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Looking for electoral perspective

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The dust hasn’t yet settled on this presidential election, but it’s time nonetheless to seek to put some perspective on the impact of this momentous result.

President-elect Joe Biden is en route to an Electoral College victory that will mirror the win that Donald Trump scored four years ago. Trump called it a “landslide” victory over Hillary Clinton.

It wasn’t. It was a squeaker. Trump won on the strength of 77,000 votes cast in three Rust Belt states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that previously had voted for President Barack Obama.

On another matter, Trump was outvoted at the ballot box. Hillary Clinton collected nearly 3 million more votes than Trump, but just didn’t win the Electoral College votes she needed to become president.

Biden will finish with 306 electoral votes. Just as significantly, he will garner at least 5 million more votes than Trump; that number sits at 4.1 million at this moment, but they are far from finished counting all the ballots across the nation.

Does this election result constitute a landslide? No. It doesn’t. Joe Biden’s victory, though, is going to produce more of a mandate than Donald Trump ever was able to claim.

One more matter of perspective is in order. The composition of the U.S. Senate remains undecided. Two Senate races in Georgia are headed for runoffs. If two Democrats win those races, the Senate will end up with 50 Democrats (including two Democrat-leaning independents) and 50 Republicans. That puts Vice President Kamala Harris, as the Senate’s presiding officer, in position to cast tie-breaking votes if the need arises. You’ll recall that Vice President Mike Pence performed that task to confirm Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Joe Biden’s victory was historic to be sure. He was reduced to so much political road kill after early miserable primary showings early this year. He stormed back on the strength of an endorsement from Rep. James Clyburn in advance of the South Carolina primary, which he won. Biden never looked back.

He is now set to become president of the United States thanks to a victory that is decisive and clear cut. The great American experiment in electing an individual with no political or public service experience is about to end.

We’re about to welcome a president and vice president to the pinnacle of power who have political capital — which Donald Trump never acquired — they can spend. My hope is that President Biden and Vice President Harris spend it wisely.

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Trying to avoid spiking the ball

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have been resisting with all the strength I can muster the temptation to spike the proverbial football in light of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president of the United States.

I won’t go there.

However, I do feel the need to reveal that I am surrendering to the temptation  to send Donald Trump into the world of irrelevance. To that end, I do not intend to launch criticism at Trump … unless the president forces me to do so.

How would he do that? By insisting he will take his loss into the courts to challenge a free and fair election, to suggest it was “stolen” from him. He well might commit some boorish acts along the way. He could forgo the usual courtesies that outgoing presidents extend to their successors. He could skip President-elect Biden’s inaugural. Trump could decline to pledge a “peaceful transfer of power” to the new president’s team.

He also would incur my wrath if he makes dangerous policy dangerous in the next 10 weeks before he exits the political stage. The court challenges he intends to mount will be accompanied by relentless Twitter messages.

Donald Trump will humiliate himself and will do significant additional damage to the “legacy” he will leave behind once he exits the White House.

Accordingly, I do not intend waste any more of my attention than is absolutely necessary on a man who deserved to lose the presidential election.

President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris have delivered the nation from the chaos and confusion that have been the hallmark of an administration that is on the verge of disappearing.

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Let the healing begin

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have to say that the words “President-elect Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.” have a stirring ring to my eyes and ears.

The networks and major media organizations have made a call many of us wanted to hear, that we have new president of the United States.

I am a happy fellow at this moment.

We’ll get to unpack all the reasons for our happiness in the weeks ahead. The end of Donald Trump’s tenure as president is just around the corner. He likely won’t concede the race, at least not in the immediate future, which to be honest doesn’t bother me near as much as I thought it might.

His refusal to concede and to offer a full cooperation with the new president and his team will inflict some damage to the nation’s image abroad, but it will cast most of the shame on Trump.

What’s more …

Let’s not forget a key historical moment that occurred just a little while ago: the election of Kamala Harris as the first woman vice president. Indeed, she embodies a historical trifecta as the first woman, the first black woman and the first Indian-American woman.

And so there you have it.

President-elect Biden pledged to heal the country. He has been through emotional hell in his own life, so he knows all about what it takes to heal a shattered heart. He has buried two of his children and his wife. He has climbed out of the depths of despair.

Joe Biden now stands at the political pinnacle.

This is a good day for the nation we love.

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Dr. Jackson becomes U.S. rep.-elect

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I skedaddled from the Texas Panhandle a couple of years ago, so my thoughts on a just-completed political campaign in the 13th Congressional District should be considered in that context.

I am not as close to the action in the Panhandle as I used to be, but my interest in the region remains high.

13th District voters elected Dr. Ronny Jackson as their next representative. Rep.-elect Jackson presents a strange new turn in Panhandle politics, in my humble view.

Jackson is a former White House physician. He served three presidents: George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Trump wanted to nominate Jackson to be secretary of veterans affairs. Jackson didn’t make the cut; he bowed out after questions arose about his lack of administrative experience and then about his conduct as a physician.

