Tag: The Mandalorian

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.

—–

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.

—–