If you haven’t been paying attention to the news, you’re not missing much.
Much like the 2016 election, the 2020 election will probably never end, devolving into two narratives: one of a hard-earned victory against all odds, the other of the jaws of defeat clamping shut.
And yet still, at this stage, we have no clue which side will feel which way, just that the result will be split as such. My beloved former business and constitutional law professor starts her weekly email lists with the following refrain:
Biden is NOT YET President-Elect, although he might be in the future?
Trump is NOT YET re-elected, although he might be in the future?
We’re quickly approaching a situation where we may just barrel right through the Electoral College vote on December 14 without knowing who will be President, right to the outcome I hope for – a wrestling match on the Inauguration stage for who gets to spend the next 4 years yelling at China about the problems they’ve caused.
To be fair, we have a reality show President and we deserve a reality show ending.
Crucial news this week is a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Patton against four states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia in the Supreme Court. 18 other states have joined:
The states of Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia have all signed on to the brief that backs the Texas suit.
With at least a third of the Union signing onto a lawsuit calling into question the integrity of the voting results in four states, this seems less Supreme Court and more Divorce Court.
It should’ve been obvious from the day after the election that this would all end up in the Supreme Court, but here we are with a map that changes drastically if the Republican legislatures in these four states are to certify their votes for President Trump:
The issue then returns to the above: no side is going to go away happy with the result, but both sides should be able to agree on the following:
- Something about the vote is fishy – and deserves thorough investigation and correction.
- The process we follow should be Constitutional – and that process exists.
- This level of uncertainty this far out from an election should never happen again.
Until there’s mutual agreement on those three points, we will be inching closer to that big “S”, “Secession” – which even if it doesn’t formally happen -will continue to happen emotionally, ripping apart the concept of an America.
