I have been a registered Democrat since 1966 when I voted for someone named Frank O’Connor who lost to Nelson Rockefeller for Governor of New York State. And even after yesterday’s results, I’ll continue to vote Democratic for the rest of my life.

              But there’s really something badly in need of fixing in the Democratic Party if we can’t win a Presidential election against a deranged asshole who says the pandemic is the result of physicians getting paid to report that people are dying from Covid-19.

              We couldn’t win Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio – again?  These three states have suffered almost 20,000 coronavirus deaths and Trump wins every, single one? That’s simply not possible, except it is.

              Want to blame Trump’s victory on the Russians? Go right ahead. Want to blame his re-election on conspiracy theories floating around alt-right websites? Go right ahead. Want to invent some other reason why half of America doesn’t get offended when he says that every attempt at honest journalism is ‘fake news?’ Go right ahead.

              But here’s the bottom line. I’m almost willing to take the short odds right now that when all is said and done, the 2020 election may end up being almost an exact replica of what happened in 2016 – Joe will get a majority of the popular vote and Trump will be the President for another four years. Because unless Joe pulls out a bunch of not-yet-counted votes in Pennsylvania and Michigan, he can’t win.

              On the other hand, if Trump ends up being declared the winner in those two states plus Georgia and North Carolina – he is currently ahead in all four states – he goes back to the White House with the requisite electoral votes.

              Trump has already begun demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be stopped because he knows those votes will probably come in for Biden and not for him. But he also knows that it ain’t over until it’s over, no matter what he says. And no judge anywhere in the United States is about to interfere in the counting of legal votes.

              That being said, in the best of all possible worlds, the votes Joe needs in Michigan will arrive and get counted, and on his third try to be President, Joe will finally snag the brass ring. The Senate looks like it will remain red; the House will be solidly blue again. As my Grandfather would say, “det’s det.”

              Either way, I still think we need to ask ourselves whether what we believe about how people think and behave is necessarily true. Because one of the basic, most fundamental tenets of liberalism is that we are all equal, no matter what. Which means that the results of the last two elections need to be understood not just as accidents, but as a reflection of the fact that maybe half of all Americans don’t agree with that idea at all.

              In which case, how does the Democratic Party develop a message and a political stance that makes the other side think twice or maybe three times before supporting another Trump-like character or worse?

              I don’t have a quick and easy answer to that question. But what I do know is that most of the time, political parties only question their basic attitudes and strategies when they lose. What I am suggesting is that even if Joe and Kammie end up as the winners this year, we need to think long and hard about how and why people develop and retain their political beliefs.

              I have watched a number of Trump supporters explain how they voted, and again and again it seems to me that what they say is simply something that popped into their heads the second they were asked to explain their vote. I hear things like, “He’s a business guy. He knows how to get things done.” Or better, “he’s authentic. What he says is what he means.” Or better yet, “You can trust him. He’s telling you the truth.”

              Now have any of these individuals ever attempted to validate their ideas through any kind of reality test?  But why bother? Four years from now they’ll vote again and spend about as much time thinking about how they are going to vote as they spent this year.

              Liberals really subscribe to the idea that words have real meanings. I’m not so sure the other side would agree.