A COUNTRY TRAPPED IN AMBER?….Based on how the final few states are looking at the moment, the most remarkable thing about this presidential election is how nearly identical it is to 2000. Right now, it looks like no more than two or three states will flip from red to blue or vice versa.
As I said the other day, a difference of one or two percentage points makes a big objective difference, since one guy wins and the other doesn’t, but it means almost nothing about the direction of the country. We’re almost exactly where we were four years ago.
Which, really, is an amazing thing. You’d think an event like 9/11 would act as a catalyst that blows apart existing political dynamics and realigns the electorate, but instead it seems to have cemented it into place. Not only are we at the same place we were four years ago, but the divisions are actually more entrenched than ever.
It hardly seems possible that this can last forever, but if 9/11 didn’t realign the electorate, what will?
