Presidential Race Finals

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I have not posted about the presidential race, which thankfully is coming to an end, for a while.  I voted early Friday, which was the last day, so it really wasn’t that early.  I wrote in a name, which was meaningless because even though Georgia allows it, the write-ins have to have gone through a petition process with a certain number of names.  But there was no way I was tapping the screen beside either of those names. 

One of my students came up behind me in line at the polling station.  This was her first time voting.  I wanted to say “I am sorry, then, that you couldn’t have had better choices,” but I didn’t want to seem like I was electioneering!  They take that seriously.  The place was packed.  I am pretty sure 90% of the people there were voting for Trump, whether they were enthusiastic or not.  This is a deeply Republican county, but not always in a good way.  All but one of the other races involved unopposed incumbent Republicans.  The Senate race had three choices.  There were four ballot initiatives:  one on charter schools, involving failing schools being taken over by the state; one about the judicial review commission of the state, which I had heard about on a This American Life podcast; and two about using revenue from bad behavior to allay the effects of the bad behavior. 

I fear friendships have suffered due to this election; I fear the church has; I know the country has.  I won’t predict, but I have a strong sense of who will win, and it will a long four years. 

I blame the Republican party for not pressuring all those candidates to get out of the race faster so that Trump would not get 25 and 35% of primary votes; I blame the media who made him their darling and then turned on him, since I am pretty sure they wanted him to oppose Hillary because it would mean a sure win for her; I blame crooked Democrats who voted as Republicans in the primaries to gum up the works; I blame some of the candidates for not standing up to a bully and fighting him in his own way and allowing Trump to be the Republican standard-bearer. I blame people who have never voted who are voting this time because they like this demagogue.