Wednesday

I’m looking forward to Wednesday.

Because on Wednesday we’ll be on the road to recovery. That road might get bumpy before it smoothes out. If there is any result other than a convincing Trump victory, we’re in for some turbulence. There is no way Trump will accept defeat, no matter how decisive. He’ll claim, without evidence, that there was voter fraud. (He’s already saying that.) He’ll file a flurry of lawsuits. He’ll try to interfere with the selection of Electoral College slates and he’ll try to block the ceremonial Electoral College certification on January 6th.

If Harris loses decisively she’ll act normal. She’ll do what’s right for the country and concede graciously. But if it’s close, she’ll do what she should do, which is to not concede until there is no legitimate hope of victory.

So, don’t get me wrong, Wednesday could be an ugly day. But it’s still the day after. It’s still the day when we can start sifting through the wreckage and start the rebuilding. Both parties need to do that, though not equally.

The Republican Party is a disaster. In fact, it’s not a party at all, but a cult of one man. The party believes whatever Trump believes. It used to be for free trade. Now it’s for tariffs. It used to be for international involvement. Now it’s isolationist. If Trump is defeated, he’ll remain influential for a time, but eventually he’ll die. The guy is 78, he gets no exercise and he eats cheeseburgers.

But then what? I have some hope that there is no “talent” like Trump himself. Others have tried to replicate his act, but it just doesn’t work. And Trump voters have shown that they have no interest in the Republican Party or in building any sort of sustained movement. They show up to vote for Trump and that’s it. When he’s gone, so are they.

With that reality slapping Republicans in the face, they may decide to return to some semblance of what they once were. That will be hard because hard-right populism has become who they are now. But it will also be a losing strategy because there is no Trump vote without Trump. They’ll be in a heck of a spot and they’ll just have to figure it out.

Unfortunately, if Trump wins there will be no soul-searching. Even those who know what Trump is will follow him anyway. For every Liz Cheney, there are a thousand Marco Rubio’s. It’s probably the most disheartening development in American politics in my lifetime.

On my side of the ball, the Democrats’ problems pale in comparison, but they’re still significant. Nobody in my party has made up lies about our sound electoral process. Nobody wants to abandon an ally to an autocratic war-monger. Nobody quotes Hitler. Nobody wants to suspend the Constitution. Nobody promises to use the Justice Department and the U.S. military to go after our political opponents.

Our problem is that we’re out of touch with the very blue collar Americans we used to represent. Democrats have become the party of college-educated and relatively economically secure, if not affluent, Americans. We dominate pretty much everything, from the party establishment to most of the media to Wall Street to corporate offices to Hollywood and, of course, to academia.

In fact, one of the reasons the hard-right over-performs in politics is that it’s the only outlet where they can still win. The hard-right populist rebellion is, in large part, a reaction to the dominance of liberals, to the values and priorities of that group, and to the condescending nature of some of the most vocal liberals and Democrats out there.

Kamala Harris has made a valiant and, I think, effective attempt to pull the image of my party back to the center. But, if it’s enough to win her the election, then she has to follow through by governing as a moderate. She needs to stick to an agenda of bolstering and growing the middle class.

Social progressivism doesn’t often advance through government programs anyway. Let the culture change on its own and then follow up with legislation and programs, if necessary, later on. After all, we don’t have gay marriage because of legislation — laws against it are still on the books. We have it because the culture changed.

If Trump wins, well, God help us. But we’ll have to find a way to function and to protect our institutions against the storms he’ll unleash. It’ll be a very difficult four years.

But I hope with every part of my being that on Wednesday I’m bleary-eyed from celebrating a Harris victory. But, even if that’s the case, the work will only have begun. Over seventy million people will have voted for Trump, no matter what. They can’t be ignored. And the legitimate grievances they have, have to be addressed.

Have a good weekend.