The Beginning is Near

By Michelle Naranjo

There was an election on Tuesday, and it already feels like it was weeks ago. The news cycle seems to have increased momentum at a rate opposite of half-life. A characteristic even more noticeable in 2020. But here we are: stressed, tired, fearful. 

There are protestors outside of the Maricopa County elections Department where ballots are being counted, among other races, for the critical presidential election. Former Vice President Biden is ahead of President Trump in Arizona. The crowd chanting, “Count the vote,” is armed and angry. Their peers in Detroit, Michigan today were chanting, “Stop the vote.” Trump was behind in the count, and they tried to gain access to the inner sanctum where the ballots were to stop the process forcefully. 

Several things happened on Election Day beyond the regular polling: People stood in line for hours in many towns and cities, disinformation flooded social media, and an anonymous robocall went out to over 10 million people, warning them to not go to their polling spots. And still, people flocked to the polls in record numbers while millions of mail-in ballots were already being tallied.

The following day, a record-breaking 100,000-plus people were diagnosed with COVID-19, and President Trump began routinely filing lawsuits against states to stop counting ballots. He had declared victory the previous evening. He never mentioned the rising number of people who had fallen ill. There was no mention of the miracle vaccines that had become his rally cry.

Despite leading in electoral college votes, former Vice President Biden did not proclaim victory, but confidence that the Biden/Harris ticket would prevail after every vote was counted. 

And then his team quietly launched a transition website, BuildBackBetter.com.  

The site is still bare-boned but leads with, “The American people will determine who will serve as the next President of the United States. Votes are still being counted in several states around the country. The crises facing the country are severe — from a pandemic to an economic recession, climate change to racial injustice — and the transition team will continue preparing at full speed so that the Biden-Harris Administration can hit the ground running on Day One. The only link is to a Spanish translation. 

And with that debut, Biden introduced everyone to the possibility of a calmer future. An end to divisiveness came suddenly into sight. 

Naranjo is a freelance writer based in rural Pennsylvania.

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Welcome to Someone’s Ragnarök

First-Person Essay by Nic Woods

UPDATE Nov. 7: Democratic candidate Joe Biden has won the presidential election, after the AP called Pennsylvania for the former vice president over incumbent Donald Trump late Saturday morning. Shortly afterward he also was declared the winner of Nevada, for a 279-214 Electoral College lead.

I went to bed Election Day evening not knowing whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden would be sworn in as our next president Jan. 20 and I write this now not knowing the result, or whether a definitive one exists.

I have yet to face that music. I don’t need flashbacks of 2000. 

The outcome, however, is not central to my message – for many Americans, the outcome is the end of the world as they know it, and they are not fine. 

For them, this is Ragnarök.

Setting the Marvel Cinematic Universe aside as it skews the story, in Norse Mythology, Ragnarök is essentially the culmination of a great battle where certain gods rise, others fall, and a new world resurfaces from the ashes.

But one knows nothing of this new world. The story stops there. Even in the mythology, it is what Donald Rumsfeld would have called an “unknown unknown.”

The important thing is we know it happens. As dramatic an ending as Ragnarök is, we know there is an aftermath. 

This is where we stand currently, and what America becomes going forward depends on how we behave toward each other now. 

Gloating, trolling, and conspiracy theories, I hope, are confined to the trash bin of 2020. They were motivational tools to get people to the polls, perhaps, but they will not help in the aftermath.

For those of us who are angry, determine how to use it creatively, not destructively. Learn from the gods of Asgard where destructive anger leads. Attempt to do better. 

A certain sort of trust in each other, and a knowledge that love of country comes in many guises, needs to be re-established, however difficult that is. 

No matter how you feel about it, the COVID-19 outbreak provides a blueprint to reestablish that trust, and every American needs to respect it and its science if we want to live together and boost our economy. If the haphazard handling of the coronavirus continues, it will not go away, and the economic and social consequences will extend far longer than any of us want. 

