The mornings after

We are still in the middle of this election, but it's not too early to start learning lessons. So long as the integrity of the vote is respected, we have to abide by the results. On the subject of the integrity of the vote, the decisions of the Texas Supreme Court -- all Republican appointees -- and its support the next day by a Federal court last week regarding drive-through voting in and around Houston were encouraging. The Trump administration and/or the National Republican Party sought to stop it, the courts protected it. That was very encouraging from a checks and balances perspective.

And checks and balances are super important right now. I think overall what we've seen in the last couple of days is America showing its strong structural preference to let Presidential administrations have two terms to work on things. Obviously that is hard with Trump, because he doesn't give a fuck about any precedents and tramples on things willy nilly just to demonstrate that he can. It appears that America is disgorging itself of Trump himself, but acknowledging the legitimacy of some of the issues he touched upon. And also lots of Republicans continue to just hold their noses and prefer lower-tax, lower-regulatory regimes.

So it looks increasingly likely we get Biden but constrained by a Republican Senate and also a House in which the balance of power shifts incrementally back towards the middle. We can live with this. Indeed, we have no choice. Or perhaps it is better to say that we do have a choice and we have just shown what that is. With the Supreme Court conservative, the legislature will have to work to do anything. Having two Senators in the White House should ideally be great for getting the legislature back in productive, compromising mode. Let us cross our fingers.

There will be time to parse out the shifting demographics of the election. If more blacks and latinos are showing an acceptance of some of the pro-growth less government tighter boarders rhetoric of Trumpism, we have to listen to it.

The astonishing thing is the general acceptance of higher overall mortality in the face of coronavirus so that the economy will grow. A large part of the problem is that red states and counties had low mortality early in the crisis so they didn't feel the shock. It was a trauma to those of us in blue places. My life is in many ways more closely bound to New York, and even to London, Paris, and Madrid, than it is to Sanford and Yanceyville. I am in touch with people in the other places, I hear their stories and feel their pain.

It only just dawned on me this morning that, if Biden is elected, Kamala Harris will be the first woman in line for succession to the Presidency. That is a big deal that nobody has been playing up. Fingers croesed.