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It was the grand, carefully choreographed victory speech that Donald Trump never got to make in 2016. Hail to the Chief was playing in the background as the president took to the stage around 2am, a phalanx of Stars and Stripes at his back and in front of him a maskless crowd of progeny and devotees screaming We love you!

In 2016 Trump was so stunned by his own unexpected triumph that he looked quite taken aback. His victory speech was written in such a hurry it contained profuse praise for Hillary Clinton, the woman who had been subjected to chants of lock her up.

Having stumbled four years ago, Trump did it on Wednesday morning his way, amid the grandeur of the East Room of the White House. Frankly, we did win this election, he said, the room erupting in a frenzy of cheers.

It was a spectacle that spoke volumes about the man, and about the nation at this singularly damaged and dangerous moment in its 244-year history. An incumbent president declares victory even though he hasnt won, then claims that fraud is being committed on the American public in the middle of an election that has seen the largest turnout of any presidential race in 120 years.

Democracy in Trumpland.

As the president was playing out his little victory fantasy, Democrats were going through their own version of hell. If the story of the night for Trump was about him pretending to have won just the way he liked it, for Joe Biden and his Democratic cohorts it was about dutifully following the rule book just the way they hate it.

For them, too, the ghosts of 2016 loomed large. It was around 10.30pm on election night 2020 that the jitters began to start with early results in from Florida that sent an all-too familiar chill across the nation.

Here we go again. Buckle up, youre in for a rough ride.

In Miami-Dade county, the area of southern Florida that is home to Cuban Americans, Bidens numbers were notably soft. They indicated that the barrage of misinformation that had been flung by the Trump campaign that Biden was leading America into the dark night of socialism had stuck.

By 11.30pm that sinking feeling among Democrats that 2020 was in fact 2016 redux was intensifying. Bidens multiple pathways to the White House appeared to be narrowing with the unfolding loss of Florida and early results giving Trump the edge in states such as Georgia and North Carolina.

And then the inevitable happened. Eyes turned just as they did four years ago to that trilogy of hope, fear and trepidation: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The so-called blue firewall upon which Clinton had been relying and that Trump brutally tore down.

Jake Tapper of CNN found himself giggling nervously as he said it, so surreal did the echo seem. I do think we have been saying for a long time that anything could happen, that this is a very competitive race, and that it could come down to these three states.

You could sense the cogs of recognition start to turn: it began with a yes.

Yes, Joe Biden still had a route to the presidency.

Yes, it was the red mirage.

Given the vast number of mailed ballots during the pandemic, his election night was always going to start looking grim but then brighten over time as the votes were counted.

You could see the pattern take shape in several of the key battleground states that could deliver him victory. There was Wisconsin, where a Biden win was all but assured on Wednesday morning.

Michigan, that other rust belt state that gave Trump his 2016 victory that also swung from right to left as the night went on. Georgia, where Biden initially looked to be flailing but was competitive again as morning came.

So yes. Come the light of a new day, Biden was still looking potentially on track to take Trumps place in the Oval Office.

Then Arizona was put in the Biden bag, opening up with its growing Latino population potential new vistas for a changing and renewed America. With Georgia, a state that last backed a Democrat for president when Waynes World was in the cinemas, still looking within Bidens grasp, there were even reasons for them to be cheerful.

And then came the nos. No, it was not meant to be like this. That feeling of sickness in the pit of the stomach that wasnt meant to be there. Not this time.

How could the contest have tightened so much that Trump too was also still in the running, hours into election night? Here was a president who had overseen the culling of more than 230,000 Americans by a microbe that other nations had contained.

This was a man whose administration had ordered the cleaving of migrant children from their parents without bothering to ensure that they could find each other three years later almost 600 are still separated. Who was happy to see teargas fired at peaceful protesters so that he could get his photo op. Who interpreted the founding principle of the nation, We the people, as We the white people. Who regards the climate crisis as a hoax.

No. This wasnt the plan.

By midnight the twitching was palpable among Democratic luminaries who took to the TV channels to proclaim their undying confidence in Biden. James Carville, lead strategist for Bill Clinton when he won the White House in 1992, put on a brave face on MSNBC.

To all you Democrats out there: put the razor blades and Ambien back in the cupboard, we are going to be fine, he said. Then he brandished a bottle of vintage champagne at the camera, remarking: I dont mind putting it on ice until Friday. Ive waited four years for this, I can wait another four days.

If only he hadnt appeared on the same channel a few days earlier bragging that this thing is not going to be close and that he would be cracking that bottle open by 10.30pm.

Its a wonder what a few hours rest overnight can do for ones perspective. At midnight Claire McCaskill, former Democratic US senator from Missouri, was also displaying a stoic face.