And we know at this point the handling will remain haphazard. There currently is no federal response and we need to figure out for ourselves what to do if there continues to be no federal response.

We also need to learn how to talk about difficult subject matter respectfully. We have all been told that politics and religion should be avoided in polite conversation, but that leaves us with no way to talk about needs to be talked about. We need to figure out how to discuss both while respecting that the other person opinion may differ. 

Finally, we need to stop sorting ourselves into comfort zones. Be uncomfortable – it will not kill you. We will forever be baffled by our fellow Americans if we only choose to live among the one type we understand. 

No matter how you feel right now, it is a new day, and the world didn’t end, but how you shape that new world is, really, up to you. Your beliefs, and your politics, will not save you. 

Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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Conservatism Will Always Find a Place in America

By Andrew Boyd

For any of you that have read my previous missives, first, God bless you; second, you’ll know I’m a big fan of metaphors. So, when my esteemed editor emailed me requesting a column themed ‘Ragnarök’ I was gleeful, recognizing immediately what an apt framework it provided to discuss the phenomenon that is Trump and today’s body politic.  

To my way of thinking, Trump was the inevitable, final and desperate gambit by a plurality of Americans who believed, right or wrong, that their economic futures were being sacrificed by preening, global elites in the name of a cause unknown, probably greed. The folks in flyover country were tired of being talked down to and dismissed by the establishment writ large, and so they crowned the beast, the vulgarian, the fire-breathing monster and said, “burn it all down.” 

Four years later, they’ve returned to the ballot box with, notably, a more racially, politically and socially diverse coalition of voters to say the job is not yet done. And they’re bolstered by an increasingly unhinged left that can’t imagine theirs is not the only right and righteous idea for how to run a society. And while conservatives may yet lose the presidency, I think the broader election outcomes speak to a war that has just begun. You’re already beginning to hear from more centrists Democrats the notion that perhaps their party has lost the plot, that maybe the working assumption, that nearly half your fellow Americans are racist, homophobic, xenophobic trolls, isn’t a very strong foundation on which to build a sustainable political movement.

Perhaps, instead, it’s possible, just possible, that conservatives are people, too, with a different but still important and viable point of view; people who simple can’t accept the operative premise of the radical left that America is the America of the 1619 Project, the America of unbridled institutional racism. Or that caring, compassionate citizens can still struggle with the idea of a federal government takeover of healthcare, or federally funded abortions up to the moment of birth. Maybe they are rightly distrustful of an unaccountable bureaucracy and unbridled state power, and that terrible, awful, no good idea that words are violence and where that inevitably leads. 

Conservatism, after all, is not a place it’s a people; and if the land we love no longer wants us, then we’ll make a new land in which to live free and accountable to one another as sovereign and precious souls. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but only time will tell.

Blessings to all.

Boyd is a public relations and communications professional with 30-years experience. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Charlotte, N.C.

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View of Election Night from the Left

Nov. 5 UPDATE: There has been no "blue wave" in the U.S. Senate, with Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expected to retain his position as majority chairman. [He has since suggested the Senate consider a second coronavirus relief package before the presidential inauguration, a shift from a previous position that it would not be considered until after Jan. 20.] Currently, the Senate makeup is 48-48, with Democrats up one seat and Republicans down by one. The GOP will almost certainly win two more, with incumbents Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and David Perdue of Georgia expected to retain their leads. Of the two remaining, incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., leads Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, 48.7 percent to 46.9 percent, though with 94 percent of the ballots counted, Tillis could lose if Biden ultimately flips the state. The second is a special election in Georgia for its other Senate seat, where Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, at 32.7 percent of the vote with 96 percent of the ballots in, and incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler, at 26.1 percent, edged out Republican challenger Doug Collins at 20.1 percent. The runoff will be held in January.

