I have never seen a time when the political situation is so fluid...
...not even the 1968-74 era. What was it that Marx said? "All that is solid melts into air". That's how our current time seems. All the old rules have been jettisoned. The old political immune systems that once would have made a Trump impossible have atrophied. One of our major parties has spent a generation moving towards authoritarianism, and has now harvested the fruits of its labors. And yet, democratic norms remain embedded in our national marrow, despite the work of the GOP--they still talk in the language of democracy, for the most part, no matter their abandonment of the spirit of democracy. Which means that I'm not so sure about the recounts, about anything. Trump himself is so erratic that he might self-destruct. (Leaving us with Pence--but that's another post.) This election stinks so much that almost anything seems possible. Look what we *know* about, say, the Russian influence. Is it really impossible that Trump is a Siberian Candidate? Or that the Russian hackers, supposedly the best in the world, could have flipped the election? Who knows? That's why, between now and January 20--and even beyond--almost anything seems possible. With the old rules gone, and new ones not yet in place, we seem to be in some sort of dream state where any nightmare can appear before our eyes, apparent in the flesh. Who knows--it's even possible that something good we can't imagine will present itself. Just expect the unexpected. There hasn't been a time in my life when the short-middle term future has been harder to figure out.
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