Four years ago, I wrote for friends and family who were despondent at Donald Trump’s election You can live with President Trump. Really.. Today I write for myself and those who share my worry at policies the Democratic Party leaders seem to espouse. 

As I write the day after the election there has been no news network, let alone official call on the outcome of the election. I take some small solace in the accuracy of my election predictions last week in After the Ball is Over: A Plague of Lawyers. I opined there that the election would come down to four states:

“The key states to watch are Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Pollsters also claim that Florida, Texas, Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina are in doubt. I don’t think so but, if Trump loses them, he will lose the election, no matter what happens in the key states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.”

So, it has happened. Minnesota has been called for Trump. Pennsylvania will not be finally counted until three days after the election. (More on that below.) Michigan was showing a Trump lead overnight but the votes not reported were substantially from Democratic areas, particularly Detroit. As I write Biden has pulled into a slight lead there. It also looks like Biden will win Wisconsin but his margin is less than 1%, so there will be a recount. All of this will take days but it looks to me like Biden will win without Pennsylvania

And that would be a good thing. Having the election turn on Pennsylvania would be a litigious nightmare. Pennsylvania law provides that mailed in ballots are counted if received by Election Day. However, in an action brought by Democratic activists, the state courts ruled that mailed in votes could be counted if received within three days after Election Day so long as they were postmarked. That decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Constitution gives complete authority to set the method of selecting Presidential electors. The Court denied a stay of the Pennsylvania court order but the case remains open. Chief Justice John Roberts is believed to have preferred to deny the stay in hopes of keeping the Court out of the election. If the election turned on Pennsylvania, that case would be argued with a good chance that the Supreme Court would overrule the Pennsylvania court’s extension and throw the election to Trump. I cannot imagine a worse result for the Supreme Court and the country.

I am in a substantial bloc of voters who find Trump personally repellant but cannot abide the policies of the leaders of the Democratic Party. I voted for Trump myself but I know many in this bloc who did not. I reasoned that there is no doubt that, even if Biden wins because of Trump’s personality, Democrats will claim a mandate for their policies. “Elections have consequences,” they were fond of saying in 2009. Then there’s an even larger group who not only like Trump’s policies but admire the man. In their eyes he “tells it like it is.” 

About half the country support Trump’s policies. Still, before I went to bed election night I watched President Trump’s remarks at 2:20 AM. He claimed that he had won the election but that the Democrats would try to steal it from him. I confess his performance made me at least a little sanguine about the prospects of his defeat. There will still be some recounts and litigation other than Pennsylvania, but I think it’s pretty clear Trump will lose.

To those Trump supporters, whether reluctant or enthusiastic, I can only say that The Founders, in their wisdom, created a system of government that makes it very difficult to get things accomplished. Gridlock is our friend. It does look like Republicans will retain control of the Senate. This will stop in its tracks the Democrats threats to “pack” the now solidly conservative Supreme Court. That court will be able to restrain any abuses of executive which you may be sure will be brought to its attention by Republican state Attorneys General and others who will no doubt be as active in next four years as their liberal counterparts have been in the past four.

In the meantime, let’s do something the liberals and the virulent media didn’t do for the last four years. Joe Biden will be our President. Let’s give him a chance. Maybe with the excuse of a Republican Senate and a conservative Supreme Court, President Biden will be better than we expect. At least, let’s wait and see.