2020-11-04 - US election uncertainty

We may not yet know who the next US president will be, but we have learned some things:

• The US remains a nation divided.
• Unlike pretty much every other Western country, the US really doesn't know how to run elections.
• The polls were wrong once again. They failed to detect how tight the race would be, especially in the various swing states.
• There is a pretty good chance that, once again, the less popular candidate will win. This happens a lot - making any claims that the US is a functioning democracy suspect.
• The US is, at least in the 2020 election cycle, a gerontocracy.
• Trump remains a self-serving narcissist and the worst president in living memory. That so many people still voted for him can only be for one of two reasons:
  • The voters are dumb. Really dumb.
  • The voters despise or fear the Democratic party so much that they would rather have Trump, despite his obvious flaws.
  Undoubtedly both factors are in play - different Trump supporters fall into different categories.

We'll wait a few days to see the results. The Democrats would do well to look in the mirror here. They had an open net and they missed. Presumably because they veered too far left and under-estimated the political power of the "guns and god" constituency. They could have selected a vigorous, centrist, young candidate but instead chose a boring old guy. That wasn't the smart, strategic choice.

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