Maybe the \u201cBloodless-Blood Moon\u201d\u00a0\u00a0really was a sign early on election day morning.\u00a0\u00a0What was supposed to be a red moon from the refraction of the earth\u2019s atmosphere was merely a lighter image in a dark night sky. No red, or blue at all \u2013 just a slightly lighter shade of gray.\u00a0\u00a0After pre-election day predictions of the great \u201cRed Tsunami of 2022\u201d by the national polling averages; the results show that America is exactly where it was.\u00a0We are on a knife edge of division; 40% one way, 40% another, and a slim 20% sliced in the middle and deciding our direction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It looks like that the broad \u201cconsequences\u201d of the election of 2022 is this:\u00a0\u00a0lots of folks want change, even drastic change; but there is no consensus on which way to go.\u00a0\u00a0So we sit on the same knife edge of government we\u2019ve \u201cenjoyed\u201d for the past six years.\u00a0\u00a0The Senate will likely be exactly as it is now, a legislative tie with a Vice Presidential tiebreaker determining the final fate of legislation.\u00a0\u00a0The House may be Republican, but if so, by less than a handful of votes.\u00a0\u00a0Sure, they are likely to make a lot of noise, about the “major issues of their time”:\u00a0\u00a0Hunter Biden, the FBI, Anthony Fauci.\u00a0\u00a0But even if the Senate were one vote to the Republicans, nothing will get passed by the Democratic President.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps Americans are assured that divided government in a lot of ways equals no government at all. Certainly that\u2019s what floundering Twitter owner Elon Musk thinks. That appeals to our Libertarian streak; we can \u201cdo what we want\u201d without undue interference. But if we want government to actually solve problems, a knife edge of decision-making isn\u2019t really an effective solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for the Democrats, well, they\u2019ve managed expectations.\u00a0\u00a0They turned losing a little into winning.\u00a0\u00a0Joe Biden will claim a \u201cmandate\u201d because the American people didn\u2019t send the Red wave crashing through the White House, though I\u2019m sure Jim Jordan and Josh Hawley will claim the wave really did hit.\u00a0\u00a0We are living in a post-truth era, when black can be white, and the story is whatever people are willing to believe.\u00a0\u00a0Facts are malleable and dispensable.\u00a0\u00a0To paraphrase yellow journalist William Randolph Heart\u2019s note to his illustrator sent to Cuba but unable to find the war that he was supposed to draw:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cyou provide the pictures, and I\u2019ll provide the war.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jordan, and his friends are willing to provide both pictures and war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both sides lost casualties in the stalemate of 2022.\u00a0\u00a0On the Democratic side Tim Ryan, Beto O\u2019Rourke, Val Demings, Stacy Abrams, Tom Malinowski and Sean Patrick Maloney are temporarily lost to us due to electoral defeat.\u00a0\u00a0And on the Republican end; Lauren Bobert and Sarah Palin fell short, as did Lee Zeldin and a long list of election deniers.\u00a0\u00a0Some 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.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll miss the Dems; I hope we will see Tim Ryan again back here in Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0He feels the coursing \u201cred\u201d pulse of our state. If he could match his efforts with a more amenable time, I\u2019m sure he would find success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/sup> spread across the land; we still held a reasonably fair election. We weren\u2019t sure that would be true, not sure that this election wouldn\u2019t be settled at the end of a flag pole, or bear spray, or the sharp report of an AR- 15. But we \u201cfaked it\u201d just like it was a \u201cregular\u201d election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And maybe that\u2019s the way out of our national dilemma, our seat on the knife-edge of disunion. Maybe we just need to \u201cfake it\u201d, act like it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we can \u201cfake it\u201d long enough, perhaps we can make it back to \u201c\u2026the more perfect union\u201d we\u2019ve sought for two-hundred and thirty-six years.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"