Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.
I can hardly not refer to the presidential election just past, now that I know the results. I won’t be a big “victory lap” kind of guy, mainly because I didn’t see a big victory for the American people. I did not unreservedly favor a single person who was running for the office, and I voted for—and we endorsed—Barack Obama primarily to ensure the future of Obamacare. I personally wanted Libertarian Gary Johnson to receive 5 percent of the vote in order to get public funding in 2016, but I was not convinced Obama could make it without my vote so I didn’t vote for the one guy I could vote for.
But if you think this election was a bloodbath, I’ll tell you something: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Look four years down the road. We already have an idea what the Republican field will probably look like: Rep. Paul Ryan, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio among others. On the Dem side, Biden will be 73—seems possible; Reagan was 73 when he won reelection in 1984. Hilary Clinton will be 69, easily within the realm. And then there are those third parties. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is going to lead that field, siphoning off from the fiscal conservatives. That means, while we had eight or nine battleground states this year; in four years, we’ll likely have 30 battleground states. And unless Citizen’s United is legislated against, the $4.2 billion that was spent this year will seem like chicken feed.
People are already creating the mythic narrative that will become the “truth” of this election. The one thing I think became clear is that the Christian right and the Republican Party must divorce, or the GOP will go the way of the Whigs. The CR must form its own socially conservative party—looking at elections 20 years down the road.
And the beat goes on.