Bloodless Moon
Maybe the “Bloodless-Blood Moon” really was a sign early on election day morning. What was supposed to be a red moon from the refraction of the earth’s atmosphere was merely a lighter image in a dark night sky. No red, or blue at all – just a slightly lighter shade of gray. After pre-election day predictions of the great “Red Tsunami of 2022” by the national polling averages; the results show that America is exactly where it was. We are on a knife edge of division; 40% one way, 40% another, and a slim 20% sliced in the middle and deciding our direction.
It looks like that the broad “consequences” of the election of 2022 is this: lots of folks want change, even drastic change; but there is no consensus on which way to go. So we sit on the same knife edge of government we’ve “enjoyed” for the past six years. The Senate will likely be exactly as it is now, a legislative tie with a Vice Presidential tiebreaker determining the final fate of legislation. The House may be Republican, but if so, by less than a handful of votes. Sure, they are likely to make a lot of noise, about the “major issues of their time”: Hunter Biden, the FBI, Anthony Fauci. But even if the Senate were one vote to the Republicans, nothing will get passed by the Democratic President.
Effective Government
Perhaps Americans are assured that divided government in a lot of ways equals no government at all. Certainly that’s what floundering Twitter owner Elon Musk thinks. That appeals to our Libertarian streak; we can “do what we want” without undue interference. But if we want government to actually solve problems, a knife edge of decision-making isn’t really an effective solution.
And for the Democrats, well, they’ve managed expectations. They turned losing a little into winning. Joe Biden will claim a “mandate” because the American people didn’t send the Red wave crashing through the White House, though I’m sure Jim Jordan and Josh Hawley will claim the wave really did hit. We are living in a post-truth era, when black can be white, and the story is whatever people are willing to believe. Facts are malleable and dispensable. To paraphrase yellow journalist William Randolph Heart’s note to his illustrator sent to Cuba but unable to find the war that he was supposed to draw: “you provide the pictures, and I’ll provide the war.” Jordan, and his friends are willing to provide both pictures and war.
Casualties
Both sides lost casualties in the stalemate of 2022. On the Democratic side Tim Ryan, Beto O’Rourke, Val Demings, Stacy Abrams, Tom Malinowski and Sean Patrick Maloney are temporarily lost to us due to electoral defeat. And on the Republican end; Lauren Bobert and Sarah Palin fell short, as did Lee Zeldin and a long list of election deniers. Some of them will be back, but others, like former Senator Al Franken, will find a new way to make a living, out of the heat of the political spotlight. I’ll miss the Dems; I hope we will see Tim Ryan again back here in Ohio. He feels the coursing “red” pulse of our state. If he could match his efforts with a more amenable time, I’m sure he would find success.
Stress Test
In a larger sense, our Democracy has survived a stress test. There are no marches on the state capitols, no real demands that the votes were somehow altered. In spite of our differences, and the broad shadow of January 6th spread across the land; we still held a reasonably fair election. We weren’t sure that would be true, not sure that this election wouldn’t be settled at the end of a flag pole, or bear spray, or the sharp report of an AR- 15. But we “faked it” just like it was a “regular” election.
And maybe that’s the way out of our national dilemma, our seat on the knife-edge of disunion. Maybe we just need to “fake it”, act like it’s working, respect the questionable institutions, and work toward a more common good. We need to follow Stacy Abrams lead. In 2018, faced with clear election manipulation by her opponent Brian Kemp, she refused to concede the Georgia governor election. But this week, losing by an even greater margin, and faced with even greater voter suppression, she conceded right away. Belief, even modified belief, in our electoral process is so much more important in 2022.
If we can “fake it” long enough, perhaps we can make it back to “…the more perfect union” we’ve sought for two-hundred and thirty-six years. Let’s hope.
