All over bar the shouting
Nov. 8th, 2020 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiAnd boy, will there be shouting, but it sounds as if it will come to nothing - some legal cases have already been thrown out and no-one seems to give the others much credence. The margins of victory in Pennsylvania and Georgia seem way too big to be overturned by recounts. They'd really have to "find" some extra votes to count there.
It seems typical of the US that declaring the result of a presidential election would be outsourced to the private sector. Officially we have to wait until December before the results will be certified. Typical too, perhaps, that the counting is slow and the infrastructure inadequate, though the pandemic created problems both in increased mail-in voting and, presumably, in social-distancing and other measures within counting centres. You can recount votes relatively quickly, I suspect, but things like opening a sealed envelope and verifying voting paperwork can only be done once.
Less typical, perhaps, that there is an eruption of popular celebration in the streets. That's more like the popular overthrow of some third-world dictatorship.
Biden did enough to win, but it's not exactly reassuring that 70 million US citizens think Trump was the better candidate, and the other results are hardly inspiring for the Democrats. I'm not really persuaded by the AOC wing of the party asserting they would have done better with a more radical prospectus. Frankly, after the last 4 years, "sleepy" Joe sounds like a good deal to me. There's a case to be made for more progressive politics, but it hasn't been made successfully this time. The USA spends far more on health care and doesn't get such good clinical outcomes, for example. But allow Obamacare to be labelled as "socialism" and it won't go down well.
It would be a fitting end to have Trump forcefully escorted out of the White House by security in January. Meanwhile we have to settle for the satisfaction of Giuliani giving a press conference in a parking lot between a crematorium and an adult store.
It seems typical of the US that declaring the result of a presidential election would be outsourced to the private sector. Officially we have to wait until December before the results will be certified. Typical too, perhaps, that the counting is slow and the infrastructure inadequate, though the pandemic created problems both in increased mail-in voting and, presumably, in social-distancing and other measures within counting centres. You can recount votes relatively quickly, I suspect, but things like opening a sealed envelope and verifying voting paperwork can only be done once.
Less typical, perhaps, that there is an eruption of popular celebration in the streets. That's more like the popular overthrow of some third-world dictatorship.
Biden did enough to win, but it's not exactly reassuring that 70 million US citizens think Trump was the better candidate, and the other results are hardly inspiring for the Democrats. I'm not really persuaded by the AOC wing of the party asserting they would have done better with a more radical prospectus. Frankly, after the last 4 years, "sleepy" Joe sounds like a good deal to me. There's a case to be made for more progressive politics, but it hasn't been made successfully this time. The USA spends far more on health care and doesn't get such good clinical outcomes, for example. But allow Obamacare to be labelled as "socialism" and it won't go down well.
It would be a fitting end to have Trump forcefully escorted out of the White House by security in January. Meanwhile we have to settle for the satisfaction of Giuliani giving a press conference in a parking lot between a crematorium and an adult store.