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New Orleans It isn’t news that America has been increasingly divided with the wounds pushed open wider and wider by the president. As the hours’ count down to the election, we have to wonder if Humpty-Dumpty can be put together, and, if so, what it might take to do so.
The signs aren’t encouraging. They seem everywhere.
Early in the morning, I frequently ask Alexa to play “alternative country” for me. Recently on the “Brushland” playlist among the first ten songs, four of them almost pointedly seem to hear the footfalls of chaos coming. One suggests we “pray for America.” Another talks about making love while the world ends. Another sings about we’ll make it together even as everything collapses. One in the refrain calls for people to “rise up.” You get the picture. And, this is alternative country, mind you, not pop country. This is the progressive country.
A bunch of hostile Trump supporters surrounded a Biden-Harris bus in a daytime exercise of howling at the blue moon. More effectively a small number of pickup driving, red shirt wearing, banner waving Trump backers blocked highways in New York and New Jersey including the Mario Cuomo Bridge going into New York City. I hate to mention the delusional crew in Michigan that were committed to kidnapping the governor, putting her on trial, and offing some other politicos there. Of course, there was also the hapless team that got hustled away after they tried to intimidate early voters, but since 93 million voted early, that also doesn’t seem to have worked out so well.
Even as a loser, Trump is committed to maintaining his brand of divisiveness. There’s not a man, woman, or child in America that believes he’s going to stop tweeting. Nor should anyone doubt the commitment of his base of true believers that he has maintained steadily over the last four years, regardless of his outrages. They will still listen to his rages, and some of them will undoubtedly be moved to action, and that will be a continued worry for all of us, but especially for the winners, because many of these folks are armed and dangerous.
Trump reads the polls. He’s not stupid. Read between the lines, and he is already reckoning with the fact that he is the likely loser. He’s not taking it with grace. There’s not an ounce of “good loser” in him. He’s threatening to sue Pennsylvania regardless. He’s spent weeks claiming that anything other than another impossible re-election victory, he will see as illegitimate.
I don’t believe all of the conspiracy talk about a coup or him refusing to leave the White House, but I also don’t believe he will go quietly into the night. He will try to keep stirring it up and selling his brand and his baloney. Just saying let’s all unite, is not going to get it done. In coming months and possibly years, that could be as big a problem facing the country as the pandemic and the bad economy. I’m not hearing any plan or vaccine for this national disease.