US election 2020: Whoever wins, US flag will still be there

Donald Trump supporters attend a campaign rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Picture: AFP.

So, here we are, it’s election day, with both sides seeing only what they want to see.

On Sky and Fox, it’s all, “Trump’s gaining! We’ve got a last minute surge!”

And over The New York Times, it’s: “Nobody panic, Biden’s still comfortably in front.”

At the same time, you’ve got: “Trump’s polling is down, but that doesn’t mean anything because the polls are often wrong!’

And, same-same, but different: “Biden’s up in the polls, but that doesn’t mean anything because the polls are often wrong!”

In truth, both sides are in these last hours daring to hope, but not yet ready to believe.

It’s curious how much attention we pay to the outcome, since it’s not like we in Australia can afford to have a dog in the fight.

We have to get on with whoever.

But imagine being an actual, undecided voter, if such a thing still exists in the US.

On one hand, there isn’t a lot to like about Trump’s character.

Here is a man so filled with arrogance and jealousy and historical ignorance that he is able to mock and belittle an American war hero of the stature of the late John McCain; a man of such physical and moral cowardice that he is able to dodge Vietnam and then joke about deserving a medal for surviving venereal disease; a man so unable to self-censor that he disparages the families of gold star veterans; who uses his status as President to enrich himself and his family (that’s a move surely more Marcos than American?); who has encouraged crowds to gather during a global pandemic; who has mocked the wearing of masks; who has made hollow promises about the swift arrival of a vaccine that is not in fact coming; who has made uninformed, and dangerous remarks about light treatments (wasn’t that also Pete Evans’ idea?).

He also tells lies.

Which matters, because he’s the President.

You’re meant to be able to trust him. Naive, of course, but still the ideal.

What then of Biden?

It’s reasonable to have doubts about his capacity. He is far too old at 78. Biden’s campaign isn’t for a presidency with the future of America in mind. It’s anyone-but-Trump, a weak move that displays a gross lack of faith by the Democratic party in the electorate; the kind of bait and switch we should deplore.

Where is the candidate of vision and purpose?

It’s also reasonable to believe that China may well become more adventurous under Biden, and certainly without the unpredictable blonde in the White House. And Biden brings with him a family at least as troubled, albeit in different ways, as that which tags along behind the incumbent.

Who would really want to choose, and especially in so fevered an environment?

Voters are being told – again – that no election has ever been as important as this one.

They know, of course, that is not even a little bit true.

Just briefly, how does it come to the first one? Which was important all by itself, but also gave us George Washington.

There was also the contest of 1860, involving a figure surely as important as the Donald.

Just three years on, Abraham Lincoln would be dealing with real division.

Then there’s the election of 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt had to get up over the incumbent, in order to bring in the New Deal.

There’s 2008, when the Democratic Party made a brilliantly bold, and genuinely triumphant decision to put a black man on the ballot, and were rewarded with a thumping victory.

There was also the election of 2016, when a woman had a go.

She won the ballot. She lost the election. And now Trump is asking for a second term, and the hysterics are everywhere: they’ve had to barricade the White House!

It’s never been under such threat!

Well, what about the time James Madison – author, along with Hamilton, of the Federalist Papers – was President, and the War of 1812 was underway, and the Brits set fire to the place?

America woke in the morning to find the flag still there. And it will still be here, whatever happens today. We don’t yet know anything about the outcome of this election. We do know that the US is above all things resilient. Bet on nothing else. Bet on that.