So, he looked for a place to run for Congress and set his sights on a district where he never lived. He wanted to succeed longtime Rep. Mac Thornberry of Clarendon, who decided he didn’t want to seek re-election to a seat he held since 1995.

Jackson doesn’t know much about the district he now will  represent. He was born in Levelland, but moved away to join the Navy  — attaining the rank of rear admiral — and never looked back. Until now.

During the campaign, he became something of a shill for Donald Trump. He said some goofy things about the soon-to-be-former president.

What he knows specifically about Pantex, about the Bell/Textron aircraft assembly mission, about water conservation, or wind energy, or farm policy remains a mystery to me. Mac Thornberry is a son of the Panhandle, coming from a longtime Donley County ranching family. Jackson is a new resident of the region, so I guess I can call him a carpetbagger.

In these times, I guess it’s OK for carpetbaggers to represent the interest of folks who formerly used to demand that their political representatives be proficient in the issues important to them.

Jackson won handily.

As for his shilling for Donald Trump, I am wondering how long he’ll want to stay in office with his main man no longer in office.

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How would President Biden govern?

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am going to take a tiny leap of faith and presume that Joe Biden will be declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Thus, he will begin the transition into the nation’s highest political office. Let’s ponder the question: How different will President Biden’s  governing style be from the man he succeeds, Donald Trump?

Let me count the ways.

For starters, Joe Biden knows how government works. He served in the U.S. Senate for 36 years before being elected vice president in 2008. That’s 44 years in the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. Donald Trump had zero public service experience before being elected president … and, boy howdy, that gap in his resume showed itself in graphic fashion.

Biden has many friends on both sides of the great political divide. He calls himself a “proud Democrat,” but over the years he cultivated many personal friendships and professional relationships with Republicans. He knows how legislate. Biden understands that compromise is the art of seeking an outcome that serves the common good.

Joe Biden knows how to talk to the GOP. Trump never developed any friendships with Democrats, let alone with many within the Republican Party. Why is that? He had no political experience. Furthermore, he has few actual friends within the GOP.

It’s instructive to understand that Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have a record of being able to work together. They understand each other.

Finally, Joe Biden is likely to retain his footing while he governs. He has been through emotional hell over many decades. His first wife and baby daughter died in a motor vehicle accident in late 1972. His son, Beau, died of cancer just a few years ago. Joe Biden has relied on his faith to see him through. He understands emotional pain and feels the suffering that inflict others.

Donald Trump is not wired in any fashion to understand the suffering that befall other human beings.

President Biden, from all I can discern, is going to restore so much of the nuance of good government that Donald Trump sought to toss aside. Therefore, that political payoff makes all this vote counting worth the wait.

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First, let’s get it right

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Are you as anxiety-riddled as I am, waiting for final unofficial results that declare Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the next president of the United States?

Those of you who are, I want to offer this bit of advice.

Let’s calm down. I keep telling myself that very thing, with little impact on the angst that keeps roiling with my gut.

Election officials in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia need to get it right without worrying about getting it out in a hurry. Thus, for them the first priority is to ensure the votes are counted accurately. Am I unsettled because we don’t know yet whether Joe Biden has actually been elected? Sure, I most certainly am unsettled.

Then we have the issue of Donald Trump’s concession. More to the point: He hasn’t conceded. White House aides say he won’t concede. Trump signaled Thursday an utter disdain for the democratic process when he threw out myriad conspiracy theories he said are designed to “steal” the election from him. Indeed, Trump’s disdain extends to our very representative democracy. He lied brazenly, openly and without a shred of shame.

What if he doesn’t concede? What if we approach inauguration day and President-elect Biden prepares to take office and Trump still hasn’t vacated the office. A Biden campaign aide put it well, saying that the “people decide who is the president” and the government has ways of “removing trespassers from the White House.”

We must arc back to the anxiety that builds while we await the final unofficial results. I am just a single American voter, a patriot, someone who loves this country with all my heart. I want a change to occur and I am supremely confident that it will occur.

I just need to practice the advice my head keeps preaching to my heart.

Just be patient, man.

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Trump’s lack of character on full display

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

We knew all along that Donald Trump lacked the underpinnings of decency and dignity to assume the role of president of the United States.

Now we get to witness the flailing, feckless futility of a man on the cusp of losing an office he had no business occupying in the first place.

Joe Biden is poised to be declared the 46th president of the United States of America. He will deliver a victory statement perhaps tonight, or maybe in the next day or two.

Donald Trump? He is fomenting the lie for the ages, that illegally cast votes propelled Biden to victory. Moreover, aides close to Trump say the Sore Loser in Chief has no intention of conceding defeat to Biden.

This is a dangerous and pitiful example of what history will record as the most freakish political aberration in American history. Ponder this for a moment: The president of the United States seeks to undermine the very basis of our representative democracy by alleging corruption in the election process that continues to unfold before our eyes.

It gets worse. Republican officeholders who have aligned themselves with Trump are giving him a pass; some of them are endorsing the dangerous conspiracy nonsense that Trump is spouting.

