We know it won't be over on Tuesday.
This from Reuters :
Nov 1 (Reuters) - Democrats are readying a rapid-fire response to flood social media and the airwaves with calls for calm and patience with vote-counting should Donald Trump try to prematurely claim election victory, as he did in 2020, Harris campaign and party officials told Reuters...
It has been eight years since a presidential candidate has delivered a conceding phone call to the winner and a concession speech to the nation, modeling for the free world what Democracy looks like. Hillary Clinton, despite winning the popular vote by almost 3 million, called Donald Trump :
"I congratulated Trump and offered to do anything I could to make sure the transition was smooth," she wrote. "It was all perfectly nice and weirdly ordinary, like calling a neighbor to say you can't make it to his barbecue. It was mercifully brief ...."
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Four years later, the tradition of conceding an election was jettisoned when Trump not only refused to make "the phone call" and "the speech," he also refused to attend Biden's inauguration or assist in the peaceful transfer of power.
You all know this.
But think of our first-time voters. They were in the fifth grade in 2016. They likely don't remember watching the Obamas, with utmost grace, welcome the Trumps to the White House in January 2017. Watch it here, but you might want to have Kleenex handy.
Our youngest voters have grown up seeing a good chunk of America decry its democratic principles during elections. To them, our elections do not come with calm assurance that this nation can move forward, guided by Lincoln's better angels of our nature.
I don't think Trump will concede a loss tomorrow night without months of fractious, litigious post-election disruption. He has already told us what he will do if he wins--which frightens me even more.
Regardless of the outcome of the vote, nothing will be over for some time to come.
Peace be with you.
Allison
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