Can this year's presidential race end peacefully? Earlier this year (July 20th to be precise) I published a column entitled “If Obama Loses In November, Will America Suffer?” In it, I referenced the many things that were being said and written about the historical and cultural significance of Obama’s candidacy (especially the many things that Obama has written about his “life’s journey,” and the extraordinary declarations that he has made about his own historical significance). I then contemplated what might happen if, despite all the “significance” of his candidacy, Obama were to actually lose the election.
As I pointed out in that column, many influential friends of mine from both political and business circles, and from both the East and West Coasts, were telling me that they feared “trouble in the streets” if Obama lost the election. That was in July. And now, as we begin the last full week before the election, I can’t help but think that we’re even closer to “trouble in the streets,” regardless of the election’s eventual outcome.
I say ‘eventual outcome,” because I do not anticipate that we’ll actually know who the President-elect is on election night. I may be wrong about this, and the Obama camp’s predictions of a Reagan-styled landslide may come to pass. But I expect a “close score” on this one, and for election night to be clouded with claims of voter fraud, and demands for investigations and ballot re-counts, all of which will likely delay the declaration of a “winner” for several days.
As for “civil unrest,” it appears quite clear to me that many of our fellow Americans are planning for this. A report that appeared in a recent edition of the Washington publication “The Hill” indicated that law enforcement agencies throughout the country are beefing-up their resources, in anticipation that there could be civil unrest on election day and the days that follow. The report included quotes from several agency spokespersons, many of whom seem to be saying, essentially, “we don’t expect trouble - - but the S.W.A.T. team will be on high alert just in case…”
Other law enforcement agents indicated that this year’s presidential election has attracted a level of “youthful enthusiasm” comparable to that usually reserved for high-profile sporting events, and noted that, even when a team wins a championship (say, a Superbowl, or a big collegiate competition), the hometown crowd often trashes its own surroundings in “celebration.” Whether or not you accept this “sports team wins big” analogy, law enforcement professionals are making these observations, and it is worthwhile for the rest of us to make note of them.