doesn’t count.
      Even if I vote, nothing will change.
      Nothing matters.
      A lot of people have  little room in their lives for politics, much less a spare hour or two to vote.
      Many lives are overwhelmed by the effort it takes just to make it through the day, to get to tomorrow and maybe to next week.
      There is too much illness; too little money; too many brutal parents and partners; too much energy needed to manage unmanageable preschoolers and high-schoolers; too far to drive the jobs that pay too little; too many gossipy neighbors; too many drugs and too much booze; too many leaks in the plumbing and on the roof; too many worn out parts in cars that are too old; too many apartments with rents in the stratosphere; too much gunfire.
      The White House is too distant, too irrelevant, too removed from so many lives.
      The irony, of course, is that all of these non-voters, whether they are simply cynical, lazy or genuinely worn out, are the very people who have power to determine their own fate and the fate of the nation.
      Anyone planning not to vote, for whatever reason, is just plain wrong. It’s a democracy, and there’s enough time in most lives to think about the election and to vote.
      How we vote makes a difference in every aspect of  our lives. Politics and government determine whether rents and medical care can be available and affordable; whether the streets are paved and driveable; whether the water is poison-free; whether guns can be tamed; whether the plumbing gets fixed; whether paychecks are big enough to pay the bills; whether another bridge falls down; and whether the earth will be livable.
      My guess is that if enough non-voters decide to vote, they’ll vote for Joe Biden, because, on balance, he’s a decent man, as much as that’s possible in politics, and because they realize that he’s a champion of democracy. More of them will decide against voting for Trump, because he’s so despicable, dreadful and dangerous; and enough people will realize Donald Trump isn’t joking about destroying democracy.
 
THERE’S STILL TIME, six months, to change a few minds and to encourage millions of others to vote.

      A whole half year to go, and then, a couple of weeks, later and a lot of us will be sitting down for Thanksgiving.
      What will the talk around the table be?
      It’s crazy, of course, to be thinking about Thanksgiving just as spring is finally getting underway.

     Out my window in Newport, the trees are more than halfway to turning green; the temperatures are on the cool side but not for much longer; the days seem brighter and they stay that way for longer.
      What will we be talking about on Thanksgiving?
      Is there enough turkey for seconds, even thirds?
      Did the polls get it wrong? Instead of a close election, was it a landslide? Was the outcome determined by people who voted in just three states, where the tallies were astonishingly close?
      Was voter turnout low?
      Did the numbers set a record?
      Had enough of us worked hard enough; did we do everything we could?
      Were we persuasive enough? Did we raise the alarm sufficiently about the historic stakes?
      Did we make the point that this time, the choice wasn’t just between Candidate A and Candidate B, but about freedom and autocracy?
      What will we say to one another on Thanksgiving?
      Will Christmas be merry?