I don’t get it.
For months, as I’ve followed the political news closely, I’ve been hearing people knowledgeable about politics saying — as if it were built into reality, like the force of gravity — that the race will get tighter as time passes and Election Day draws nigh.
I’ve heard that said repeatedly, but I’ve never heard anyone explain why that would be. And it’s not self-evident to me.
I can imagine the race tightening. But I can equally well imagine things moving in the opposite direction— toward a blow-out.
Particularly when one of the candidates — in this case, the incumbent — is vulnerable on so many fronts.
(Yes, I know, his criminality and corruption have already been openly exposed again and again. But there’s always the “straw that broke the camel’s back” phenomenon. And there is always the possibility that some affront will come to light that offends potential swing voters at a deeper level than previous offenses. For example — and we should know soon if this is the case — this Atlantic story about Trump calling members of the military who risk their lives for their country “suckers,” and those who are killed or wounded in such patriotic service “losers” might have an impact that previous evidence of Trump’s atrocious character have not. After all, not so long ago a lot of these people were beating the drum of “Support Our Troops.”)
Anyway, I’d like to conclude with a question and a hope:
The question is, Can anyone provide a good and sensible reason why it would be expected that during the final months of a presidential election, the race should get tighter?
The hope I maintain, despite the pronouncements of all those pundits, is that far from tightening, this race will become a landslide of historic proportions. That Biden will not just defeat Trump, but that Trump’s rejection by the American electorate will be overwhelming.
I do recognize that there are a lot of Trump supporters who — somehow — are stuck to him with superglue. I don’t understand exactly how that works, but I see that — to change the metaphor — their feet are stuck in dry concrete and they are not going anywhere. Maybe 30-some percent of voters.
But I still entertain the hope that the repudiation of this almost worst-imaginable President will be of Barry Goldwater and Alf Landon proportions (both got about 39%).