Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Something to Know - 9 November (A Resend)

   ( I am resending this because my copy of the first one was all out of compact structure, and merited a rework)

The day after  "the election".   Lemme tell you about my yesterday.   I actually voted by mail over two weeks ago; no need to fuss over my choices which I made long ago.  With the exception of judges and some propositions, my selections were easy to make.  Now, for the first time in my history.....I did not watch any election results on TV.   I did not want to go through the agony of nerves in the aftermath of the voting; I knew that so much was at stake.   I filled my evening's activity with dinner, and then headed for the PBS program of "Magpie Murders", then on to Netflix and "Blockbuster", "Midnight Diner", and ended TV with "Feeding Phil".   I then went on to reading my current Robert Parker Spenser detective book, and then to sleep.  I did not watch any late election night recaps, since it probably would have prevented me from having a good night's sleep.   So, this morning - my Fitbit sleep score was a cool 87, which means it was "good".  All I know so far from the real news this morning is that Trump stumbled, and his selected candidates did not do well at all.   All of the predictions about the GOP running away with the House and Senate did not happen.  The Dems might have lost the House majority, but the Senate looks like a toss up right now.    The Red Wave did not happen.....and may have just been a red ripple.   Looks like young voters and the female voters showed up at the polls, and kept this Democracy in play.   If the Democrats can hold themselves together, the future looks okay.   The "Republicans" on the other hand are going to make a real stupid display of their differences over their future, and DeSanctimonious and Trump Ego will be the show that brings the party down.   Trump is now a loser, but do you think he knows this?   His bellyaching squeals will set the tone.  Who knows.....the divided GOP (or whatever it is called) will self-destruct.   HCR has her views, as well:

Open in app or online

I just got a text from a Gen Z voter in Michigan who has been in line to vote for more than an hour and predicts he will be there hours more. He has no intention of leaving.

If there is an obvious story from today with results still unknown, it is this: a new generation is picking up the torch of our democracy.

It puts me in mind of what poet Walt Whitman wrote about the momentous election of 1884. In that year the Republican Party had become so extremist that many of its members, disparagingly called "Mugwumps" by party loyalists, jumped ship to vote for a reformer, Democrat Grover Cleveland. It was a chaotic and consequential election, for it showed those Republicans who stayed with the party that they must moderate their stances or become a permanent minority.

Younger Republicans like Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Robert La Follette of Wisconsin, and Theodore Roosevelt of New York took notice and turned their party back toward its roots, protecting the rights of individuals rather than of corporations. By the end of the century, they had captured the imagination of the nation. Once in office, they ushered in the Progressive Era.

But on Election Day, 1884, all anyone could know was that there were currents and crosscurrents. What would come from any of them would not be clear for another decade or more. In that tense election the main point was that there was voting at all, for the right to choose our lawmakers was what made America, America.

Whitman wrote:

"If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

'Twould not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye limitless prairies—nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite—nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyser-loops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones—nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes—nor Mississippi's stream:

—This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name—the still small voice vibrating—America's choosing day,

(The heart of it not in the chosen—the act itself the main, the quadriennial choosing,)

The stretch of North and South arous'd—sea-board and inland—Texas to Maine—the Prairie States—Vermont, Virginia, California,

The final ballot-shower from East to West—the paradox and conflict,

The countless snow-flakes falling—(a swordless conflict,

Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's:) the peaceful choice of all,

Or good or ill humanity—welcoming the darker odds, the dross:

—Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify—while the heart pants, life glows:

These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,

Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails."

I am not going to say any more tonight out of concern I will mislead people with incomplete information. I do feel comfortable saying that the youth vote will be a big story going forward. 

With that I am going to stop obsessively refreshing my screen and go to bed.

I'll see you tomorrow. 



--
****
Juan
"I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it
dawned on me—they're cramming 
for their final exam."- George Carlin

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