A NAIL BITER

 I always knew that there was a possibility that Donald Trump could win reelection; that despite his horrible response to the pandemic and his brutish behavior during the first debate, he could pull off another Electoral College win.  And here we are, at four AM PST with no winner yet declared.

Every poll seemed to show that there was a blue wave coming, with Biden  leading in both national and swing states polls.  But the wave seems to have dried up; Florida went for Trump, along with South Carolina.  And Texas,  the prize that Democrats have been wishing for in the past few cycles, stayed red again.

Still, this is not to say that Biden doesn't have a chance, he's currently leading in the Electoral College, with millions of votes to be counted in Nevada, Arizona,Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. It's just depressing that the race is close at all.  Once again, Trump's ability to channel the angers and fears of millions of white voters seems to be working. 

Even if Trump does win, he will become the first president in history to lose the popular vote twice (he's currently down in the popular vote by around two million, with little to no chance of his making that number up), displaying what an absolute joke of a democracy our country has become.  And it may get worse, with a conservative Supreme Court sure to uphold whatever voting limitations Republicans put it place in the future.

In typical Trump fashion, he has already claimed that he has won and the vote counting should end.  This is, of course, insane, but nearly every public statement this man has made in the past four years is either dishonest or crazy, so that's no surprise.  The good news is that there appears to be no way that Trump can just end the vote counting, even by going to the Supreme Court.

Still, I feel utterly ashamed and embarrassed that Trump didn't lose in a blowout last night.  I am just completely incapable of understanding how anyone could vote for such a corrupt bigot.  I recently wrote that our president's terrible handling of the pandemic made me ashamed to be an American.  Even if Joe Biden does prevail, last night's vote counts still fill me with shame.