Observations from the 2020 Election
I, like most of you, stayed up to watch the election results on the evening of November 3rd. I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon and the Presidential election is still in limbo with Biden at 264 electoral votes and Trump at 215 votes. My observation from this is that it is probably time to dump the Electoral College System and move from the eighteenth century up to the twenty-first century. We should be able vote directly using our phones and eliminate this entire mess. As to the impact of election results, I will share my opinions below.
As a largely neutral observer I’ll give you my observations. Warning – this is going to get political. Donald J Trump is an anomaly and should never have been elected President. He is a highly functioning Sociopath with all the baggage that comes with that diagnosis (narcist, inability to admit he is wrong, trust issues, etc.). But he is very bright and saw in 2016 that the American public was sick and tired of the “Swamp” in Washington doing nothing for the average American worker and skimming off the cream for themselves. There was an opportunity for him to become way more important and visible by running for President and he took it. Hilary Clinton offered nothing to the average American worker, so she lost to a total novice.
Donald Trump is not a nice man (there is a good biography of DJT written by Bill O’Riley) and the Democrats with the able help of the Washington establishment set out to destroy him even before the inauguration. Most of that plot was based on the fictious “Steele Report” that was funded by Hilary Clinton and this is now public knowledge, but it makes us look like a “Banana Republic” with constant conspiracy plots to overthrow the government. I frankly am embarrassed by the actions of portions of the press, the Democratic party, and the FBI. This is a threat to our country and I never thought I would say that, but it is true. I have hopes that President Biden can fix this problem, but I’m not going to hold my breath. We need to acknowledge this problem as a nation and punish the preparators to prevent it from happening again.
From the current election results you can see that both the Democrats and the Republicans continue to underestimate the hatred of the “Swamp” by the average American worker. If Trump had not fumbled the COVID-19 crisis (he wanted to make it about him) he would have managed a “Red Wave” of historic proportions during this election. So, where does this leave us? He has been a mixed blessing as President. Don’t get me wrong, I supported most of Trumps initiatives these past four years because he mostly was doing things right for my country. However, in the last year or so he has become more of a loose cannon and it was time to get someone normal into the White House.
Joe Biden is a normal political animal which means he is a charter member of the “Swamp” and that’s the reason he didn’t get my vote (neither one did). I think 90% of his heart is in the right place (the other 10% is owned by the “Swamp”), but I fear he is not strong enough to resist the influence of the progressive (left) wing of the Democratic Party. That was a real worry before the election, but Trump had enough cote tails to carry the Republicans to an increased minority in the House and retention of a majority in the Senate. Therefore, unless there are some serious surprises in the vote count, I expect a Biden Presidency with a gridlocked Congress. As far as I am concerned, that is the optimum outcome. We can return to a rational foreign policy but not worry about the ill-advised Green Energy program, forgiving Student Loans, and slavery reparations. Biden may still pursue smaller portions of these programs, but the Republican Senate will keep our taxes and spending within limits.
We still have the problems of income inequality and Black Lives Matter. Those are serious problems and I have hopes that President Biden will identify them as such, and work with Congress to make real progress. I’ll end on that note. As you can tell I’m generally pleased with the election results and hopeful our country can regroup and move forward.
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Thanks for reading.
Dana Andrews