The Hustings asked contributing liberal pundits to tell us their thoughts of the presidential election just before turning in for the night. Whether because they were still watching well into Wednesday as we went to post, or because they fell asleep trying to wait out the results, our responses have been rather limited. Here’s what we heard back:

For liberal pundit Michelle Naranjo, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s failure to strike a decisive blow against the Trump campaign is disappointing, though perhaps not much of a surprise. 

“There is a blazing red mirage in front of the U.S. map tonight,” she writes. “Ballot counts appear close, and possibly even dire for the Biden, but much like Trump’s escapades, it is temporary smoke and mirrors.

“Republicans appear to be leading in vote tallies, but in-person votes (heavily Republican) are being counted before mail-in ballots, which typically skew Democratic voters. Tomorrow, and even the days following should pull the real results into focus.”

As noted in his last left column [“Fair and Unbalanced,” Nov. 3], Stephen Macaulay is at home, either watching “The Mandalorian” or reading a book.

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Biden is One State from Victory, at 264-214 Electoral Vote Lead Over Trump

By Todd Lassa

Nov. 4 UPDATE: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was named "apparent winner" of Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes Wednesday afternoon. The Trump campaign says it will file for a recount. Meanwhile, despite the AP's early morning declaration calling the state for Biden, ballots in Arizona are still being counted and no winner has been officially named. The latest electoral vote count is 248 for Biden and 214 for Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal.

First, it seemed we were in for a long Election Day evening, lasting until this Friday or beyond as we waited for vote counts from the states Donald Trump flipped to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Then President Trump appeared before a crowd of unmasked supporters at the White House about 2:30 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday to confirm the fears his opponents in the Democratic Party have long held.

“We were getting ready to win this election,” Trump said, to the cheers of his crowd. “Frankly, we did win this election.”

President Trump threatened, without merit, to take his grievance to the Supreme Court with his three appointees, including Amy Coney Barrett. “We don’t want them to find ballots at four in the morning,” he said.

Shortly after three in the morning, however, the Associated Press called Arizona for Biden, the first state to turn from its 2016 vote. Democratic candidate Mark Kelly also beat Republican Martha McSally in the race for John McCain’s old Senate seat, the AP also reported.

With Trump’s lead in Wisconsin hinging on mail-in ballots still being counted in Milwaukee County, and Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina still in play, Biden was holding on to a 238-213 Electoral College vote lead over Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported.

BREAKING: The vote count in Metro Milwaukee, reported at 4:45 a.m. Eastern time, put Biden ahead of Trump in Wisconsin, though several smaller cities there still had to report votes.

“It looks like it’ll be a long few days,” says Charles Dervarics, contributing editor. “Biden appears to have lost opportunities in the Southeast, though he should win Arizona. But the race looks like it will come down to the old Midwest ‘blue wall’ of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Just as in 2016, they again will decide the election.”

Prior to Trump’s White House speech, Biden made a drive-in appearance in Wilmington, Delaware to tell supporters, “We feel good about where we are. We believe we are on-track to win the election,” but made it clear there is no victory for him yet to declare.

“It is not over until every ballot is counted.”

This presidential election most certainly will revive calls to reform the system and its 51 ways to count votes, but not until after it is over – in weeks, if not in months.

“Although the presidential election isn’t decided, and may not be for a bit, it’s clear that our country needs improved vote counting,” says Gary Sawyer, of The Hustings editorial board.  

“The rules on counting absentee ballots differ wildly from state to state. That’s an issue in this extremely strange year. No one could have anticipated the onslaught of early voting. But the result has been increased turnout and it’s unlikely voters will want to return to traditional Election Day voting. This slower count will happen again. “

Please address your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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View of Election Night from the Right

