The election results – Reaction in Washington – The President-Elect – The unreliable polls – Futility of Trump’s refusal to concede – The virus among the presidential staff – Hiking on the Potomac Heritage Trail and others – Evening statistics
So it is all over except the shouting, and we can expect plenty of that to come. Joseph Biden has officially won the election. Despite the disquieting signs of support for Trump that I discerned in the Allentown/Bethlehem area during my recent visit, Pennsylvania in the end provided a sufficient number of ballots to grant the state’s electoral college votes to Biden. Donald Trump continues to protest the results and refuses to concede, which should come as a surprise to no one. What is going on in the White House at the moment, I can only imagine. His shrieks of outrage, his impassioned jeremiads, his bitter allotments of blame upon everyone except himself, the number of denunciations heaped upon his hapless staff, who shall describe or calculate? I doubt whether even Shakespeare could do justice to such a scene. If this episode is ever represented upon the stage, opera rather than drama seems the preferable medium. One or two of the more tempestuous leitmotifs along the lines of Wagner or Richard Strauss might perhaps be sufficiently representative of our temperamental Commander-in-Chief.
In the meantime the entire city of Washington DC has been rejoicing at his fall all day long. The mood of the capital is somewhat like that of Paris in 1794 after the execution of Robespierre. People jumped up and down with excitement for hours on end on the plaza just north of the White House, waving flags and ringing bells, an outpouring of music issued from windows and balconies in Tenleytown and Shaw, drivers honked their horns all over the streets, while people in various neighborhoods such as Cleveland Park cheered them on. In Bethesda people shouted with glee, banging on pots and pans, and in Alexandria whoops and shouts were heard all over the city. Muriel Bowser (the DC mayor), and Governors Hogan and Northam have hastened to send in their congratulations to our President-Elect, and there is every reason to believe that they are sincere, so grateful as they must be to be rid of that incubus currently garrisoned in the White House.
It is indeed a startling change. In place of a modern-day robber baron with the morals of a Caribbean buccaneer and the manners of a Mafioso boss, we can look forward to our national government passing into the hands to a man with agreeable mien, equitable temperament, and comparatively dignified presence. Biden is not without intelligence as well; and although his intelligence resembles the sunrays of a cloudy winter day, which provide a muted light and little heat, it is infinitely preferable to the much stormier and more violent weather we have been enduring for the past four years.
One side effect that has been produced by this election is the demonstration of the unreliability of our polls. It is a matter that has to be faced: their predictions have been mistaken to an uncommonly large degree. It was just a few weeks ago that several were projecting a Biden win by a landslide. While I was not quite so optimistic, I did expect the election to be less narrowly contested than it actually was, based on many of the polls I sampled on the Internet. Nor has Trump’s effect been the disaster for Republicans that several predicted it would be. The Republicans actually gained a few seats in the House and it seems probable that they will retain control of the Senate. Undoubtedly the Democrats injured themselves by expressing support of the protesters in numerous cities earlier this year, and by their extremely lukewarm condemnation of the looting and rapine of the more violent factions – in some cases, such as that of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, expressing a heartless disregard for the victims of these acts of robbery and assault. The Trump campaign actually made inroads in demographic groups that traditionally have been Democratic strongholds: Latinos, African-Americans, and members of the LGBTQ community all voted Republican in greater numbers, proportionately, than in any previous election. The Democratic party has been shifting to the extreme Left over the years, alienating many voters in the process, and Biden will have quite a challenge steering it to a more moderate course.
But it is over, happily over; and even if Trump does not concede, he cannot forestall the inauguration by his refusal alone. He has indeed initiated various lawsuits to challenge the results of several states, but if these are not successful (and the probabilities are that they will be resolved in Biden’s favor), he has no choice but to leave, whether he formally concedes or not. The Secret Service personnel have already begun transferring their attention to Biden, sending agents in his vicinity for his protection and clearing airspace over Wilmington, where Biden currently resides. Trump will have the option of departing of his own accord on January 20th or being forcibly escorted out by the Secret Service.
In other developments, Mark Meadows – he who said that the coronavirus could not possibly be contained – has, like the best philosophers, reinforced precept with example by testing positive for the virus himself yesterday. He is one of over 120,000 new infections for the day, the record number to date. Numerous others on Trump’s staff to have recently contracted the virus as a result of attending various White House events without a mask or any attempt made at social distancing: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior adviser Hope Hicks, director of Oval Office operations Nick Luna, former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien. The wages of sin may or may not be death; but there is no question that the wages of service under Donald Trump are infection and disease.
I was out yesterday hiking with RS. We covered about 27 miles. There was some bushwhacking at the beginning, where Broad Run passes under Rte. 7, but after that it was fairly straightforward going on the Potomac Heritage Trail through Bles Park and Edward’s Ferry. The last part consisted of walking on various country roads towards the Freedom Center outside of Leesburg. The Freedom Center deserves to be better known. It is primarily designed to provide a recreational resource for religious Christian families, but its trails are open for everyone to explore. They occupy a network among the 100 wooded acres of the property and are very well-maintained. I returned so late that I was too tired to enter anything in the journal for the day; and unmotivated as well, since the election was still unresolved during the previous night. I was supposed to hike again with RS today, but I felt slightly unwell in the morning and had to call it off. Strangely enough, I began to feel better about the same time that the election was officially decided in Biden’s favor, although I actually did not learn about it until a couple of hours afterward. One is tempted to see a bit of symbolism in such an event, but then again perhaps I’m being overly influenced by my former days as a literature major.
Yesterday’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide 49,665,365; # of deaths worldwide: 1,248,565; # of cases U.S.: 10,058,586; # of deaths; U.S.: 242,230.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide 50,242,017; # of deaths worldwide: 1,255,616; # of cases U.S.: 10,178,072; # of deaths; U.S.: 243,248. Two gloomy milestones have been reached in the past two days: our case count surpassed 10 million yesterday and the global case count surpassed 50 million today. That is still well under 1% of the world’s total population, but it is a large number all the same and it is galling to reflect that such a great amount of it could have been averted by countries (including our own) that failed to take appropriate precautions until it was too late. Our own incidence rate is much higher than the global average, at this point surpassing 3% of the national population.