I was among the nearly 60% of Utah voters who cast a ballot for Pres. Trump. The president won a lot more votes in Utah than I expected, and I suspect a lot of Utahns, like me, had to hold their noses a bit as they marked their ballots.
I’ve written many times of my concerns about Trump’s demeanor and character, but I had even deeper concerns about the Democrats taking over the entire federal government and what that might mean for the country.
I also believe, and still do, that Trump accomplished a great deal and the country was on a good path until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Unfortunately, Trump’s successes were overshadowed by the daily (even hourly) senseless sideshows he created.
So now it appears that Joe Biden has won the presidency. I don’t think Trump’s lawsuits are going to be successful. I think Trump should gracefully concede and cooperate fully in the transition.
Can Biden be a centrist president? It’s far too early to know for sure what sort of president Biden will be. I don’t believe he will be a senile, bumbling fool as portrayed by right-wing news media. I don’t believe he will resign to allow Kamala Harris to take over, as some conspiracy mongers are promoting.
My best guess is that Biden will want to govern as a centrist. But whether he can do so is an open question. I’m certain the left wing of his party will apply immense pressure. It has already started.
On Monday I received a press release from the Victory Institute demanding that Biden appoint openly LGBTQ persons to his cabinet, to the Supreme Court, as ambassadors, and among his many other presidential appointees. The organization is going to give him a list to select from.
I received another press release from RepresentUS criticizing the Biden transition team for not including RepresentUS priorities like: Make it a crime for politicians to take money from lobbyists; prevent politicians from fundraising during working hours; eliminate dark money in campaigns; end gerrymandering; require ranked-choice voting; create automatic voter registration; institute term limits; provide public funding for candidates; and crack down on super PACs (which spent immense amounts of money supporting Democrats), among others.
Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is lobbying to become Treasury secretary and Sen. Bernie Sanders expects Biden to make good on their joint manifesto listing all sorts of arch-liberal priorities.
So, will Biden resist the leftward pull? If the Senate remains in GOP hands, he’ll be able to use that s an excuse to avoid the loonier liberal demands.
For now, it makes sense to give Biden the benefit of the doubt and wish him well.
Good Read. Route Fifty notes Utah Gov. Herbert’s statewide mask mandate and outlines what other GOP governors are doing in their states.
Reader Response. I somehow got a date badly wrong in the “On This Day In History” section of Monday’s newsletter. A few people pointed out the error, including Don Savage and Dustin Lewis. Don good-naturedly suggested that I must have been running a test to see if people are reading all sections of the newsletter. I readily agreed that was precisely my strategy. So, Don and Dustin passed the test. The rest of you failed miserably and you should be ashamed.
Parting Shot. Money is critically important in politics, but campaign spending can reach the point of diminishing returns. It did so in many races this year, including Utah’s 4th District congressional race. Many campaigns blew far past old fundraising records. With so much money, campaigns found the only place they could spend it all was on non-stop, negative TV ads. Such advertising was already becoming less effective in wooing voters, and incredible amounts of money was wasted this cycle. The Democratic opponents of Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham each spent more than $100 million on their losing campaigns. Clearly, in this digital age of fragmented media, campaign gurus haven’t yet figured out how to reach and influence voters.
If you have a comment, an item you think should be publicized, or just want to tell me I’m an idiot, shoot me a message at [email protected].
