It's quite clear, at almost 11 pm EST (well past my usual bedtime!) that there will be no Democratic landslide (Trump is winning Florida, may win North Carolina, doing well in Ohio etc. etc.). I find this astonishing, although not because I think anyone other than academics and similar professionals are really exercised about Trump's casual racism, his less-casual sexism, or his vulgar mouth (the latter is purely a class-based obsession): most people don't care, that's been clear for some time. (It's also not what's really wrong with Trump, but that's a different matter.) Most people also don't care about democracy or the rule of law, or, if they care, they have no conception of how Trump is undermining them.
What astonishes me is the following: usually voters take it out on a President who presides over their being rammed up their anus with a red-hot railroad spike. People tend to notice something like that, and they tend to react badly to it. The pandemic has been that spike, and it has burned everyone directly or indirectly. Ordinarily, the President who presided over this fiasco would be crucified (and irregardless of his own culpability, although obviously Trump is highly culpable). But that isn't happening, even if the monster-child ultimately loses. Somehow some number of voters are actually giving this world-historic incompetent a pass on this catastrophe. Many dissertations in American politics will no doubt be written about this; Achen and Bartels are probably staying up late tonight.
Meanwhile, I hope I awake tomorrow to a happy ending, even if the initial results this evening are mystifying. Good wishes to you all.
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