||| BY MINOR LILE, ORCASONIAN REPORTER |||
With the monthly Village Voices series, we aim to take the pulse of the Orcas Island community. Every month we’ll be out and about, asking people to share their point of view on a particular topic. Sometimes the questions will be serious, sometimes more light-hearted. We invite you to join the conversation by sharing your response in the comments area.
With the arrival of November, we are at last at the culmination of the election season. Which leads to this month’s Village Voices question: What are your thoughts about the election results?
Asked at Island Market
November 7, 2020
(answers have been lightly edited for clarity)
Reid: Thank goodness it’s finally decided. Thank goodness they finally figured it out. It took awhile but I’m happy it’s finally over.
Eric: I’m stoked, very happy about it. It’s too bad that the rules about counting mail-in ballots were not well communicated ahead of time because it lead to a lot of confusion over the last four days, with some angry folks feeling like there was a lot of fraud going on. So it’s unfortunate that the system wasn’t a little better equipped to handle all those people mailing in their ballots and not counting them until election day. It was a real source of anxiety for a lot of people. But the results? I’m stoked about it.
Mary: I think it’s great. It’s time Trump got out of there. He’s a fool and we don’t need him to run things down more than he’s already done. I’m also sorry Rick Hughes didn’t get elected again. I thought he was doing a good job. But it probably doesn’t matter, they just seem to do what they want to do anyway, like with putting in lights on Prune Alley. We don’t really need those and it’s just a big waste of money.
Charlette: Woohoo! I’m very excited about it. We need to recover now and I think Biden is going to be the one who can help us do that. I’m a little concerned about his age, but hopefully if he wasn’t healthy he wouldn’t be where he is right now.
Shanda: I’m happy with the results. It took a while to get there but I’m very happy with the results.
Lou: I’m probably the only person in town who voted for the other guy, so I have to say that I’m a little disappointed. I’m more of an issues person. I didn’t like some of his behavior, but the President is a smart guy and right on a lot of the issues that I care about. At least there’s unlikely to be much violence. If the other party had lost I think there would have been a lot of violent protest.
We invite you to join the conversation.
What are your thoughts about the election results?
Response to Lou:You must realize that Trump is a sick man. Because psychologists/psychiatrists (to my knowledge) have not been personal doctors to Trump, they have not been able to publically discuss this with us. And maybe rightly so, as we honor the right to privacy. There is a documentary out, however, called “Unfit” that does discuss Trump’s psychological states of mind. It shows that he cannot be, has not been a representative of all Americans, nor govern on our behalf.
Be thankful that we won’t have to deal with this for another 4 years, and look to Biden for bringing us together as a nation. Maybe he’ll even address some of those “issues i care about”. Give him a chance.
Having erroneously posted this on the wrong article… let me try once
again.
What do I think of the elections?
Hmmm…well, I guess if I took out the part about the DNC, and the Democratic Party screwing Bernie out of the process in both the 016, and the 020 elections (you know… the death of democracy)… if I was to take that out of the picture, and forget that had we voted for Bernie we wouldn’t be where we are today. And, then if I overlook the fact that in a two-party system we’re voting for the lesser of two evils, and that both sides cheat in legal ways using such tactics as controlling the media, gerrymandering of voting districts, massive voter-suppression, voter-intimidation, outright lying and cheating… all of which, of course, lead to the decision actually being made by a group of super-delegates… if I considered all of that reality I’d say it went according to plan.
Did it lead to the favored candidate winning the election? Barely, and maybe… I mean, it’s not over yet. Did the best man (the best team) win the job? Maybe, I mean, we’d all like to think so. Although, in looking at the democratic candidate’s dismal past track records it’s difficult to ascertain the probability that we’re going to incur meaningful change under a new democratic administration… I mean, both candidates have been part of making the status quo what it is for many years. And lest we forget… using Donald Trump as the new comparison for how good or bad a president can be is a truly low bar to set… we deserve better.
How do I think this election went? In speaking in terms of the national election– to the 53 other people that voted Green Party in SJC this election… I’m with you. In regards to the pending Democratic Party winners, I can only say, “that the more things change the more they stay the same”.
Locally, we’ll have to wait and see. Cindy is new, and we’ve yet to see the influence that she will bring to the table… with Rick we know what another 4 years of him and his team will bring. The people have spoken and they want something different for Orcas Island, something more in line with the common good, and not the special interests ($$$) of a few.
Congratulations and good luck Cindy… I hope you, and your counterparts, will remain more open to dialogue with the “many” of us that have shown that we differ with the growth agenda currently being promoted than the current administration has been.
Fifty fifty odds that AOC runs for the Senate against Schumer or retires to homestead in the West. All of the ‘squad” won re-election with that nasty Muslim woman running up the numbers in Michigan. . America is going left whether the DSNC likes it or not. Their days are numbered. Like the man said, “We only need be as radical as the times require.” These times require radical solutions. Will a Biden admin provide them or merely put liberals back to sleep. As an Eritrean fresh off the plane once told me, after the 2016 election, “You American’s got exactly what you deserved” Karma is a bitch. Good luck Cindy and Joe, you’ll need it.
Addressing only your first point: The Democratic Party (of which Bernie is not a member) didn’t “screw” anyone out of a nomination. That’s almost as ridiculous, though not nearly so damaging to our democracy, as the Current Occupant’s claims of having the general election “stolen.” The bulk of the Democratic Party selected Joe Biden as its candidate. Turns out that was a wise choice, because the fear of Bernie/”socialism”/radicals, as stupid as it is, was a key factor in the decisions of almost half the voting public. Had Bernie run, Trump would have his second term. We as a nation are in serious trouble because of the number of uneducated, intentionally ignorant, or gullible voters and I have no answer for that. But please don’t pretend that Bernie was the savior we ignored. His function is to drive the discussion of the possible to the left, and he has succeeded in some instances with that.
A lot of Trumpers don’t realize that we already live in a social welfare state — Medicare, Medicaid, etc., and we need better educated citizens.
The above is responding to Michael Johnson. Sorry I didn’t make that clear.
A few other thoughts. We have huge problems to address, and working together as a coalition is the only way to accomplish anything. COVID, healthcare, the economy–which was a monumental issue before we ever heard the term COVID, epic election fails, including blatant voter suppression, the myth of voter fraud, and the quadrennial need to parse deficient state election rules, blatant political corruption, the elevation of ignorance over expertise, and the destruction of our national norms by the Trump administration. How to teach our children that lying and bullying are wrong after four years of the President doing them, seemingly without consequence.
Thinking Trump “smart” is the height of ignorance in my view. PERSON MAN WOMEN TV CAMERA is not defending a dissertation.