The night was transpiring just as had always been intended, she said. Turning to the three blue firewall states that yet again hung in the balance, she said: Those three states will deliver the presidency for Joe Biden, just as was planned.

By the morning, when she came on MSNBC a second time, her tone had turned more reflective. She still believed that time was on Bidens side and that patience would eventually prevail.

But she now added a darker assessment. This is a gut-check moment, she said.

We cant go back to assuming that Donald Trump is an outlier in terms of who he is and how he behaves. He is connecting with a lot of Americans in ways that a lot of us find hard to understand, but weve got to get at it because we have to bring this nation together if we want to remain a superpower.

Bob Woodward, the veteran journalist of Watergate who extracted the admission from Trump that he had lied to the American people about the deadly nature of coronavirus, also had some harsh words for Democrats. In 2016 Trump came along and smashed up the old order in a very definitive way, he said.

If you want to know whats happened in 2020, Biden represented the old order. The Democratic party has got to figure out how they change themselves.

This election isnt over till its over. Joe Biden eventually took both Wisconsin and Michigan and may well yet be the next president of the United States. A bruising postmortem over what happened has just begun.

Originally posted here:
Democracy in Trumpland: I won because I say so - The Guardian

Why, if one is a would-be authoritarian who envies the powers and prerogatives of strongmen around the globe, its positively subversive. No wonder, then, that the commander in chief has been tweeting Stop the Count. After all, hadnt he already come out, in the wee hours of Wednesday, and declared that he had won the election?

And yet the counting just keeps going on (and on and on), and the vote totals just keep changing as ballots are tallied. By Thursday, a grim reality was settling in, even in Trump World: Joe Biden is edging ever closer to the presidency. Add the states called for him and those where hes ahead, and he gets to 270 electoral votes. Further, theres a very real prospect that as the counting continues, he could accrue Pennsylvanias 20 Electoral College votes as well. And perhaps Georgias 16, too.

Thus the president has resorted to his favorite tools: False claims and legal challenges.

If you count the legal votes, I easily win the election. If you count the illegal and late votes, they can steal the election from us! the president said via a statement on Thursday.

Alas for the president if not the country, if the current map holds, stopping the vote counting wouldnt give him a victory. Not unless he holds on to Pennsylvania and manages to flip Arizona, the last of which could only happen by, ahem, continuing the vote counting. So Biden seems very likely to win the presidency some three decades after he first sought the office.

This wouldnt be the landslide Democrats had hoped for, obviously. But it will have the backstop that Trumps 2016 victory did not: The popular vote, which Biden is winning by 2.5 percentage points, concurs with the coming Electoral College verdict. That will lend the Biden presidency a broader legitimacy than Trump himself ever enjoyed.

As weve watched this ultra-close race, one conclusion is inescapable: Boring and ideologically unsatisfactory as the lefties find the 77-year-old Biden, the former vice president, with his regular-Joe persona and credibility with blue-collar voters, is probably the only one of the major 2020 Democratic presidential candidates who could have given Democrats this narrow victory.

So, whom should Democrats thank?

Barack Obama? He was a crucial validator who gave several powerful and witty critiques of Trump, but no.

Cindy McCain? She was a cogent endorser of Biden, and that no doubt helped in Arizona, the state her husband, John McCain, long served in the Senate. But no.

Rather, Jim Clyburn, the hugely influential congressman from South Carolina.

When Biden was sagging after a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and a fifth place in the New Hampshire primary, followed by a distant second in the Nevada caucuses, Clyburn calmly appraised the field and gave his crucial public backing to Biden.

His judgment spoke to the imperative a Black statesman brought to this presidential election: Biden was the Democrat with the best chance of winning.

Where Clyburn led, the South Carolina Democratic primary electorate followed. Bidens South Carolina victory restored him to front-runner status and put him on a trajectory to win the Democratic nomination.

Theres a lesson there and in this election as well. The early Democratic primary electorate tends to fall in love with the lefties, particularly when they come from neighboring states.

But those are not the kinds of candidates who appeal to middle America. In context of the closeness of this election in key Electoral College states, imagine if the Democratic nominee had been Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Their support of single-payer health care would have let Trump accurately charge that the Democrats favored eliminating everyones employer-sponsored health-care plans.

Will that lesson be learned?

Unlikely. Not by the lefties, anyway.

But Democrats whose top priority was beating Trump owe Jim Clyburn a heartfelt thank you.

Scot Lehigh is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at scot.lehigh@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeScotLehigh.

