It is Thursday of what has become, not election night, but election week. I cannot understand. I don’t mean the electoral college nonsense, which is a take-all for the state, or a leave-all for the state. Oh, except for those weird exception states, where each of the candidates could get partial electoral college votes. You know, the complex, when-the-moon-is shining-at-such-and-such angle, or the wind is blowing at a partly northernly/westerly wind to precisely the correct southernly/easterly degree, and if your Grandma is named Mildred, where candidates can get just part of the electoral college vote. When I say that I cannot understand, I don’t mean that. I don’t even mean the entire ridiculous system itself, where the popular vote is only part of the equation and the electoral college is divided into some bizarre “your vote counts as much as mine, even though my state has millions more people and yours only has 600.” (Okay, I know. I take liberties. There is no state in the Union that has only 600 people. Still, you get what I mean.)
Nope, when I say I cannot understand, what I mean is the actual, factual, unbelievable idea that our country is this divided, even after all that we know and all that we’ve seen. Almost half of the country, voting for Trump. How could you, America? No, really, how could you?!?
Almost half of the country voted for Trump! A man who can grab a woman by the pussy, call Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, ignore the bounty placed on US soldiers’ heads, do almost everything but suck Putin’s hot dog, all whilst lying to the people over and over again. Ah, and let’s not forget the 250 thousand people who died of Covid (a lot would have anyway), but made worse with no advance preparation for the virus monster we all knew was coming, all while he minimized its inevitable attack and refused to wear a mask. Yeah, that’s my confusion.
So now, in the days after the election, I am not only confused, but frightened that so many of my countrymen and countrywomen voted for Trump. I am dumbfounded they like him, like him enough to vote for this man, this monster, who has done little but evil stuff in the four years he has been in office. I won’t recount his evil; you can refer to the previous paragraph should you have any doubts, or even my previous entry called “The Best,” where I outline Trump’s many failings. My confusion and fear are that there are so very many people across the country who feel strong enough to vote for such a man. That is my confusion. That is my fear.
This election, unlike any other except the 2016 election, is a vote for good or evil. It’s as simple as that. Trump appeals to the lowest within us, the most hateful, the most ignorant. The fact that we are now choosing (and re-choosing) a leader based on the worst of our so-called humanity is what is causing the ball inside my stomach. Even if Biden wins, the numbers are staggering. I am a patriot. I love my country. Regardless of the outcome, I really might have to leave it. It’s unfortunate that a lot of countries won’t even take us. Our neighbors to the north and south won’t let us into their borders (yep, even Mexico), thanks to the worst handling of the Corona virus in the world. I don’t want to leave my country, but I might have to. I might have to seek political asylum, to be honest. “Parlez-vous anglais?”
