Tuesday will be a long day for some people, and not long enough for others, but it is the end of the line for political campaigns, and some on the losing side will declare it is the end of the line for life as we know it.
One important question: Will America’s “mainstream” news media survive? This presidential election, even more than the last two, has revealed a disappointing – some say dishonest and others call it deplorable – leftward tilt by the press.
The Washington Post is reporting that state officials are preparing for “an unusually chaotic election day.” Early voting in several states was supposed to help prevent that, but like gun laws being pushed now in four states as solutions to what Renee Hopkins, executive director of the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility called, “the gun violence epidemic that plagues so many of our communities every day,” that apparently isn’t working too well.
NBC News is reporting about the effort to prevent election hacking, which suggests – contrary to what voters have been hearing for weeks – there might be problems of fraud and other vote “fixing” after all. Maybe Donald Trump has been right in his complaints about a “rigged system.”
Some polls have Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead by four percentage points. Investor’s Business Daily has Trump up by two points. The only poll that counts is the one being taken today.
CBS’ Bob Schieffer observed yesterday, “The country seems at a turning point, but the divide over where to turn seems wider than ever. Perhaps we can at least agree on one thing – the first task of whoever is elected must be to repair the damage that’s been done by this campaign to the good name of our country.”
He also said this:
“We tend to call every election the most important of our lifetime, but this one might well be. Those of you who are voting for the first time, take it from me – this election is not business as usual. This one is different – and not in a good way. Most elections believe we’re headed in the wrong direction; the world is a more dangerous place. And yet, the government is in such gridlock that it took Congress longer to approve money to find a vaccine for the Zika virus than it took the founders to write our Constitution.”
It is all over but for the shouting, though shouting is an exercise that may only be rightfully shared by those who have voted, or will cast their ballots today. Those who sit this one out for whatever reason give up any claim to celebration or complaining.
Recall what Abraham Lincoln said during an address on June 16, 1858 in Springfield, Illinois. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
Do they even teach that in high school anymore?
