6 events in Passaic County with a date

Can we fix what's wrong with America?

By: Mike Kelly
Columnist
USA Today Network

..... As America approaches the finish line of the presidential campaign a similar refrain seems to echo on both sides of the political divide. Maybe it's our new national mantra.
..... "I can't wait for this to be over."
..... Such a sentiment is understandable. I've heard it form dozens of voters.
..... America is worn out. From the roller coaster of Donald Trump's legal problems earlier this year [2024] to the questions over President Joe Biden's mental capacity that led to his withdrawal from the race in June, [2024] to the 100-day campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris and now to the tsunami of political ads that cluster our TV viewing, this has been a troubling year. [2024]
..... But amid the seemingly endless election storms, another set of questions loom: What about the day after Election Day - or, more likely, the weeks after Election Day, when the results are finally counted? What's left for America to face? or clean up? This election has left behind substantial piles of political rubble. her are five that America needs to examine.

1. January 6, 2021

..... Perhaps it seems odd for America to still, focus on an event that took place nearly four years ago. But the reality is that the brutal attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress attempted to certify Biden's presidential election remains one of the most troubling days in U.S. history.
..... Trouble is, America has never really come to grips with what took place when thousands of angry Trump supporters spired by their losing president, tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power. It was nothing less than an attempted coup d'etat.
..... This kind of sordid plot had never taken place in America.
..... And now, America faces tow paths.
..... If Trump wins, he pr4omises to fire special counsel Jack Smith and order federal Justice Department officials to cancel the efforts to hold Trump accountable for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump also promises to pardon or commute the sentences of hundreds of his supporters who were convicted or pleaded guilty to federal crimes in attacking the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
..... If that happens, how will American really knew what took place? In this case, the historical record matter. and right now, Trump threatens to erase that record.
..... If Harris wins, Smith will likely keep his job and continue his efforts to bring Trump to trial on the alleged 2020 election violations. But when?
..... No less than the U.S. Supreme Court has stepped in and set up vague legal guardrails on whether presidents can be prosecuted for alleged crimes that may have happened while they were engage in "official" White House business. But when it comes to an angry president trying to challenge an election, is that "official: presidential business or just the work of one man?
..... Such decisions are likely to dominate at least the first years of a Harris administration - if she's elected.

2. Why keep the Electoral College?

..... America likes to brag that it's the world's strongest democracy. But when it comes to picking presidents, not all votes count the same.
..... To wind the presidency, candidates have to win 270 electoral votes - essentially a simple way of giving each state set of votes that correspond to its population. But allocating those electoral votes has little to do with actual voting.
..... Candidates who win a state by just one vote receive all of the state's Electoral College votes. The result is a system in which a candidate might win the majority of national popular votes - often by running up the score in favorable states - but lose the electoral College.
..... That's exactly what took place in tow or the last six presidential elections p George W. Bush;s victory in 2000 and Trump's in 2016.
..... In some states, the Electoral College process sets up a system that favors a disproportionate dominance buy one party over the other.
..... Fro example, in 2020 Biden won more than 46% of the vote in Texas, but all that state's 40 electoral College votes were awarded to Trump, who won just 52% of the vote. Likewise, Trump received none of California;s 54 electoral votes because Biden won 63% of the popular vote and Trump;s tally was 35%.
..... Perhaps the most serious problem is that this system has crated a disproportionate small set of so-called "swing" or "battleground: states, where the electoral College vote is actually in play. What this means is that the 2024 presidential election may be decided in just seven of the 50 states. Worse, if voting trends of 2016 and 2020 continue, you can expect the next president to be chosen by just three or four of those "swing "states.
..... In 2016, Trump's electoral College victory stemmed largely form his arrow victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - a total of about 80,000 votes, or about the capacity of Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford. [NJ] IN 2020, while Biden won the national poplar vote by more than 7 million, his victories in George, Arizona and Wisconsin by a combine total of just 44,000 votes were the key to his victory over Trump. If Biden had lost those states, the election would have been a dead heat.
...... How is this process fair? America has avoided that question for too long.