Nov. 5 UPDATE: Andy Boyd is 2-2 in his election night picks for House races to watch. In the race for Minnesota's 7th District, Republican candidate Michelle Fischbach has defeated veteran Rep. Collin Peterson (D). With 91 percent of the vote in for Iowa's 1st District, Republican challenger Ashley Hinson leads Democratic freshman Rep. Abbey Finkenauer, 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent. But in Utah's 4th, Democratic incumbent Rep. Ben McAdams leads Republican Ben Owens, 48.2 percent to 47.1 percent, with just 73 percent of the ballots reported, and in Pennsylvania's 8th District, freshman Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright leads Republican challenger Jim Bognet, 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent, with 90 percent of the ballots counted. (All results via The New York Times.) In his Nov. 3 post, Boyd hoped President Trump's coattails would raise the count of Republican House members above 200. Instead, Biden leads the race for president with no coattails, and the Republican Party looks to gain six House members, to 190.

The Hustings asked contributing conservative pundits to tell us their thoughts of the presidential election just before turning in for the night. Whether because they were still watching well into Wednesday as we went to post, or because they fell asleep trying to wait out the results, our responses have been rather limited. Here’s what we heard back:

In an October 17 conservative commentary explaining why he thought President Trump will win the election by a close margin, Bryan Williams pointed to two small counties in the U.S. that have been near-perfect in predicting the way the rest of the nation would go. 

“I said to watch Vigo County, Indiana, and Valencia County, New Mexico as bellwethers for the election,” Williams says. “Vigo must be having issues reporting because as of 9:30 p.m. Central time, no results have been reported still. But...but...!  Valencia County has reported partial results (approximately 35 percent of ballots counted) and Trump is leading 67 percent to 31 percent. This bodes well for Trump...and the track record of my prediction.”

Some three hours later, it should be noted, vote counts for neither rural county could be found immediately online. Trump has been declared the winner in the state of Indiana, while Biden has won New Mexico.

Henry Payne defends the incumbent (in commentary submitted before the president’s White House appearance Wednesday morning), saying, “Trump’s policies, like his rhetoric, are often blunt and ill-conceived. But middle-class Americans sense someone in leadership fighting for them against corporate, media, and government elites.”

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Fair and Unbalanced

By Stephen Macaulay

So the question is what to watch for on Election Night. Maybe the rather elaborate sets the various outlets have built. Perhaps the branding for Microsoft or Google or whatever else that will be providing data resources. Possibly the dynamic between the “balanced” spokespeople that are sitting at a long table. Conceivably “The Mandalorian” and nothing election-related.

During the 2016 election I was on a business trip in California. Several of us who were in a meeting being held in Monterey, down the street from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, all met in a hotel room and watched. No one knew the politics of one another at the start of the results rolling in. And as the results came in, not only were there multiple TV sets engaged, but people were checking their phones, tapping at the screens hoping things would update more quickly. At the end, there was no one who didn’t know where the rest stood.

That’s not going to happen again.

In 1990 I was in a hotel room in Tokyo. I had CNN International playing as I was preparing to attend meetings. I’d been there for a few days but was still jet-blurred, the state that follows jet lag. When I left Michigan, James Blanchard was a shoe-in for his third term as governor. When I glanced at the scroll on the bottom of the screen, I saw that John Engler had been elected.

I thought it had to be an error. It wasn’t.

This year? 

Home.

Maybe a book.

Macaulay is a cultural commentator based in Detroit.

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We’re Watching the Returns

By Todd Lassa

What will you watch, and what will you watch for Election Day Tuesday night?

Flipping between CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC is pretty easy, with the three news networks typically grouped together on most cable TV systems. However, if you try to switch at the commercials, you'll learn that the Big Three run them about the same time. Make such an effort to get a balance of viewpoints, and you'll quickly exceed your doctor's daily suggested intake of Progressive insurance, MyPillow, and Biktarvy commercials. You might be better off going for the free broadcast option and enjoy a cocktail of CBS, NBC, and ABC News with a dose of PBS and NPR thrown in. 

No matter what you choose, the likelihood of going to bed at a reasonable hour Wednesday morning will very probably leave you unsatisfied and almost certainly without any idea of whether President Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden will take the oath of office on the west front of the U.S. Capitol next Jan. 20.