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A president suffers the indignities of democracy - The Boston Globe

Dear Wolf Pack Family,

This week the 2020 presidential campaign ends. After mail-in and early voting in Nevada, on Tuesday, our remaining registered voters cast in-person ballots for the President of the United States, vacant seats in Congress, and in Nevada, decide on a number of constitutional amendments and judgeships. Given our new reality of COVID-19, it may take several days before we know the results of the 2020 presidential campaign.

However, we all know that this is hardly another election. Uncertainty, fear, and anxiety have been with us for some time, because of a pandemic, and as a result of intense national trauma. Yet, throughout our history, our profound belief in democracy has taught us that we are at our best when we can come together in defense of our democratic values. For our University community, this is especially true. There is no question that the past few years in our country have proven divisive. Yet, as we await the results of this election, and after those results are confirmed and beyond, if there ever was a moment in recent history to recognize the need to stand firm in support of one another and our different communities, that moment is now. This is the time to come together through our shared values of mutual respect, upright support for our minoritized and vulnerable groups, and, to demonstrate understanding and friendship for any individual who is hurting and has doubts about the future.

First, as trying as it is during these times, lets not isolate ourselves, but rather seek out friends, family, and valued colleagues. Also, lets be clear on the difference between threatening and hurtful rhetoric, as opposed to different ideological and political points of view. The latter are the foundations of democracydifferencesand we need to be able to engage in respectful conversations, or at least be able to listen to different standpoints and life experiences. How can we learn about our country, about the world, if we are not open to histories, perspectives, and life experiences that are different from our own?

Our University community is here to help facilitate this process of understanding, as the presidential campaign draws to a close. Since early October, more than 100 stakeholders in the student voting space have come together to help the members of our Wolf Pack Family in this historic political season. Partnerships are already in place among campus resources such as the Center for Student Engagement, the Counseling Center, The Center. Every Student. Every Story., Residential Life, Young Democrats, College Republicans, ASUN, GSA, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Faculty and Staff Affinity groups and Cultural Diversity Committees, Political Science and Psychology Departments, our colleges and schools, Office of Service Learning and Civic Engagement, Student Services, Provosts Office, and our community service partners, to help you navigate through this challenging time. Through these partnerships, there are a number of post-election special events we have planned, as well, for our Wolf Pack Family. You can find them on the Universitys Events Calendar under the category of Civic and Service Engagement.

Although millions of votes are being cast, you can take control of your vote and ensure that it matters. I encourage you to track your ballot, and seek out credible sources of information on voting, such as the Washoe County Registrar of Voters.

As an institution, our strength has always been our ability to engage in civil, rational and respectful dialogue. We are at our strongest when we share the difficult moments together and have the courage to engage in the conversations that can lead to transformative and lasting change. Let us all strive to be caring and understanding and to allow open-mindedness to guide us in the coming days.

Be well. Be there for each other.

Sincere regards,Brian SandovalPresident

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Committed to our University and committed to our democracy - Nevada Today

In the early morning hours after election day, the president of the United States showed his authoritarian ambitions. He launched an attack on our democratic system at a moment when it is at its most fragile in recent memory. His lies about the results of the election erode trust in the fairness of the democratic process and risk provoking violence. Now we are dependent on media, especially the outlets most popular with Donald Trumps base, to rein in the chaos he is encouraging.

This grave threat comes from the presidents false declaration of victory, despite no evidence that he had won the election, and with millions of valid votes yet to be counted. He referred to any suggestion that he had lost as a fraud on the American public. In one breath, he declared that we want all voting to stop and that we dont want any ballots to be found at four in the morning. This conflation of voting after election day and counting votes after election day a standard practice in every election is deeply misleading and deeply dangerous.

In this respect, its damage is far worse than many of the many fibs Trump has made while in office. His suggestion is a direct lie, one that comes while millions of voters look to him to understand who our legitimate president will be. In past elections, the media specifically TV networks served as the main gatekeepers of results, but this president communicates directly to his base through social media, avoiding the reputable news organizations that could factcheck him in real time. This means that his unsubstantiated claims of victory and of electoral fraud perpetrated by Democrats are being fed directly to his base. Many will believe him, undermining confidence in the ultimate legitimate results and sowing discord and potentially violence.

The problem of Trumps unfiltered reach coupled with his blatant lying is compounded by social media executives inadequate handling of the situation. Facebook and its irresponsible CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, refused to directly challenge the president, even while receiving credit from some observers for reminding voters that final results may take days. They did not call Trumps statement a lie or take strong steps to counter it. Twitter went far enough to say that the presidents message might be misleading, but it too failed to take a strong and definitive stand on a statement that is not just possibly, but indisputably, incorrect.

