I'm writing this at 4:13 in the morning. I've just spent about a half hour or so skimming things. One thing is very clear.
I called Arizona wrong.
I admit it, I thought Trump would carry the state. Looking back, most of the people I talk Arizona politics with are in rural areas, so it was a natural mistake. I goofed.
It's looking more and more like Trump won the electoral vote.
It will be a process fight. We knew it. This has been the Democrat playbook since the hanging chads in 2000. If Democrats don't get the result they want, they massage the rules. They circumvent the system. They change the rules in mid-stride. They redefine terms. As Democrats see it, rules are made for the little people and Republicans.
Does that mean that the Republicans are better? No, not really. It just means the Republicans usually pay attention to the rules.
Republicans kept the Senate barely. Democrats kept the house. And Trump was re-elected.
To get anything done, everyone will have to sit down and actually talk. Yes, the circumstances favor Trump. Negotiating is what he has done for forty years. This is how he works. He doesn't usually do it by the accepted rules, but Trump does negotiate well.
People know now that the lockdown is about the economy and controlling society, not about safety. People are fed up with cities in flames. Democrats can't threaten anymore. All they've got left is manipulating the process. In a nation where the Senate has confirmed a record number judicial appointments in the last four years.
There isn't going to be a second American civil war. The money people can't afford it.
There's something that Republicans must accept here too. Trump's victory was not decisive. Americans haven't returned to the “conservative fold” mainly because most conservative politicos aren't conservative. Republicans have been promising but not delivering. If Republicans really want to “win,” that's going to have to change. Offer an alternative rather than “progressive light.”
It's simple really. KYFHO now and forever. Make government smaller than absolutely necessary. American government shouldn't be about governing. It should be about protecting. Are you willing to take that chance?