Nevertheless, Trump reportedly told confidants he “plans to declare premature victory” Tuesday night, Axios reported over the weekend, citing three anonymous sources. Trump denied the report Sunday night, adding, "I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be counted after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long time after the election is over." 

On Monday, Biden asked the country and the media to ignore any victory declaration before all ballots are counted. "Under no scenario" can Trump legitimately declare victory on election night, he said.

The last polls to close are 1 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday in parts of Alaska, considered solid Trump country. But several swing states are expected to take until the end of the week before all their mail-in and early voting ballots are counted. 

Of the potential swing states, Pennsylvania's polls close at 8 p.m. EST, but the state can count postmarked ballots as late as Friday. Florida's polls also close at 8 p.m., with many in the state closing at 7 Eastern; still, postmarked ballots cannot be counted beyond Tuesday. Georgia polls close at 7 p.m. and allow no late ballots, while North Carolina's close at 7:30 p.m., with late ballots counted by Nov. 12. Michigan's polls close at 9 p.m., with no postmarked ballots counted after election day. Ohio, the other remaining key state in the Eastern time zone, closes polls at 7:30 p.m. but allows postmarked ballots to come in as late as Friday, Nov. 13, with all such late ballots reported by Nov. 28.

Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling, no Wisconsin ballots may be counted after Election Day, where polls close at 9 p.m. Eastern. Iowa, which closes its polls by 10 EST, counts postmarked ballots as late as Nov. 9. Texas polls close at 9 p.m. Eastern, with most closing an hour earlier, and postmarked ballots are to be counted by Wednesday. Arizona closes its polls at 9 p.m. Eastern and does not count postmarked ballots after Election Day.

Please address comments to editors@thehustings.news

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Watching for Republican Upsets in House Races

By Andrew Boyd

Today’s the day, and all eyes including my own will be on top of the ticket, but I will also be watching numerous congressional contests. Democrats have a 233 to 196 majority in the 116th Congress, with five empty seats to be filled and one held by a Libertarian, Justin Amash of Michigan.

So Republicans must flip 22 seats to regain the House majority they lost in the 2018 mid-terms in order to grab the majority for the 117th Congress. 

I have my eye on four House races, specifically. In Minnesota’s 7th District, Michelle Fischbach is challenging career politician Collin Peterson, who has held the seat covering most of the state’s west, bordering North Dakota and South Dakota. Peterson is one of 30 House Democrats whose districts voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in 2016, and in the 2018 mid-terms, he defeated Republican candidate Dave Hughes by a relatively slim 52 percent to 48 percent margin. 

Fischbach, his challenger this year, was lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 2018-19. There’s also a potential spoiler in a third candidate, Slater Johnson of the Legal Marijuana Now Party. Politico lists this race as a tossup between Fischbach and Peterson.

Next is Utah’s 4th District, where Burgess Owens is challenging freshman Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams. Owens is a former NFL player who won a Super Bowl ring with the Oakland Raiders in 1980, and he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints toward the end of his pro-ball career. Democrats have held Utah’s 4th, which covers the area around Salt Lake City since it was added to the overwhelmingly red state’s House delegation in 2010.

Republican Ashley Hinson is challenging Democrat freshman Abby Finkenauer in Iowa’s 4th, a district covering Dubuque, Cedar Rapids and Waterloo and identified by the GOP as “vulnerable.” Hinson was elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 2017. Politico also lists this race as a “toss up.”

Last, but not least, is Jim Bognet, challenging freshman Democrat Matt Cartwright for Pennsylvania’s 8th District in the state’s Northeastern corner, including Hazelton. Though the race is leaning Democratic, the 8th was one of the districts to put Trump over the top in Pennsylvania four years ago, for the incumbent president’s upset win. 

