Put on your red hats and sling your rifles, it’s Election Day in the US.
At some point over the next 48 to 72 hours, election officials and pollsters will hopefully be able to discern which candidate managed to secure the necessary number of electors to stake a claim on the Oval Office. That’s the first step in a lengthy process which may include interminable litigation, various sorts of treason and an armed coup. What can you do, right? “Democracy’s messy,” as the saying goes.
Derisive snark permeated “professional” market commentary on Tuesday, when folks who almost surely voted for the losing candidate last time disparaged the alleged absurdity of characterizing this election as somehow more important than any other US presidential election.
You know the joke. It’s the same joke the same people use for FOMC meetings and NFP releases: “This is the most important US election until the next one.” (I get it! I get it! You’re actually saying this election isn’t uniquely important, and your deadpan cadence is meant to complement the understated character of the joke. Well done! That one never gets old! Hard to believe you landed on Wall Street. The door was wide open to standup comedy or creative writing. I can’t wait to hear the same crack on Thursday, just before the November Fed meeting.)
Don’t kid yourself: This election is absolutely unique. One of the candidates is a four-times-indicted, twice-impeached, convicted felon who summoned a Walmart parking lot to stop, or anyway obstruct, the certification process for the last US election. That’s pretty unique. It’s a lot of other adjectives too, but I don’t want to offend anyone already suffering from the acute psychological distress that goes along with knowing you’re complicit it a long-running plot to overthrow American democracy on behalf of a reality TV show host.
There’s not a lot of utility in pounding the table on that, though. Carrying on about the peril posed by Trump is a bit like trying to reason with Florida residents about climate change. Trump supporters and climate deniers will never concede the point, even if the worst-case materializes. A Trump voter who somehow lands in a concentration camp for undesirables during Don Jr.’s second term would no more concede that voting for Trump in 2024 was a bad idea than a Floridian permanently displaced to South Carolina by superstorm Lucifer’s 380-mph winds and 147-foot storm surge would admit something’s amiss with the weather.
That’s the thing about getting duped: People have a very difficult time admitting they were suckered. You see this every day. People go to extraordinary lengths to explain away and rationalize what’s right in front of them. “Yeah, I took Jim-Bob’s advice and rolled up the negative equity in my F-150 into a nine-year, 12% note on that loaded Dodge Ram I wanted, but they threw in an extended warranty and a set of all-weather mats.” Or, “No, Google doesn’t show any yoga studios within 250 square miles of our house, but my wife says she goes to yoga class every Wednesday night from 7:30 to 11:00, so Google must be missing one.” Or, “Yes, I’ve spent $1,000 this week, and when I look in the mirror I see a Rudolph who never got to guide the sleigh and subsequently developed a substance abuse problem, but when eight balls are $250, you’re a fool to pass up the savings.”
I don’t know what to tell you, folks. If you want to pretend this election is just another systems check in the world’s foremost democracy, that Trump’s not a unique candidate, that the stakes aren’t any higher than they would be if he weren’t on the ballot and so on, then that’s your prerogative. I’ll see you in the Ram showroom. And I’ll see your wife at yoga. And I’ll see you in three hours for that fourth ball. And I’ll see you at the Capitol on January 6, 2025, for a peaceful protest.
Well stated
It’s a little harsh, I guess, but then again — I mean, my God, can you imagine what they’re writing on MAGA “blogs” and GOP-inclined web portals today? It’s probably outlandish. At least my abrasive commentary is well-written and funny.
Forget about fluoride in the water, we need to add THC to the water supply. Should calm them down. Either that or half the population should enter into psychiatric care for treatment of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Maybe it can be covered by Obama Care.
That it is!
Not too harsh, at all!
My only criticism is that I think you should have voted…but I do understand. 🙂
This reads like a caffeine induced morning motivated missive and it’s fantastic.
Maybe 8 balls have bucked the inflation trend? That or they’re probably half fent these days anyways…
Wait until you read the monthly.
Pass the popcorn….the price of which most certainly has gone up (unfortunately).
I hear the rumors on 8-balls are true — at least until the seasonal adjustment revisions are made. $250 might be generous by at least $100, actually. Thank god that wasn’t the case when I was in college or my portfolio would probably look a lot different now.
I can understand a few people being sufficiently deficient in critical thinking skills to be taken in by this con man, but when fully 47% or more of the populace is suckered in I think it makes this country look pretty pitiful in the eyes of the world.
It’d take a complete failure by one half of the political spectrum’s leadership to accomplish, and it did.
It’s the kind of thing that happens when you underfund public education for a couple of generations. Our British cousins elected BoJo, didn’t they?
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” -Twain
New one to me. Thanx.
As part of my basic course in strategy I used to teach a couple class sessions in decision making. I admit to borrowing this trick from the book of a distant colleague but here goes. I would come into class and offer to auction off a $20 bill. The highest bidder would get the twenty for their bid price. There was a catch, the second highest bidder (loser) would also have to pay what they bid, but would get nothing. You would think no one would go for this but you’d be wrong. Students fell for it. Business executives would go for it. Easy-peasy. Most bidders would have dropped by the way side by $17-18 but good old #2 would hang around to avoid the inevitable loss. In all my time doing this I never failed to pocket $75 (less the twenty). All the proceeds went to the student club fund, of course. But it never got old. There would be this moment when the inevitable lose would understand there was no chance to offset their loss. A cheap lesson.
Florida Climate Change Deniers got an honorable mention, but it willl be interesting to see how refractory beliefs are as teh water rises.