Accounting for America today

The presidential election has ended but the vote counting continues. If there was no surprising surge to one candidate, we may not know who won the Electoral College this morning, this day, or even this weekend.

Writing ahead of Tuesday’s press deadline, here are ten almost certainly true facts.

First, Kamala Harris will win the national popular count by probably over a million votes.

Second, Donald Trump will top 75 million votes, above his 2020 total of 74.2 million.

Third, Trump will claim victory and challenge any other result, for he is already agitating against the completion of counting votes in the contested states.

Fourth, unless Harris handily beats the pollsters forecasts and wins a decisive Electoral College victory, Trump will not readily and may never concede.

Fifth, even if he loses both counts, Donald Trump remains incredibly popular. He may have more enthusiastic support than Harris, who probably gained a significant portion of votes on her campaign of vote against Trump.

Sixth, whether or not Americans, and certainly Trump voters, face – much less acknowledge – this fact, Trump is more than divisive. He is the most magnificent media manipulator, perhaps the supreme conman of this century and throughout American history.

Seventh, neither the general public nor Republican politicians are willing to four-square face up to the danger and threat that Trump causes to American democracy and our entire society.

Eighth, while almost no one in America is racist, America remains a deeply racist nation.

Ninth, in the 160 years since the end of our Civil War, our society has not faced up to, much less addressed, the legacy and truths about slavery and the slave trade. That is just as true in our refusal to be honest in our history of war and genocide against Indigenous Peoples.

Tenth, if Harris does win the Electoral College, the difficulty of her victory shows that even running against a person of low character, morals and treasonous actions, American society is barely able to elect a woman to the presidency. Combine that with her being Black, Brown and Asian and her winning may be an improbable fact that may not happen.

The bravest, most courageous undertaking every American can take? Face up to the complexity and, yes, facts of our past, stop the lies and embrace the long and true heritage of every one of our immigrant ancestors’ time on this continent.

Other countries have employed Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to heal, for that is the hope of being honest with ourselves. In order to reconcile, Americans need a reckoning to face and figure out why so many of us are so angry. If we believe in the last line of our national anthem, that as well as being “the land of the free,” this is “the home of the brave,” then we can handle all the truths of this land.

– Ken Stern