3. Why so few p4residentila debates?

..... America has long clung to a false portrait of its democracy - that our candidates for elections actually debate each other.
..... That's not the case.
..... Trump and Biden debated just once this year [2024] before Biden dropped out. then came shut one debate between Trump and Harris - and just one debate between the vice presidential candidates. JD Vance and Tim Walz.
..... How is this process helpful for a true democracy?
..... During each presidential, election cycle, someone asks such a question. (I've asked it many times.) But the system never changes.
..... The result is that the flow of candidates' positions, proposals and countries of programmed "appea4rances: or. worse, TV ads.
..... The number are staggering - more than 3.7 million ads across the nation for just the presidential race. In the so-called "battleground state" of Pennsylvania, each household has been subjected to 16 ads for Harris and Trump each day.
..... This marketing avalanche might not be so disturbing if it were offset with counterarguments that might come from more debates.
..... For example, Harris' plan to invest in small businesses, while certainly enticing, cries out for serious cost analysis. The same is true of Trump's plan to impose tariffs.
..... Plenty of other issues also demand deeper questioning. these range form Harris' delicate dance in which she has avoided the controversial progressive potions of her ill-fated 2019 presidential campaign to Trump's promise to sue the U.S. military to deport undocumented immigrants.
..... What America has now is a rattle of TV ads between Trump and Harris as the major pathway of information. the candidates present only information that they deem helpful - like advertisers for soap and cars.
..... Voters are left wondering what they're missing.

4. Why won't voters trust this election?

..... This questioning continues to haunt our presidential elections.
..... But the deeper question is why. Is there evidence behind this mistrust?
..... Trump warned in 2016 that the election was probably "rigged" against him. He offered no evidence. And, in the end, he won - and didn't complain.
..... In 2020, Trump again raised fears f a "rigged: election. And when he lost, he not only unleashed dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits but refused to concede defeat. The result was the January 6, 2021, a5ttack on the U.S. Capitol - and Trump's refusal to stop that attack even though plenty of officials begged him to step in.
..... But in the end, no evidence of significant fraud that would affect the election outcome could be found.
..... Where does this fear of rigged elections come from?
..... Many experts point to John F. Kennedy's 119,000-popular-voter victory over Richard Nixon in 1960 - and, in particular, how Kennedy won the Texas and Illinois electoral votes by just 55,000 votes.
..... A variety of courts at the time - and at least one independent prosecutor -found no evidence of cheating in Texas and Illinois. but at least two respected presidential historians - Robert Dallek and Robert Caro - have since suggested that some form of cheating may have taken place.
..... This has resulted in decades of Republican fears of cheating by Democrats.
..... For this election, Republicans and Democrats have enlisted squadrons of lawyers to track down alleged voting irregularities. And now, with Tuesday's [11/05/2024] election considered to be one of the closest since the Kennedy-Nixon race of 1960, the level of distrust has risen to alarming levels.
..... But is this distrust grounded in real evidence? It's time America answered that question.

5. What is the future of identity politics?

..... Candidates in all manner of races have long depended on specific voting groups to give them an edge.
..... During the Depression, Democrats looked to the Irish and Jews as bulwarks of support.
..... In recent decades African Americans have emerged as a powerful core of Democratic strength.
..... For decades, Republicans appealed to farmers, suburban white-collar workers and owners of small businesses - not to mention corporate bigwigs. In recent decades, a center of Republican strength emerged among evangelical Protestants.
..... This year, [2024] however, we're watching a variety of shifts in voters. whether such shifts will become dramatic enough to affect Tuesday's [11/05/2024] election - or further elections - remains to be seen.
..... For example, polls now indicate that more Black and Hispanic men are supporting Trump. Suburban women appear to be shifting toward Harris.
..... Does the foreshadow a major realignment of voters?
..... Again, it's difficult to say. But it certainly calls into question the over-reliance by Republicans and Democrats on focusing so much attention on narrow categories of voters, with the presumption that they might be interested in a narrow set of issues.
..... What's lost here is a more holistic view of voters. while viewing voters merely as "blue" Democratizes or "red" Republicans, far too many candidates fail to see voters as "purple" and embracing a variety of views.
..... In Tuesday's [11/05/2024] election, the biggest shift may be moderate Republicans supporting Harris, along with conservatives such as Liz Cheney who find Trump politically repulsive.
..... If such a shift takes place, what does it mean for republicans and Democrats in general?
..... More broadly, will it cause Republicans and Democrats to end their along reliance on playing the game of identity politics with voters?

 

..... These are just five of the political piles of rubble on the political battlefield. How long will it take to clean up these piles - or even sort through them?
..... Don't expect a clear answer on Tuesday. [11/05/2024]

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