The Good And The Bad Of The 2020 Election

The 2020 election is over. The voting is done, and now we just wait for the counting of the votes to be finished. I was hoping for a blue wave election, but that did not happen. This election contained both good and bad things. Here are some of my thoughts:

GOOD -- The 2016 election was lost because too many people did not vote. We can't say the same about the 2020 election. Voters set a record in turnout, and Joe Biden will wind up with more votes than any other president in our history. Donald Trump will have his second election in a row where he lost the popular vote by a substantial amount.

BAD -- Nearly half of American voters tossed their dignity, decency, and morality under the bus by voting for a dishonest, indecent, corrupt, bigot and racist.

GOOD -- It looks like Joe Biden will be our president after the votes are counted. He currently has 253 electoral votes, and it looks like Arizona (11) and Nevada (6) will give him the 17 electoral votes he needs to reach 270. There's also a good chance he'll get another 20 votes out of Pennsylvania -- but he probably won't need them to win.

BAD -- Our country needs a viable two-party system to have a workable representative democracy. It was hoped that without a substantial loss, the Republican Party would reform itself and once again become the loyal opposition -- willing to compromise for the good of the country. That didn't happen. Trump remains very popular with the GOP, and even when he loses, he will be the major force in the party. There will be no cooperation or compromise, and Trump is likely to choose the GOP candidates for 2022 and 2024 (and might even run again himself).

GOOD -- Joe Biden will repair our relationship with our allies, and hopefully repair our reputation around the world.

BAD -- Biden will not be able to unify this country. Trump's popularity with his deplorable base will prevent that.

GOOD.-- The Democrats retained control of the House of Representatives, and will be able to protect Americans from bad legislation and actions by right-wingers.

BAD -- It looks like Republicans will retain control of the Senate. That means Mitch McConnell will remain the Senate Majority Leader. He will continue to block any legislation passed by the House by just refusing to bring those bills up for debate and a vote in the Senate. We are looking at a stalemate in Washington for the next two years, with little or nothing being accomplished. 

Our democracy has been saved, but it's still in bad shape. The 2020 election did not fix it.