The Aching Fingers of Democracy

Election year has now stretched into election years as national campaigns start the day the last one ended. Fundraising is endless and politicians have become campaigners more than policymakers or governors. It now takes two years of primaries and town halls and scandals and debates to decide who should be President of the United States. Similarly it should be no surprise that Election Day has now become Election Week. Votes have always been counted for days after an election but this time it matters. The margins are so thin that every basket of votes from every far flung corner of every county need to be counted. So the count goes on and our democracy, and the way each side feels about it, hangs in the balance.

The tension and spectacle created by the television networks wears thin. When the ginned up drama of one day stretches into three or four the manufactured nature of it all begins to show through and starts to crack. It is like the difference between baseball and cricket. One is definitely going to be over in a few hours and the other could be, but it could also stretch on for days. By definition you cannot have breaking news all the time. Breaking news is now just background noise and the actual news comes in slow drips and drabs as exhausted election volunteers thumb through mail in ballots under flickering fluorescent lights, just like they do every year. But this time they are wearing masks and under the watchful eye of the American voter. Their aching fingers doing the honest work of democracy. The count will continue, the lawsuits will play out, and democracy will once again prevail.

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