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Monday, November 7, 2016

A Nation on the Brink

The brink of dawn or darkness? Here are this morning's charts from Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight website, which has been tracking everything assiduously throughout this overlong and overugly campaign (click to enlarge):




The interesting thing is that despite all the hooting and hollering and hoopla of the last six months, these last-minute figures are all just about exactly what they were at the beginning of June.  So what does that say about the futility of these never-ending presidential campaigns?  After untold millions of campaign dollars spent, and an eternity of talking heads screeching away, it is still going to be a close shave in the popular vote - and who can say for certain what the electoral college result will be?

Just as important, and more ominous perhaps, is the tightness of the division of the Senate.  Many GOP senators have already proclaimed that they will never confirm any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary puts forward - so boys, you better pray the Dems get at least a majority of one there.  It is nowhere carved in stone that this brief flowering of gay liberation and gay rights, occurring rather miraculously in the space of a single lifetime, must last forever and always - what the majority giveth, the majority can take away, too.  Remember that, fellas.



My truckbuddy Frank telepathically somehow managed to sum up my feelings at this point, in a short post on Reluctant Rebel entitled, "Tired and Weary of It All."  I'm sure many others must be feeling the same way.  It's hard to feel any hope for better things now, as I did in 2008 - even if Hillary wins, the fascists and fundamentalists and know-nothing thugs will continue to disrupt and obstruct every good thing she attempts - so where the country goes from here, I am afraid to think.

But we must not let them walk away with an easy victory at the polls tomorrow.  


4 comments:

Frank said...

Russ, Thanks for the plug. Did you see that Huffington Post has taken Nate Silver to task for his methodology in doing his calculations? I'm no mathematician but they seemed to make a case and I guess he is none too happy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nate-silver-election-forecast_us_581e1c33e4b0d9ce6fbc6f7f?

Frank said...

And I second the motion for electing more Dems to Congress. We cannot afford 4 more years of obstructionist Republican demagoguery.

Davis said...

God help us.

Russ Manley said...

I saw a little something about the HuffPo article, but as math was my weak subject, I can't judge the rightness of it. All I know is, the only poll that is 100% accurate is the one taken on Election Day - and many an expert has been surprised at the final tally. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed, and with Davis sending up a little prayer now and then.

With T and the Nasty Party in the seats of power, there's no reason to be confident of anything - suppose they simply suspended the Constitution, as has been done in every other banana republic headed by a two-bit dictator? Why would he let his hands be tied that way?

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