November 6, Wednesday

So, it was a good night for our side. We put together a watch party at the local bar and grill, which was attended by probably upwards of 50 people.

The convention of “Republican = red, Democrat = blue” is of fairly recent origin, historically speaking, and I don’t know how it got started. Internationally, it’s more usual to see the conservative parties represented by a stately blue, while a fiery red – the color of revolution (and specifically socialism) – is associated with the political left. But this is the USA, and we gotta be different.

In any case, the map of the States was already showing large swathes of red when I arrived at the tavern around 7pm. I said hi to a couple of buddies, and grabbed a seat and caught the waitress’s attention. My brain formulated a wish for something healthy, thrifty, and generally sensible, such as the green salad or the hoummos plate, which my mouth somehow pronounced as “fish and chips”. So, fish and chips it was.

By the time of the election, many of us had grown cautiously optimistic about Trump’s chances. There were signs from the news media that the establishment were growing less smug and confident of Trump’s defeat, and were preparing themselves for his possible return to the White House. Americans had had four years to get a taste of life under Biden / Harris, and to assess their choices appropriately. A strong grassroots effort to get out the vote, coupled with heightened attention to election integrity issues, pointed to a more favorable outcome for DJT than in 2020. And then, too, the incumbent President, if not precisely an admirer of Trump, could not have been entirely displeased with the prospect of seeing Trump’s opponent defeated.

Another thing that helped Trump, I think, is that he appeared to have internalized some of the lessons of his first term, in particular his choices of people to surround himself with: a strong VP, JD Vance, and people like Ramaswamy, RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, and so on. Nobody ever accused Donald Trump of being an excessively humble man, but I think this final campaign video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wUx0tvmV70] does a great job of capturing a spirit of “we” rather than “I”.

On LJ, Potusgeeks has an analysis [https://potus-geeks.livejournal.com/1740230.html] of the election which I think is pretty much on target. (There are one or two things I’d quibble with, but in general I think it’s fair.)

On X.com, Konstantin Kisin has a wonderful post [https://x.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1854151133385613690] for ‘British and European friends who are “shocked” and “surprised”‘.

There were a couple of tantalizing moments when Oregon flickered from dark blue to light blue, or even light red, on the map. I figured this would be too good to last, and it didn’t. But I do believe that Oregon has a much stronger conservative base than most people realize.

Locally, we got some good news on a couple of ballot measures, including the defeat of ranked-choice voting [https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2024/11/measure-117-result-voters-appear-to-reject-statewide-ranked-choice-voting-in-early-returns.html]. I wrote a statement opposing the measure here [https://asher63.livejournal.com/905429.html]. A number of my friends in the local chapter worked very hard to get statements in opposition printed in the voter’s guide.

I left the watch party around 9:30, by which time it was looking reasonably certain things were going to go our way nationally. (We even picked up a Senate majority.) Still, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one on our team who went to bed wondering if there would be another wave of mysterious 3am ballots for the other side.

So that was my night. For today, I’ve got a job interview in about an hour. I’m cautiously optimistic that the change in leadership will bring an improved economy, but in any case, I’m looking forward to getting back into the workplace. [661]