I’m not making a prediction about what the outcome of today’s election will be, because there are thousands of pundits who have been doing that for what seems like forever — even though none of them actually knows. Neither will the rest of us for a few days, so the big challenge is to keep our anxieties in check. To do so, my plan is to load up on carbs, which means not changing my diet one bit.
The only thing I can guarantee you is that when you wake up Wednesday morning, you won’t have to sit through any more political commercials or receive spam texts and calls multiple times a day from politicians, parties, and PACs. Until the next campaign begins, of course. Which shouldn’t be until next week.
I’m also not going to make a last minute plea for you to vote for Kamala Harris, because if you’ve read my stuff on this site, you already know where I stand, so it seems impossible you’re going the other way.
My hope is not only that she wins, but the victory means Trump’s reign of terror finally comes to an end. Sure, there are plenty of right-wing extremists who will try to run his playbook in the years to come, yet they will not be able to keep the country in a constant state of mental exhaustion, as he has done for a decade. Just look at what a sorry excuse the New England Patriots morphed into once Tom Brady departed.
Now, think what it will say about the USA if, when the dust settles, we have elected people of color named Kamala and Barack, children of immigrants, to the highest office in our land twice in the first quarter of this century — despite the omnipresent twin obstacles of racism and misogyny. That will be a milestone recorded in the history books. Except in Florida.
That said, I do have a few more observations before the vote counting begins tonight.
I wrote yesterday about how my wife and I voted early a few days ago. That was a first for us, joining the nearly 50% of Americans who have already voted in this election.
My wife lamented they still make us fill in the boxes on the ballots with ballpoint pens, when a black Sharpie would be so much easier. I told her that’s why I took extra time to blot out every bit of the white background in the box next to Kamala’s name to make it undeniably clear I was voting for her. Besides, with a two-sided ballot, the Sharpie mark on the front might bleed through to the back, creating even more confusion than a barrel of hanging chads.
You know you’re in St. Louis when, on a lawn sign listing their accomplishments, a candidate names the high school they graduated from.
It was nice to hear the registrars who checked people in ring a bell and applaud whenever a first time voter stepped up to the desk. They did it at least a dozen times while I was within earshot.
I didn’t vote for or against retaining any of the two dozen judges on the ballot, because I have no information by which to judge them. I asked quite a few people if they had a reliable source I could turn to, and the only recommendation I got was the Bar Association — which approved all of them.
While I left the others blank, I did vote to retain Judge Ellen Ribaudo of the St. Louis Circuit Court. I’ve never had a case before her, but when I was called to her courtroom last year, she was impanelling a grand jury. When I told her the dates would conflict with our long-planned trip to Greece and Sicily, she replied that her family was from Sicily and hoped we’d have a good trip since she wasn’t going to put me on the grand jury anyway.
Now that’s a judge I want to retain!