How does that saying go? That silence is an expression of complicity? Yep. That’s it. They are bringing shame onto themselves and allowing the disgraceful charlatan who has masqueraded as president to do the same thing.

Despite all of this, I want to offer a bit of good news.

First, each court that gets a legal complaint from Donald Trump alleging illegality in the voting process is going to waste zero time in deciding whether to accept or deny it. They know that time is not on their side, that the clock is ticking toward the inauguration of a new president, so they have to act in rapid-fire order.

Second, it is my fervent hope — and growing belief — that the U.S. Supreme Court, if it even accepts a complaint, will deliver a quick decision that will end this charade once and for all.

Third, Biden’s victory comes with a mandate to govern that Donald Trump never acquired. He will have rolled up a handsome majority of ballots cast. Biden’s Electoral College victory appears headed to matching the electoral win that Trump scored four years ago.

Lastly, the president-elect will conduct himself with the class and grace that has been missing from the presidency for the past four years.

First things first. Donald Trump might need to get escorted from the White House by federal marshals. I would pay real American money to see that event take place.

It would be the final disgrace that Donald Trump could bring to the nation’s most exalted public office.

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Waiting for GOP ‘heroes’

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein has said that the real “heroes” of the Watergate scandal were the Republicans in Congress who stood up to President Nixon and told him he needed to resign.

Nixon didn’t have the support in Congress to withstand an impeachment accusing him of abuse of power and covering up the scandal that began in 1972 with a “third-rate burglary” of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Leaders of the GOP congressional caucus delivered the news to the president.

Looking now at another Republican president seeking to undermine the democratic process that is about to elect Joe Biden as president, one has to wonder if there any GOP heroes left to stand up to Trump.

I fear there are none. I fear they won’t tell Trump to give up a futile and unpatriotic fight that seeks to undermine a free and fair election. I could be wrong; indeed, I am wrong way more than I am right on most matters.

I just want to see and hear a “hero” emerge as they did in 1974 when an earlier president faced certain political doom. Donald Trump’s time as president now appears doomed as well, as Joe Biden inches closer to an Electoral College victory.

Instead we are hearing Trump issue ridiculous and defamatory accusations of conspiracies and “illegal” votes being cast.

Waiting for the heroes to emerge. Are they out there? Anywhere?

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Trump = extreme danger

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My fellow Americans, those of you who watched Donald Trump just a little while ago on national TV were handed a reason to believe that this individual must lose the presidential election and be ushered out of the White House as soon as humanly possible.

Joe Biden stands on the verge of winning the election. He is just a few electoral votes away from scoring the most important presidential election victory in our lifetime.

Trump, however, has now contended while standing in the White House press briefing room that Democrats, the media and the Biden campaign have conspired to steal a duly conducted free and fair election.

Donald Trump has just uttered arguably the most dangerous lie during his tenure as president of the United States.

This individual is utterly without shame, without conscience, without decency. He has alleged that illegal votes have been cast against him; there isn’t a shred of evidence of anything coming close to what Trump has alleged.

Donald Trump has denigrated neutral polling organizations, local elections officials who belong to both political parties, the media (naturally!) and the former vice president of the United States who is likely to defeat him in his bid for re-election.

Is there a more blatant case for removing this guy from office? Can there be any rationale for keeping him in office?

“If you count the legal votes I easily win,” Trump said, providing no evidence. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

“I’ve already decisively won many critical states, including massive victories,” Trump said.

Allow me to restate the obvious. There has been zero evidence of “illegal votes” being cast. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a president who is out … of … control!

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POTUS damages democratic process

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Allow me this bit of candor, which is that I hadn’t given much if any thought to whether a president of the United States would actually speak against the democratic process in the country he was elected to govern.

Until now.

Donald Trump is demanding that states that are counting ballots cast in this week’s presidential election should stop the ballot-tabulation process. Yes. The president wants them to stop counting ballots that were cast legally in a free and fair election.

Is there a precedent for this kind of coercion, this sort of bullying? I cannot think of it.

Donald Trump entered the presidency four years ago with no knowledge or experience with government, or with public service. That ignorance is playing out in full view as Donald Trump is being forced inch by inch out of office by the vote totals run up by Joseph Biden, the seeming winner of the presidential election.

Trump is filing court challenges. The courts are routinely dismissing them. The challenges seek to cast aspersions on the legality of the ballots cast; the courts are saying the challenges have no merit.

Trump has taken to Twitter to insist that states stop counting the ballots. He has no singular authority to make such a demand. But he persists and adds to his already shameful conduct.

We will get through all of this eventually. I am waiting with bated breath for a declaration that we will have a president-elect who then can commence the transition from chaos to collegiality within our federal government.

As for Trump, it falls on him to decide whether he will exit the office with dignity and pledge the traditional “peaceful transition of power” to Joe Biden and his team … or whether he will continue to conduct himself in a manner that brings abject shame and ridicule.

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