Did you stay up into the wee hours of Wednesday morning until the networks called the presidential race for Donald Trump? I did. I think it was sometime around 1:30 a.m. or so when he crossed over the 270 electoral vote threshold to secure the White House once again. I like elections and all the attempts the talking heads make to tell us what’s going on. With more and more data available to analyze, the actual tabulation seems secondary to what segments of the population actually supported each candidate. And the networks didn’t disappoint. I was bound and determined to stick it out until a winner was announced.
Given the outcome of the Harris/Trump contest, if you’re like most Americans in our politically-divided land, you’ve probably had about half your friends sporting red, white, and blue attire and smiling broadly all week while the other half wore clothes fashioned from black crepe and frowning morosely as if in mourning. As a nation, we used to get over our electoral tribulations rather quickly. Not so much anymore.
The aftermath of every campaign includes a period of introspection when certain decisions made along the way are second-guessed. As part of my misspent youth, I was involved in the organizational part of several U.S. Senate and Congressional campaigns in various parts of the country. Having been on both the winning and losing sides, I can tell you it’s a whole lot more fun to participate in the post-mortem of the former than the latter.
(A quick anecdote on that subject. We didn’t need a post-mortem to know how one particular campaign was going to turn out. I was asked once to come help out with a race that was already underway. The campaign manager – with whom I had worked before – met me at the airport. He had recently been hired as well and suggested we repair to the bar before going to the headquarters. I sensed something was amiss, and I was soon proven correct. We ordered our drinks, and as I heard what he had to say, I almost did one of those comedic spewing of your beverage forcefully onto the person nearest you. I was to be in charge of the field operations. You know, the on-the-ground volunteers and all of what that entails, including distributing and placing yard signs. The campaign manager let me know at that first meeting that someone who preceded me had used water-based paint on all the yard signs. All the messaging had washed off after the first rain, leaving them totally blank. Unfortunately, that proved to be one of the minor issues in the campaign.)
I would imagine there is a whole lot of second-guessing going on at the Harris and Democratic headquarters these days. Should they have gone with Biden? Should she have chosen another running mate? Should she have held some press conferences? Should the Party have held a quick primary in the summer? All and more are valid questions that will be analyzed by historians someday. Hey, at least their yard signs held their paint.
Speaking of which, who’s going to pick up all those yard signs? There are more of them dotting the landscape than fallen leaves. In my experience, there are always a lot of zealots eager to put those signs of support out for candidates who are running for everything from President to School Board, but very few lining up to collect them after the election. Even election victors tend to leave their litter along our highways and byways.
Thankfully we don’t have to again experience the agony of waiting a week or more to finalize the outcome. Georgia voters will no doubt less-than-fondly recall thinking the 2022 Senate election was over in November only to find out there were six more weeks to go before having a run-off. This year, I’m not sure I could have stomached one more TV commercial that ended in “I’m Kamala Harris/Donald Trump, and I approved this message/communication/spot.”
As the new Trump administration begins to take shape, one thing is certain. Political minds on both sides have already begun churning out possibilities for 2028. The Republicans will have to lie low for a while, but the Democrats have no constraints. As frightening as it may seem, the next race for the White House is already underway. We the People just don’t know it yet.
Finally, one quick question. I saw a report that said more than $10 billion had been spent on political advertising this year. Do you think maybe all that money could have been put to better use somewhere else?
©MMXXIV. William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer
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