I’m not optimistic for the GOP taking back the House, but I’m hoping Trump’s momentum can carry the GOP to something more than 200 seats.

Boyd is a public relations and communications professional with 30-years experience. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Charlotte, N.C.

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Shifting Allegiances in The Villages

By Jim McCraw

The Villages, in Central Florida, is the country’s largest retirement community, with some 130,000 residents in one contiguous settlement spread across three counties. It has been a Republican stronghold for a long, long time.

The population here is vastly white, upper middle-class Christian, with a few Jewish, Black and Hispanic residents.

The Villages boasts the world’s largest American Legion post. It helped elect U.S. Navy veteran Rick Scott governor twice, then helped send the Republican to the U.S. Senate.  He was replaced by former Congressman Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican and now the youngest governor in the country, just 42 when he took office.

The Villages are represented in the House by Republican Daniel Webster. Almost all of the county supervisors in Sumter, Lake and Marion counties, on which The Villages are built, are Republican. 

Sumter county routinely has the highest voter turnout in the entire state. Trump was swept into office in 2016, but his margin over Hillary Clinton was 1.2 percent in Florida. That’s about 112,900 votes.

Things have changed over the last four years, and now there is much more support here for Democrat Joe Biden. Disenchanted Republicans have been coming in to The Villages Democratic Club headquarters in Wildwood, the largest in Florida, since May to complain about Trump and ask how they can volunteer to help Biden’s campaign, says its president, Chris Stanley. 

She estimates 5.8 percent of Republicans in The Villages who voted for Trump in 2016 will vote for Biden on Tuesday. The disaffected cite three big reasons for switching candidates. 

“Reason number one is his handling of the coronavirus and his lack of leadership.  Reason number two is his view of military veterans as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’ They don’t like that. Reason number three is policy, the elimination [deferral] of the payroll tax [to mitigate economic effects of pandemic shutdowns], because it will affect their children and grandchildren.”

Republican Voters Against Trump recently completed a $3 million disgruntled-voter billboard campaign across Central Florida with messages like “I’m a Republican.  I’m a patriot.  I’m voting Biden.” … “I’m a Republican. I’m a Marine veteran.  I’m voting Biden.” …  “I’m a Republican. I’m a Christian. I’m voting Biden.”

“A lot of Republican voters are going to be casting their votes for Joe Biden because the last four years, what they expected they were going to get from the Trump administration has not been what they want, and Joe Biden is offering them an alternative to bring this country back,” says Daniel Henry, a young, Black Republican voter.

This year more than 40 percent of the state’s 14.4 million registered voted early, and Florida election experts predict the turnout in 2020 will exceed the 1992 record of 83 percent -- which could mean more than 100,000 from The Villages alone. There are signs that Florida could swing to the Democratic side, much as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin flipped to the GOP four years ago, and The Villages, so solid-red for so long, will contribute to this swing.

Jim McCraw is a semi-retired writer and columnist. He has been a resident of The Villages for nearly five years.

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Red, White & Blue Golf Carts at The Villages

By Todd Lassa

By the time former Vice President Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee for president this year, political pundits were still looking at the electoral college map like it was 2016 all over again. Could President Trump maintain his popularity and turn Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin blue once again? 

Florida has 29 electoral college votes, however, to Pennsylvania’s 20, Michigan’s 16 and Wisconsin’s 10. It is one of the more reliably red states in play according to the latest polls, along with North Carolina, Arizona and even Texas. 

Biden holds a 1.2-point lead over Trump in RealClearPolitics’ Oct. 30 average of 11 polls for Florida, which happens to be the same percentage victory that Trump had over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Four years ago, Trump’s  RealClearPoilitics  poll average was 0.2 points above Clinton just before the election. 

Key to Florida’s choice next Tuesday will be the vote from The Villages, with its 130,000-plus residents, most of them seniors over 55, and many of whom vote assiduously. Residents motor around The Villages largely in electric golf carts. (In 2005 The Villages entered The Guinness World Records with a parade of 3,321 golf carts.)  These carts make a great political news story photo op, as many of their owners festoon them with campaign signs. 

