The outcome of the election was not completely surprising. As James Carville famously said “It’s the economy, stupid.”
In the wake of the pandemic, the economies of most countries have consistently tanked, and sure enough, whoever has been in power has been voted out in most democracies that have held national elections. This worldwide phenomenon goes way beyond whatever idiot happens to be running against the incumbent party.
In our case, the hope is that our incumbent will be consistent with his past behavior. He says fiery things to scare people into voting for him, and then once in office he does very little.
This particular incumbent does not have the discipline, the inclination or the organizational skills to do anything other than line his own pockets and the pockets of his friends. He doesn’t particularly believe in anything other than his own self-interest, which in this case may be a good thing.
So I am hopeful that we will not actually see him pushing for dismantling healthcare, rounding up millions of Americans into internment camps, criminalizing political speech he doesn’t like, destroying international trade via punitive tariffs, or any of the other nutty things he said in order to get elected. With any luck, we will mostly see him playing golf and hawking commemorative coins on-line.
And then, in another four years, when the economy continues to tank because nobody in Washington is doing anything useful for the average American, the pendulum will swing the other way, like it generally does. That, at least, is the hope.