The Home Stretch

The National Election only has about six weeks left so the ads and tours are in high gear. The race still seems to be too close to call. It almost seems as though we aren’t having any state, local, or municipal elections. I guess they just don’t have the money for TV ads, mailers, etc. I have struggled even to get a list of candidates, except for my congressional district. Various groups usually hold candidate forums, either in person or online. There just doesn’t seem to be much interest in them, with the national election taking all the attention. Due to a lawsuit, we’re even having to reprint the ballots to remove Robert Kennedy, Jr.

While the second presidential debate was consequential with the withdrawal of Biden, but there seems to be no chance that Trump will withdraw regardless of his poor performance in the third debate. Too bad. Nate Silver still calls him in the lead on the votes in the electoral college. We’ve had two disastrous results from that in prior elections. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again.

I guess that I can understand the lack of interest in city and county elections that traditionally have a low turn-out. I don’t understand it when it comes to the election of state offices. We have a full slate of candidates, some for offices that usually are not contested. Even the Insurance Commissioner and Head of the Department of Labor are being contested. Perhaps the most drastic choice is for the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The choice could not be more dramatic.

Our politics have become so polarized that it seems impossible to engage in civil discourse. Recently I had coffee at a Starbucks where two women were there with a 2-year-old child. One was wearing a t-shirt with the words “F…. Biden.” I guess that I could expect that at Walmart, but I was surprised to see it at the mall.

Aside from my anxiety over the results, I’m so ready for all this noise to be over. Our elections are the soul of our democracy, but I wish they weren’t so messy. I’ve read that they were just as strident in our first try.

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