Election Day + 3. Morning.

It is somewhat reassuring that the most read story on the BBC website right now (10.41am PST) is 'Johnny Depp leaves the Fantastic Beast Franchise'. Outside America, the world really does continue to turn and banal celebrity gossip rules the day. Stories two through five are about the US election though so I guess 'the world is watching' as the ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos keeps saying, initially proudly, now resignedly. 

I started the day crying while watching the Late Show with Stephen Colbert from last night. I wasn't crying with laughter; I was genuinely moved seeing this measured comedian moved to tears when he spoke about Trump's statement from the White House last night.  

Perhaps getting my news from a late night comedian's opening monologue is equivalent to reading celebrity gossip, I just don't know anymore. It is hard to make judgement calls, where to focus attention, there is just so much crazy going on. 

In case you missed it Trump gave an address from the White House during the Thursday evening prime time news hour. He said 'if you count the legal votes I easily win' and went on to reiterate his claims of voter fraud and election rigging and corruption, all so far without evidence. He finished by saying that he felt this would have to be resolved by the courts. I find it interesting that he says 'I've' won, not 'We've won' or 'The American people have won'. I read a line-by-line fact check of the speech and it really is incredible. There isn't a single line that holds up either through gross exaggeration or plain fabrication. Unbelievable.

Most of the major news stations cut away from the President's address as soon as he started lying. Only CNN and Fox aired the full address, but the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper editorialized afterwards saying Trump was "like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun realizing his time was over.” And here's the crazy thing. This isn't the first time that major US news media has intentionally decided to cut away from the President while he spoke from the White House. Back in March several TV stations cut away and then decided to discontinue the live streaming of the President's coronavirus briefings because they were... well, basically... dangerous. I'm trying to imagine the BBC or CBC cutting away from a Prime Minister while he or she gave an address from in from of No. 10 or Sussex Drive. Apparently in China blackouts during newscasts are common if a story veers off party message, presumably when too much truth trickles on to the airwaves. 

There are no two ways about it: we really are seeing a fascist ruler attempt to hold on to power. 

There has been anger at Trump before but ironically I think a sense of respect for the position of the Office of the President of the United States, of respect for the people who voted for him however misguided they may be, I think that respect has kept the anger in check. But the mood this morning has shifted. In his accusations of a corrupt electoral process Trump has attacked something that Americans feel is at the very root of their identity: the American principle of self-government and the election process as central to that principle. Even some of his supporters are going as far as to say that his statements about fraud are 'not optimal'. 

Biden's post-election statements so far draw on the usual Democrat theme of 'we have more in common than divides us, we must unite' yada yada. I think it is the only thing he can say right now given the uncertainty of the situation but I just don't think it is true. I spoke to two Americans yesterday who were just livid. One lives in Minnesota, a state she thinks of as mostly liberal and sometimes independent. Biden did win 52% to 44% but still, she said, that's 1,485,369 people around her that she feels completely alienated from.  Four years ago you might have excused someone voting for Trump, but no more. To vote for him now after all that he has done is unconscionable. The other person  I talked to had just heard Trump's address on the radio and initially started going through how deeply shocked and offended she was, her voice quivering with anger and frustration. But then she stopped and said she had to go for a walk to cool down, that she didn't know what was going to happen but even Biden winning at this point felt irrelevant. 

I caused havoc at dinner last night when I accused Thing One of being Trump-like. He has this habit where if someone is trying to have a serious conversation he doubles down on silly. He also has an antenna finely tuned to when I may be feeling any sort of parental fulfillment. Coupled together has the power to drive me completely nuts just as I might be feeling something approaching joy. 

Thing Two has just finished reading Call of the Wild in her Literature class and is really jazzed. That day they had watched excerpts from the various movie interpretations of the books. Unusually (in fact perhaps for the first time ever!) she wanted to discuss what she'd learned that day. An 11 year old wanting to discuss the representation of naturalism in the 1980s movie vs. the 2020 movie? I was in heaven.  But Thing One kept asking 'yes, but is it swagaliscious' and for some reason, honestly it made sense to me at the time, I said that he sounded like Trump. He said he was just joking and I said that is exactly what Trump says a few days after saying something outrageous, that he was just kidding, that he was taken out of context. Thing Two jumped to her brother's defence and said it was a horrible thing to call someone Trump-like, that it was the worst insult. 

Incidentally, I wonder if that is going to be Trump's way to get out of the current situation, that tomorrow or the next day he will say, 'Look I was just kidding when I was talking about fraud, I was taken out of context.' 

Anyway, the day wears on and Biden seems to be slowly but surely increasing most of his leads. We were told that this election could take days or even weeks to resolve and here we are. Patience, hope, optimism, these are the words to try and live by at the moment.