Surprisingly, Fox News might be the media outlet that holds the country together. The network called Arizona for Joe Biden around the same time as the Associated Press and has insisted on reporting real numbers, with its reputable non-partisan news anchors leading the coverage. Ultimately, a large number of Trump voters might turn to Fox to decide whether to trust official results or their president, who has told them that those disputing his victory are committing fraud. If Fox continues to say that any early declaration of victory is incorrect, viewers might be more likely to have the patience required to wait for what might be days, with twists and turns as more ballots are reported, until a winner is declared.

Still, it is not only the media outlet that should be tasked with maintaining the publics confidence in our electoral machinery. Part of Trumps pattern of deception to his base involves invoking bizarre and completely erroneous legal claims. On Tuesday night, Trump promised to take up his concerns about ongoing ballot counting to the US supreme court. However, if ballots are received on or before election day, there is no serious legal claim to support Trumps seeming contention that any ongoing ballot counting after the election is fraudulent. Indeed, in a decision the president disparaged on Twitter, the US supreme court refused to undo the Pennsylvania supreme courts decision that even ballots that arrived three days after election day would count as long as they were postmarked by election day.

Trumps claims risk sowing violence, confusion and an erosion of faith in the bedrock principles of American democracy

I cannot overstate the danger of this moment. Right now, it is essential that Republican members of Congress and the vice-president make it clear that the ballots need to be counted. Both candidates and parties should be modeling respect for our democratic process, patiently waiting for the legitimate results, and encouraging all Americans to do the same. Instead, Trumps claims risk sowing violence, confusion and an erosion of faith in the bedrock principles of American democracy.

Amid this chaos, what is left for us to do? Americans who believe that every persons ballot should count in an election must insist on truth and spread this message as widely as possible on social media, at our dinner tables and, if need be, through peaceful demonstrations. That is the only way to counteract Trumps lies and his threat of upending our democracy.

Even if Biden does win and the results are accepted, we will have lived through a moment that showed our democracy is less stable than we assumed. Strengthening it and reinforcing its protections must be a priority of a Biden presidency.

Corey Brettschneider is a political science professor at Brown. He is the author of The Oath and the Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents and the editor of the new book The Decisions and Dissents of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, part of his new series, Penguin Liberty

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Don't underestimate the threat to American democracy at this moment - The Guardian

Artist Mo Willems is leading a doodle session on election night for children and adults. On the Kennedy Center's website, he will encourage self-expression for anyone who tunes in. Mo Willems hide caption

Artist Mo Willems is leading a doodle session on election night for children and adults. On the Kennedy Center's website, he will encourage self-expression for anyone who tunes in.

Don't underestimate the power of doodling. In a democracy, Mo Willems says, "voting is a lot like doodling. It's a form of self-expression, and you discover sort of who you really are as you do it." On Election Day (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT) on the Kennedy Center's website, Willems will encourage self-expression for anyone who tunes in to Democracy Doodle 2020, regardless of age or political persuasion.

Willems says they'll do three drawing exercises, each accompanied by a different musician from the National Symphony Orchestra. As the Kennedy Center's education artist-in-residence, Willems has been encouraging kids to take regular doodle breaks since the early days of the pandemic.

In a video series called Lunch Doodles With Mo Willems!, he held guided drawing sessions from his studio. He sits at a table, pulls out a blank sheet of paper, selects a marker and starts doodling, encouraging children at home to do the same.

With his oddball sense of humor, Willems calmly answers kids' questions and talks about his career as an animator and writer for Sesame Street and creating The Pigeon and Elephant & Piggie books. Lunch Doodles has been so popular, Willems followed it up with similar series: Thank You Thursdays, The Yo-Yo Mo Show with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and, most recently, The Small Works Project.

"I tend to think of my books as questions I don't know the answers to and these videos are sort of me reflecting," Willems said in an interview. "I'm going to be anxious on Nov. 3. And I know that they're going to be a lot of families and kids learning new vocabulary words, while parents are yelling at the screens. And I thought, you know, 'I could use a break, and if I could use a break, then maybe other people could as well.' "

Willems says he's prepared three "really simple exercises for us all to do together and to share while we listen to this music being performed." The National Symphony Orchestra musicians Mahoko Eguchi (viola), Abel Pereira (horn) and Jamie Roberts (oboe) have each selected a piece of "music to doodle to." The pieces aren't necessarily traditional patriotic music intended to celebrate democracy.

For Willems, "Any time we express ourselves, that's a form of patriotism." Just like voting.

Willems hopes the 20-minute, election night doodle session will be cathartic for everyone, himself included. He says, like so many others, he's "muddling through these years, these months. I'm doing my best." But he adds, "My battery is running at 20%."

The rest is here:
Mo Willems' 'Democracy Doodle' Will Help You Get Through Election Night - NPR