Status Quo

There was no Blue Wave, it turns out.

Half of the country is still not interested in political correctness, higher taxes, increased regulation and identity-driven culture wars.

Trump’s character, behavior, competence and negligent approach to the greatest health crisis in a century ought to have rendered him unfit for the Presidency in the eyes of our rural and exurban neighbors.

But it didn’t. They’ve seen four years of this and their response was “Again.”

They still see the alternative as worse. They still don’t want to be lectured about how to speak, think and act by people who went to college and presume to know better about, well, everything under the sun.

Biden seems to have more chances to win the Presidency than Trump as of the latest electoral math, but it changes by the minute so we don’t know what will happen in the end.

America did not “send a message” in this election either way. A few more House seats flipped blue, and maybe the Senate gets closer to being even, but there was nothing powerful or convincing about any of it.

Regardless of the final counts, we’re most likely in a status quo.

If McConnell hangs onto the Senate with Biden in the White House, he’ll be back to Obstruction 101. And if Trump prevails, maybe an infrastructure bill and most certainly a pandemic relief package.

The division remains. The reconciliation remains far into the future – which is exactly how the beancounters at Facebook and Fox News like it. The outrage is the point. The friction is the profit center. Twitter is collecting tolls on the Highway to Hell, while CNN walks up and down the lanes selling bottles of water. That’s not changing either.

But life will go on. Investments will be made. Dividends will be paid. Retirement accounts will be funded. Taxes will be owed. Stocks and bonds will change hands.

Tomorrow is just another day. The election came and went and on the other side of it, we’re exactly where we were beforehand.