America will vote on Tuesday – or more precisely finish voting – in an election viewed by many as the most important in US history. The real campaign, however, is only just beginning – not just because of a system that essentially puts the outcome in the hands of presidential electors (who will only vote in December) but due to real concern that this time the election results will become more ambiguous as time passes.
Both parties and both candidates are already preparing for the war of attrition in the courts. For all intents and purposes, the legal battles have already begun with various petitions. But there is one thing we can already praise – the massive voter turnout in these historic elections under the black cloud of the coronavirus.
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Tens of millions of people have already voted early (over 96 million of the 150 million people expected to vote). This means that as of Monday, we've seen more than two-thirds of the entire 2016 turnout.
The record-breaking turnout in some states illustrates the extent to which America's character is on the line. Elderly folks in Pennsylvania, where I've been the past two days, have seen a thing or two in their time but never something like this. Add corona to that list. And it's all happening at once.
The shuttered and barricaded businesses in Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Los Angeles are indicative of the considerable tensions on the eve of the election. Many fear a Trump victory will undoubtedly unleash another wave of violence by his opponents.
Hostility is in the air in numerous places because both sides feel the results won't be accurate, that there will be voter fraud, and that a legal battle is inevitable (President Trump even said at a rally on Sunday that the moment the election ends he will "send in his lawyers" to review swing-state votes).
It's entirely uncertain we'll have a clear winner by Wednesday or even the weekend. In Pennsylvania, from a legal standpoint, vote counting cannot start until actual Election Day and many districts will only begin counting after voting stations close – which is why officials have already said the result will likely only be declared on Thursday.
Florida has already begun counting its votes, but the already considerable turnout, together with the fact that it sits in two time zones, will extend counting into the night – and if it's a close race, officials will of course wait for all the mail-in ballots before declaring a winner.
Even The Atlantic, which isn't among Trump's supporters, to put it mildly, cautioned that "small-town white Americans" could "offset his losses elsewhere." Everyone believes that the polls are once again out of touch.
Trump's "blitz" is also insane: 14 rallies in three days. On Sunday he concluded a rally far past midnight, and on Monday he continued his charge across four more states: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. In those states, he asserted that despite the coronavirus pandemic, he is the only one who can march America forward.
I attended Trump's rally in Scranton on Monday. He came to this city to remind everyone that he is a "Scranton boy," even though his rival, Biden, was born there. Trump's message: Biden abandoned you to become a typical Washington phony, served as a member of the elite establishment for 47 years and didn't save your industries and jobs, while he, Trump, is like them.
The Jewish vote
At the rally, Trump didn't pull punches, lambasting the "fake and corrupt" media and big-tech, which "controls the media and the politicians."
"We're going to win Pennsylvania," he guaranteed. Many people wearing kippot were also in the crowd along with Chabad emissaries who came from New York, Levi and Mendel. A group of "Jews for Trump" in the crowd shouted "We love you," firing up those around them. "Don't make me cry," he told them. Who would have believed that in Scranton of all places Jews would be so prominent?
Mordechai and Abraham came from New Jersey and Detroit just to attend the rally. "God will bless him for moving the embassy to Jerusalem. He is a blessed president," says Abraham. His friend, Mordechai, says he doesn't understand Jews who don't vote for Trump. Other Trump supporters in attendance railed against the perception that they don't wear masks. "This entire claim that we don't wear masks at rallies is a lie," they said.
The president vowed to defend their "sacred faith and values" and that America will remain energy independent. He also intimated that if he wins, he will fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with whom he has publicly butted heads over the corona crisis.
Biden spent a portion of his last day on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, this time with Lady Gaga, which led the Trump campaign to immediately remind people that the pop star opposes oil shale drilling in the state and will therefore help Biden erase thousands of jobs. Biden was also in Cleveland, Ohio, while his deputy, Kamala Harris, made a final push in Pennsylvania.
Biden's message on the final day of the race was one of a new horizon for Americans, and not just about disappointment in Trump over the pandemic. "The power to change the country is in your hands," he told the people in Cleveland.
Either way, last month's vote to appoint Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, which was the first time in 150 years that not one senator from the minority party voted in favor, showed the degree to which America is divided. That was merely a symptom, however, of how tribal America is today.
We wish our beloved America that on Election Day, Tuesday, or whenever the results are announced, that people remember the founding fathers strived for unity, and that one civil war has already been fought and we don't need another one.
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