No, we still don’t know who won

So it’s the day after the election here in the US, and due to a much larger number of mail-in ballots than is usual for an election, we do not have a clear winner even though the day after election day has come and gone.

The hope of a Biden/Harris landslide victory has long since evaporated. Now, we are hoping that 17 of the remaining 71 electoral votes go to Biden/Harris (according to NBC News, as of the time I am writing this), so come 2021-01-20 we can start to finally put this nightmare behind us.

The most unfortunate news is that while Harris County, Texas, clearly went blue, the rest of the state added up to go red once again, including re-electing Senator John Cornyn, along with the Republican presidential ticket. The silver lining to that cloud, however, is that sheriff Ed Gonzalez has been re-elected, meaning Joe Danna has now lost his third general election running for a law enforcement-related position. (As an interesting sidenote, Alan Rosen, who was Danna’s opponent in the previous two elections for constable of precinct 1, was unopposed this time.)

From what I am reading, there are still a lot of votes to be counted and potential legal challenges to be sorted through. While we all would like to see this all resolved sooner rather than later, that is not likely to happen, and it is definitely too early for either candidate to claim victory. I believe good things will come to those who wait.

The last straw: harassment and endangerment of the campaign bus

I know I’ve been relatively quiet lately. I’ve had a lot going on in my personal life so I haven’t been able to comment on events as they’ve been happening. I still have a post from the start of the pandemic I have been working on that I will try to get up shortly.

I didn’t watch either of the debates, but I think it speaks volumes that CNN’s Dana Bash called the first debate a “shit show” on live cable TV, quickly clarifying “we’re on cable, we can say that.” I don’t blame Dana for not mincing words. I’ve never heard of a presidential candidate rudely interrupting his opponent so many times and making the moderator’s job so difficult. How hard is it to understand how a debate works? The moderator asks the question or provides the talking point. One person talks while the other shuts up and listens. The other responds while the first person shuts up and listens. Then the moderator asks the next question, etc.

Are people really voting to re-elect someone to lead our country who cannot even grasp basic elementary-school-taught manners?

For that matter, in many ways, ***’s conduct and attitude during the debate is a microcosm of his presidency so far. This whole presidency to date has been a shit show, as much as I would prefer not to use that kind of language to describe it.

Perhaps the most damning strike against *** is the one I allude to in the headline. A few “supporters” decided to harass and intimidate the Biden-Harris campaign bus on its trip between Austin and San Antonio. What does *** do right afterwards? He gets on Twitter and tweets “I LOVE TEXAS!!!” with a video of this dangerous criminal act committed in the name of his presidency and campaign. Any president worth anything would have immediately condemned this. These so-called “patriots” are the reason I’m a bit ashamed to be a Texan right now. Honestly, for me, this is the last straw.

And then, of course, there is the most egregious broken campaign promise I have ever seen. “When I’m elected I won’t have time to play golf, I’ll be too busy working.” Yet *** has spent more time out there on the golf course playing “ah shit” golf you’d think he was trying to become the next Arnold Palmer–at taxpayer expense, at that! At least Barack Obama took into account that the taxpayers pay for the Secret Service (and he didn’t own the golf course and surrounding resort either– I really have to wonder if that has something to do with it as well).

I get that a lot of people think Hillary was (and probably still is) unelectable as president. Joe Biden certainly has at least a decent chance; certainly his campaign team understands what’s at stake. Joe isn’t the perfect candidate, but if we tried to find the perfect candidate every election we’d never elect anyone.

Four years of this was four years too many. We can’t stand to have another four years of it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go vote.