Before and after the ’16 presidential election, the vast majority of those carts in The Villages were plastered with pro-Trump signs, piloted by seniors wearing red MAGA hats. This time, national media have covered a large influx of Biden-blue golf carts. Is it real, or is it an anomaly, with a handful of outspoken Democrats infiltrating the deep-red retirement neighborhood? Our resident of The Villages and our former GOP official from California discuss, in the left and right columns, respectively.

Please address your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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Greasing the Skids for Red MAGA-Hatted Golf Carts

By Bryan Williams

Imagine, if you will, a remake of the musical “Grease” for 2020, this time with senior citizens in their decked out hot rod golf carts. The concrete Los Angeles River is now a concrete pathway around a pristine Florida 55-plus housing development known as The Villages. Instead of racing for teenage glory and pink slips, these Villagers are in the horse race of presidential politics. Much hay has been made recently of a breakaway group of seniors parading in their golf carts for Joe Biden, when in 2016 The Villages went 70-percent for Trump, according to Courthouse News Service.

All indications point to this election being very close, just as it was in 2016. Trump won Florida by barely more than 1 percent. If it is indeed true that 5.8-percent of senior residents are changing their votes for Biden, this spells trouble for Trump. However, the same Courthouse News article reported that Trump held a rally at the Villages on Oct. 23 with all the pomp, cheering, and excited Trump voters that we have come to expect.

This seems like a hard one to call. Which way will Florida go? We all know that Trump was carried by seniors in 2016 and their support is critical in this round. Will losing nearly 6 percent of The Villages make a difference? Yes. Elections are very close these days. I worked for a California Republican candidate who won an election by 213 votes out of over 25,000 cast. That’s less than 1 percent.

And yet, polls show Florida is a toss-up with 1 percent to 2 percent separating each candidate. There is so much dueling data out there this election year that it can be hard to make sense of any of it. What should we choose? I’ll double down and stick with my prediction that Trump will eke out a win this year. It will be close --  a photo finish between blue Biden- and red MAGA-bedecked golf carts.

Williams is a mental health professional and former Republican party official in California.

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ACB on the Court Means the End of Gay Rights, Roe vs. Wade

By Chase Wheaton

Before Monday evening’s confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Mitch McConnell spoke to the Senate and painted a vivid picture of the GOP’s mindset regarding its role in the current political landscape, saying “A lot of what we've done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. They won't be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”

It seems to me that Senator McConnell has seen the proverbial writing on the wall, and that he knows that the American electorate is turning out in record numbers to demand change, which is why he capitalized on the Supreme Court vacancy before his power as Senate majority leader comes to a close. Whether McConnell believes that Biden will win, that Democrats will regain control of the Senate, or that both will occur, he knows that he will never again be able to influence the country in the name of conservative politics like he can now, and so, similar to a child flipping over a board game just before he or she loses, Donald Trump and the entire GOP knowingly went against the will of the majority of Americans to shape the legal and political landscape of this country in their image for decades to come.

This means that McConnell and Trump have successfully created a Supreme Court that’s more conservative than it has been in almost 70 years, and that represents their own interests, ideals, and beliefs rather than those of the American people. 

Given President Trump’s legislative record, and compared with the number of Supreme Court appointments by previous presidents, this is by far Trump’s greatest accomplishment. For perspective, President Trump, in his one term, has appointed more Supreme Court justices than any other one-term Republican president since Herbert Hoover in 1929. In fact, in recent history, while the Republican party has lost six of the last seven popular votes, they have appointed five of the last nine Supreme Court justices. 

If the Democratic Party has any hope of passing meaningful legislation or creating significant change in the next 10 to 20 years, they must seriously consider expanding the court and adding justices that reflect the values of the American people, and not those of a one-term, impeached president and a power-hungry white man from Kentucky. Otherwise, in a few years, as a gay man, I will be waving goodbye to my right to get married, and millions of women will be waving goodbye to their right to an abortion.

