Final Thoughts on Election 2020 - Tom Finneran

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Friday, October 30, 2020

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Gee whiz, that’s an optimistic title----“final thoughts” on Election 2020. As if there are ever any final thoughts on any presidential election………I know people who are still arguing about Dewey v. Truman

Former Governor Deval Patrick nailed it when he described the process of seeking the presidency as “cruel”. It is a cruel, formidable, frustrating, and exhausting task. And consider this---the maneuvering of candidates for the 2024 election has already begun!

I know that the candidates are tired. That’s to be expected as they hop from state to state, running on adrenaline, and eating crappy food at every Sal’s Pizza or Betty’s Bakery in every swing state. But we the electorate are exhausted too, cringing under the bombardment of ads, pollsters’ calls, and “breaking news”. I yearn for the quiet of a November dawn, with no electronic distractions.

I pray that we might have a clearly defined winner on Tuesday night. I pray that the loser is gracious and generous in his remarks and that the winner shows the modesty and humility needed to work with others in moving America forward. I pray that each candidate realizes that the country is much more important than any personal ambition he might harbor.

Spare me the assault on the Electoral College. The calls for a national popular vote take dead aim at the legitimate interests of more than thirty states, submerging those interests to the lunatic whims of California, the swagger and bluster of New York, and the tragic misgovernance of Illinois. Hordes of old people in Florida should not enjoy a disproportionate influence over the lives of young people in many smaller states. The Electoral College system is a classic compromise of competing interests which forces any serious contender for the presidency to pay attention to the varied concerns of America’s different regions. California is the worst governed state in the nation. Despite people starting to abandon the state, it remains home to roughly forty million people and it carries 55 electoral votes in its pocket. Massachusetts has 11 electoral votes. I resist the notion that California should become more than five times as important as Massachusetts.

Remember these names as likely future candidates in 2024---on the Democratic side look for Deval Patrick, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Gavin Newsome; on the Republican side, look for Nikki Haley, Josh Hawley, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Mike Pence. Of course there will be others joining the fray, including a few that the Globe will name as “rising stars”. They might all start descending on New Hampshire next Wednesday. Heaven forbid.

Tom Finneran is the former MA Speaker of the House

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