So you cast a vote… now what

Published 11-05-2020

As you read this column, all the votes have been cast and accounted for, well unless Philadelphia Democrats can find a trunk or two of ballots magically forgotten and found in the upcoming days. And if history is any indicator, counting is ongoing while the lawyers gear up for the post election cases that are as inevitable in modern elections as the sun rising in the East.

Everything is out of our hands.

So now what?

Do we go back to our lives, ignoring what is happening in our cities and metropolitan areas, ignoring what is done in our names and with our tax dollars by the federal government?

Do we forget that social media companies have throttled and outright censored our opinions, going so far to suppress and out right suspend the New York Post for reporting a story that was embarrassing and incriminating to the Democratic nominee to be President?

Do we just move on to “the new normal” without any repercussions for unjust and unconstitutional orders by governors hellbent on acquiring power?

Do we forget the patriotism and national spirit that was found and celebrated in boat and car parades, bike rides and spontaneously planned meetups at the end of Trump’s campaign?

Does that energy stay engaged in the process, or fade away depending on who is inaugurated on January 20th?

Will the resistance of the managerial and professional class continue to be successful? It has kept itself two steps ahead of Trump’s Executive Branch thus far, but as the release of interviews on Election Day of those purported to be Christopher Steel’s sub sources completely refuting every bit of “Russian info” that Hillary’s campaign fed the FBI and CIA, it seems more likely that the whole sordid ordeal, including the impeachment action, will be shown as part of an organized coup against the duly elected President. There’s no Moscow hotel tapes, no secret meetings of Trump surrogates. The Mueller Report made as much clear, now that redactions have been cleared, and more of the report is visible to the American public.

There should be some sense of vindication, but there’s not. There’s no sense of justice in government redacted documents being held, contrary to Congressional subpoenas and ongoing criminal litigation against a decorated General. The ongoing corruption of the law, and the processes of American Justice is just as shameful as burning American cities and toppled historical statues.

These questions and thoughts account for just as much of the nervous energy I’m feeling on Election Day, as I write this column and obsessively search voter turnout reporting on Twitter.

The nervous energy is multi directional... going to vote is up there in excitement levels that I remembered feeling coming down the stairs on Christmas morning as a little girl.

And while I would prefer voting very first thing... my dad texted early to see if I had already gone, he knows me too well, Vince and I have a tradition of going to the polls together after he gets home from work. Sam’s first vote was experienced in his car seat at one month old.

So there was some obsessively checking the clock throughout the day.

I’m not a fan of early voting, and like going in person after so many years of living in a forced absentee precinct when I was out at the ranch. So much can change in a week, let alone a month, and most states don’t allow for voters to change their minds once their ballot has been cast.

I understand the reasoning and desire to make voting more convenient, but the search spike on Google after the second presidential debate for “can I change my vote” was not unsubstantial in number. Big Data even could geographically tell where the questions were coming from, and the 2020 battleground states were well represented. That’s just as disenfranchisement as closed polling locations.

While I’m always anxious until I start seeing actual vote results... every election... this year is a little heightened.

Yes, I know it’s little nuts. I’ve come to embrace it as I age, and everyone knows who to text to see what is going on at any given time on Election Day. I have accepted that I will be on both my tablet and phone, while flipping between different coverage. I will, at some point go watch in the family room, so Vince could get some sleep and get up for work on Wednesday.

Part of it is casting my first vote for President in Tennessee. Even after two years, there are still some firsts to savor, and our first full Presidential election in the south has been worlds away from the California experience.

Sadly though, not even in Tennessee could I escape all the Biden commercials. Turning off the television was easier... and lead to more productivity with the home improvement projects. Next up is the guest bath. Prep work has already begun, and paint choices will have to be made soon.

Monday brought our first freeze, and Fall sunshine means there’s plenty added to the list to get ready for winter and grayer skies.

Sometimes the best remedy for the nervous energy is to just redirect it. I’ve been decently successful until Tuesday, when I decided to firmly succumb to the mania... after I finished this column of course.

No matter the outcome of the election, we still have a society that we all inhabit. We have foundational level divisions in our populace on not just issues, but on objective facts and observed reality.

We have businesses boarding up windows in cities across the nation to protect their property from election based civil unrest.

We have people injured and killed because of their political affiliations, and criminals released from jail with crowd sourced bail funds because of theirs.

We have a candidate caught paying for foreign bot farms to boost engagement on social media, while another faced a special counsel with the same accusation even though there was no coordination let alone funding.

We have employees of the federal government actively organizing civil unrest in Washington D.C. over Zoom calls, complete with funding and coordination, targeting police, republican groups and choke points in the city. These groups will start their insurrection outside the White House, as they have publicized.

The national press, in avoiding this story, instead ran think pieces about the dangerous optics of a fortified White House. “Never in our history” became laughable when a simple internet search results in the history of Presidents who added walls, started the uniformed police division, or in the case of the Civil War had actual military roaming the grounds.

I’m gonna assume their editors aren’t as stringent as mine.

A non scalable fence getting erected when self described revolutionaries take up residence across a park from your front door seems more than prudent.

These issues don’t go away because we filled in a bubble on a preprinted form. But staying engaged might make a difference.