Don't Fret the Election: The Worst is Yet to Come

Millions of Americans are watching the results of the election come in with bated breath. Not me. I’m a 6’4” athletic white heterosexual male of above average intelligence with a nice smile, smooth bass voice, and about 90% of my hairline intact. Worst case scenario for me is things get really weird before I resume my destiny of slowly failing my way upward to a middle management position at a bloated fortune 500 corporation. 

His department underperforms and has mediocre parties.

It seems like maybe there’s a problem when you need to be built like Adonis – with a complexion to match – in order to go into a presidential election worry-free. Sure, there is an outcome that’s better for me. But there is no substantial change. I’m not going to find myself losing protections, access to healthcare, or subjected to an increase in hate crimes depending on the victor of the election. 

Of course, the election won’t be decided tonight. It never is. Electoral votes aren’t cast until December, like has been the case in 46 of 59 elections. Yet in the leadup to the election there was much hemming and hawing by one side contesting state election rules, contesting when and how absentee and early votes would be allowed. Why? Well to quote their presidential candidate “They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” No, I’m not misrepresenting his statement, the argument he made was that if everyone in the country voted, and all the votes were counted, Republicans would lose power.

The president has already said he will contest the election results. Much of his rhetoric around voter fraud was to lay the groundwork for this very outcome. He wanted to cast the election in doubt beforehand so that his base would be primed to reject the outcome if it doesn’t go the way they want. For the health of the country the only safe outcome is a landside victory.  

A significantly margin of victory would render any challenge meaningless and keep the issue out of the hands of the Supreme Court. A close win is far more problematic. A close win will almost surely end up being challenged in the courts with some election rules changed after the fact and potentially invalidating significant numbers of ballots. A close win will result in the actual winner being up in the air until close to December at the earliest. A close win being determined by SCOTUS presents something of a doomsday scenario for America, if they rule in favor of Donald Trump that is.

The incumbent candidate has placed three of the current court members on the bench. The most recent of which was rushed through specifically so that the court couldn’t deadlock on an election ruling. How do you convince people that these three judges are ruling impartially? How do you argue with a straight-face they have no allegiance when they were confirmed on essentially straight party-line votes? Even worse if Chief Justice Roberts, the closest thing to a wildcard on the court winds up dissenting from the majority opinion. If the court ends up playing a hand in deciding the election, people will riot. They will see it as the latest in a long list of instances where the rule of law in the country gives way to a much more basic rule “might makes right.”  And when that happens, the people have a tendency of responding in kind, and showing that they have some might too.

So, don’t stress out about the election. It probably won’t matter anyway. Save your stress for a couple weeks from now, when we find out just how bad 2020 really is.