Feest Isolation Days – 5 November
Thank you to so many of you who sent emails and texts and cheery thoughts about the election. My favourite ….
The answer so far is sadly, not yet. And he may win. That is what a democracy is about. The people vote and the choice is made. Having said that, it is clear that there has been mischief in the process. I didn’t say fraud, but mischief. From the beginning, and it hasn’t reached its conclusion yet. Nevertheless a huge proportion of voters want Trump and all that he stands for. Many people adore him. He is (to them) a charismatic leader who puts two fingers up to Covid, Laws, Rules and they think somehow with him at the helm they could have a piece of the American Dream. We don’t share the same values, that is clear. The fact that many Americans want Trump speaks volumes about the country I once called home.
Voting mischief has been around for centuries. The original Electoral College was framed so that populations in the South were not disadvantaged by having slaves. There were half a million slaves in the South and of course they could not vote. But they were counted as two fifths of a person and all population numbers counted toward the number of Electoral College votes. The more slaves a state had, the more votes! Freeing slaves meant losing votes!
Further mischief with representation occurred after the 1920 census revealed that people were moving into the cities from the countryside disadvantaging the Republican vote. It was the Republicans who then capped the numbers of seats in the House of Representatives which means that smaller states still have a huge advantage with electoral college votes.
Two short articles on these subjects here!
https://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-3-2020?r=a7qc7&utm_campaign=post&u
It’s a lovely day, the election results are not all in and who knows who will be in the White House for the next four years?
We shall see.
Meantime, a little something to lighten the mood. Little Karen from Outnumbered gets it about right…..
Enjoy!
With love
Kathy x