The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

At this time 24 hours from now, results will be coming in for the 2024 U.S. elections with all eyes on the outcome of the presidential election between current Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

It might take several days for the results to be clear perhaps longer depending on the outcome. But from where I sit the results of the presidential election will be good, bad or ugly.

Good

The only good outcome of the presidential election is a Kamala Harris victory.

In this case, victory entails Harris surviving shenanigans by Trump and his quislings to overturn the will of the people and be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025. Should this come to pass let us also hope there will be no attempt by Trump and his quislings to overthrow the Harris Administration.

It must be said that good isn't perfect. Harris will be constrained both by Congress of which one at least House controlled by Republicans and a conservative Supreme Court. I will also invariably disagree with some of the things a Harris Administration will say and do. Should I be dissatisfied with Harris' stewardship then it is quite possible that come 2028, I might choose a different President. But this is exactly what democracy ought to be. 

Kamala Harris isn't entitled to my vote in four years from now, but she has earned it this year. She has earned it by seeking to help others rather seeking retribution for oneself.

Bad 

A bad outcome would be a Harris victory which Congress fails to certify and sees fit to choose Trump with the Supreme Court bestowing its blessing. Should Congress and the Supreme Court see fit to disregard the free choice of the American people then we shall cease to be a democracy. 

One could argue this isn't the first time this has come to pass with Bush vs. Gore in 2000. But Bush did not stay in power for life and was widely praised for his efforts towards a smooth transition to the Obama Administration. 

Should Trump return to power by dubious means then all bets are off because we would truly be in uncharted territory. Above all else, do not expect Trump to surrender power willingly. Indeed, this scenario would invariably result in massive protests which a second Trump Administration would crush mercilessly. 

There are those such as David French who does not believe that any effort by Trump to overturn the election will end in failure. But that doesn't mean he won't try and as long as he tries one cannot discount the possibility he might succeed. 

Ugly

An ugly outcome would be a Trump win. 

It would be ugly because Trump has made it loud and clear that he is seeking retribution. When I heard Trump say he'd be a dictator on day one, I understood it to be his intention to suspend the Constitution. Should this come to pass, and it survives judicial challenges, then Trump is free to jail and execute his enemies real and imagined, restrict the First Amendment by shutting down the free press, and make himself President-for-Life. 

If a second Trump terms results in Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the Obamas, the Clintons, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney being imprisoned and/or executed for treason then none of us are safe. What consequences would I face from a second Trump Administration for posting these thoughts? Would I lose the job I worked so hard to earn? Or would I lose a great deal more than that?

What makes this truly ugly is that we will have freely chosen this path with no hope of going back. There are a great many Trump supporters who despise immigrants, look down upon women and LGBTQ persons and cannot countenance any viewpoint contrary to their own. These are people who are sick of democracy and want to try something else. 

I also believe there are Trump supporters who are still convinced that he is more bark than bite. I should mention I have come across those who loathe Trump as much as I do who are not convinced that he will become a dictator. Over the weekend, I was having dinner with one such anti-Trump friend who after reading Tim Alberta's article in The Atlantic about the chaos at the now infamous Madison Square Garden rally is convinced that Trump is too stupid to be a dictator. 

At this stage, we can ill-afford to underestimate Trump whatever the outcome of the election. Let us remember that Trump tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power once. If we reject him again, Trump won't take no for an answer and try once more.

But if he wins then the gloves are off. The Supreme Court has basically told him he can do whatever the hell he wants. So why wouldn't he? The only way not to answer that question is to not give Trump another chance.

Conclusion

For the moment, America still has a choice, and we can still choose a good outcome. Yet it is possible that we can make the right choice, and it might not be enough to prevent nefarious forces from imposing an outcome not of our choosing. Or we might see fit to burn it all down. 

It remains to be seen which door America will choose to open. I can only we choose the door which won't lock behind us.

On Being Promoted

I wish to share some good news. Tomorrow, I will begin my duties as a Records Lead at the law firm where I work in Boston's Seaport District. 

What this will mean is that I will be involved in billing with our vendors, approving time sheets and supervising records personnel here in Boston as well as in our offices in Los Angeles and in San Francisco. 

It remains to be seen if I will be visiting those offices, but I'm sure that could be a possibility down the road. Should this come to pass, it would mark the first time I've ever set foot in California. At the very minimum, I will need to familiarize myself with California labor law which is even more generous for employees than Massachusetts. Of course, I will also be attending a lot more meetings and mandatory trainings. But this will come with better compensation. 

