Tic Tic Boom

At this point, about 100 million Americans have voted. That’s roughly 2/3rds of the total votes we expect to cast this year — so it is possible that the outcome is already decided, the results resting mutely in stacks of unopened ballots waiting to be counted.

It is hard to make any assumptions this election, but right now it looks to me like either a landslide or a close win for Biden. A close win carries risks of shenanigans that could tear the country apart; indeed, Trump appears to be planning on it. I have obsessed over the qualitative and quantitative data to no end, and this morning I wrote a short post on the state of the presidential race. Election night I recommend my friend Evan Grossman’s superbly detailed guide to track what’s happening. One strange sleeper race I’m keeping an eye on: the governor’s race in Missouri.

But for the sake of the morning after, let’s forget the polls, the fear, the anxiety, the noise. Even if Trump loses, it’s likely more people will have voted for him than voted for Obama in 2008. We’re a deeply divided nation. Are we going to be able to move forward as a country? How are we going to get out of this cul-de-sac of American greed, shame, anxiety, and despair?

Remember Rule 1: it will get crazier. Until we face the unpleasant truths about our country — and force our leaders to face them — it will get crazier. Extreme poverty, systemic racism, accelerating climate change, the pandemic and its long consequences — these are just a few of the issues glaring at America. Trump isn’t going anywhere and…