Wheaton is a higher education professional working in university housing, based in Greenville, N.C.

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Will Barrett Matter to the Election?

By Todd Lassa

Precisely one week before Election Day, Chief Justice John Roberts administered the judicial oath to Amy Coney Barrett allowing her to take her seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Late Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas administered the Constitutional oath to his new colleague shortly after the Senate confirmed Barrett by a vote of 52-48, Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed, One Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, who is fighting for her political life in her re-election bid, voted against Barrett. 

Justice Barrett starts work at the Supreme Court immediately, not a moment too soon for Republicans. The court, with Barrett now the sixth justice nominated by a Republican president and part of a potential five-justice majority with Chief Justice Roberts the swing vote, may soon decide challenges to the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, Trump administration executive orders on immigration policy, same-sex couples’ rights and the U.S. Census. The court is also expected to soon decide an effort by Trump’s lawyers to block the release of the president’s financial records to a Manhattan grand jury. 

There is also the likelihood the Trump re-election campaign will challenge Nov. 3’s results if Democratic candidate Joe Biden wins the electoral college. 

There is already election-related roiling in the courts, Pennsylvania Republicans wanted to block an extension to counting mail-in votes. The court rejected it without comment, so it may be refiled within the next few days. 

The court also rejected a case brought by Wisconsin Democrats who wanted to extend the deadline to count mail-in ballots.

The counterpoint to such apparent setbacks to the Democratic Party’s efforts to increase voter turnout and potentially win a majority of the Senate, as well as take back the White House, is that anti-abortion voters who are moderate or liberal on other issues may consider their goal achieved, and therefore may choose to not vote for President Trump next Tuesday. 

As if to counter that irony, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday called on Biden to expand the court beyond nine justices if he wins the presidency. Biden so far has refused to commit to “packing the court” as an obvious effort to keep the issue off the Nov. 3 ballot. The former vice president said in the Oct. 22 presidential debate that he would establish a commission to consider the option.

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ACB on SCOTUS is Not the End of the World

By Bryan Williams

It is done. Amy Coney Barrett has been confirmed to the Supreme Court by the Republican Party (minus Susan Collins of Maine) in the United States Senate. The sun is still hanging in the sky, birds are still chirping, and bills are still being sent to me. Life goes on. This is how millions in America feel right now I imagine.

How about our political leaders? Those with a “D” after their name are furious and are promising all kinds of retribution should they win next Tuesday. The most notable option for the Democrats to get back at the Republicans for confirming ACB is to pack the court with upwards of six new justices.

Joe Biden has been coy for weeks as to whether he supports this court packing idea. He finally said at last week’s debate that if he becomes president, he will name a commission to study the matter and bring it back to him in six months or so. Ho hum, and I’m not surprised. This is what politicians do when they don’t want to tell you how they really feel and shield themselves from having to make a decision that may jeopardize some votes. Ask yourself this: would Donald Trump name a commission to study packing the court? Would Kamala? I think we all know the answer is “no.”

Do I think Joe Biden will eventually try to pack the court? Yes, but not because he wants to. While he proclaims that he is the Democratic Party, I don’t think he fooled anyone by saying that. Joe is the guy the left-wing needed to look electable while the liberal wing of the party waits in the, er, wing to swoop in and pull his strings come next Jan. 20th. Will packing the court matter if the Democrats own the other two branches of government? Will the new conservative majority on the court alter “Life as we Roe It?”  As President Trump says quite often, “We’ll see.”

One thing I do know: the sun will rise tomorrow. Birds will chirp. My bills will still be coming in. Life will go on whether there are nine justices on the Supreme Court or fifteen. Let’s let ACB do her (new) job.

Williams is a mental health professional and former Republican party official in California.

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