To say that my return to Boston in May 2021 has proved to be fortuitous would be an understatement. Consider what I wrote in my year-end postmortem on December 31, 2022:

For me, 2022 was my best year in many years. Dare I say perhaps the best year of my life.

I say this in great part because I spent the entire year back in the Boston-Cambridge-Somerville area after having moved thrice between 2018 and 2021. Simply put I am where I want to be.

I also say this because I am in my best employment situation in a decade. It is the first time in a long time where I have been in an environment people where rely on me and where my knowledge and judgment is respected and valued. Granted my position is relatively low on the totem pole but someone has to keep the totem pole sturdy.

Since writing that entry I have continued to maintain the trust of my managers and while building stronger relationships in the firm. Because of this I have now climbed the totem pole a few rungs but remain close enough to the ground to keep things steady.  

Of course, there will be a period of adjustment. How long this adjustment will take remains to be seen. We will be hiring a new Records Associate to take over the position that I hold now in a month's time. It will take time to get him fully acclimated into the scheme of things as well. Fortunately, my managers are patient and understanding. This is key as this is far from a given in many workplaces. 

As the law firm in based in Boston, there is always much work to be done. But better to be busy than not. There are far worse things with which I could be occupying my time.

While I am confident that I will succeed in my new role, I am not without some nervousness in the recesses of my mind. Last night, I dreamed I was working in a grocery store where I was promoted only to have all of my work questioned and delegitimized before I awoke. 

Such worries are only natural. However, I do have a strong base of support at work and have no reason to believe this will change for the foreseeable future.

I suspect most people don't seek out to become a Records Clerk. When I lived in Ottawa, I spent 2½ years as a Records Clerk with what was then known as Revenue Canada. At the time, I was also working on my MA at Carleton University part-time. My ambition was to attain political work of some sort preferably with an elected official or in some capacity with the NDP. Aside from some internships with several NDP MPs and my involvement with the late Alexa McDonough's successful NDP leadership campaign in 1995, I never went far down this path as I had hoped. I did have some job interviews with a couple of NDP MPs, but nothing ever came of it.

When I got laid off from Revenue Canada late in 1999, I set my sights on finding political work in the U.S. Indeed, when I moved to Boston nearly 25 years ago it was as an organizer for the now defunct ACORN. This position lasted all of two weeks.

During my early years in Boston, I worked several jobs in the non-profit sector for a child abuse hotline and later in the vocational rehabilitation field. This did not prove successful either. While I was decent at these jobs, I generally found the working environment to be toxic and unfriendly. 

In late 2003, I found myself working as a Records Clerk once more this time for an insurance company in Boston's Financial District. Until my current position, this was my most successful undertaking as I worked in this role for nearly a decade before getting laid off. I spent a couple of years as a floater before starting to work as Records Clerk in a law firm environment for the first time a decade ago.

During this period, now with a more conservative outlook, I was also contributing articles to The American Spectator earning extra money. I was hoping to parlay this into other ventures. Although my articles would occasionally get mentioned elsewhere and I did a few radio interviews, most of the satisfaction I received was seeing my name online. Of course, I would stop contributing to The American Spectator when Bob Tyrrell told me to stop criticizing Donald Trump. It is a decision I have never regretted. Although I contributed some articles to National Review Online and a single article to The Forward while I was in Atlanta, my writing these days is confined to this space. 

I did attain a Paralegal Certificate from Boston University in 2016 resulting in paralegal work as a contractor for HHS for about a year before that came to an abrupt end. After a lengthy period of unemployment, I found myself back as a Records Clerk with another Boston law firm before transferring to New York six months later for yet another Records Clerk job with a different law firm. Then along came COVID which resulted in me losing that job along with millions of other Americans. Seven months later, I made my way to Atlanta for my first Records Lead position only to return to Boston seven months later. 

Amid all the tumult, I came to accept that I am a Records Clerk and that it was a specialty I could take all over the country but has been put to its best use here in Boston. I have paid my dues and am finally being rewarded for it. This has been a long time coming and it has finally arrived. 

Of course, there are no guarantees. We are 48 hours away from a presidential election. Should we see fit to return Donald Trump to the White House, the future of the United States and the world changes irrevocably on both the macro and micro level. If Jeff Bezos can kill a Washington Post editorial endorsing Kamala Harris to stay in good standing with Trump, then what could happen to a Records Clerk with a blog, however obscure, which is less than complimentary to the Orange One?

Well, I will cross that bridge should it come. At this point, I can only deal with the things with which I have some measure of control and as long as I can do that then this promotion will be a success. With that, I look forward to tomorrow.