Academic Rants

Around noon today, CNN, FOX, AP, and MSNBC announced that Joe Biden has a unsurmountable lead in Pennsylvania and he will surpass 270 electoral votes. This will make him president-elect.  President Trump has not conceded and in fact was out playing golf.  Both candidates will probably speak to the nation later tonight. We are now moving into the next phase of the election and confirmation of a new president. There are several critical takeaways from this election drama. Foremost, is that we are an impatient nation. Americans are demanding and not logical in their thinking. We are suddenly proven willing to violate rules, in a nation that cries about law and order, to learn who will be president. But are we willing to accept the decision? There is a process to elections and it cannot be shortened due to public whims. (Americans seemingly are adopting the behavioral traits of the president.) The Constitution determines the presidency by votes and the Electoral College. All votes...

Regardless of the election's outcome, 2020 will be a watershed year in American history. Social scientists are trying to understand what is happening to the nation and its people by looking at the past. Sometimes we have found the clues in the immediate past like in 1968, and at other points we go back further to the 18th and 19th centuries. Times have changed but not always in the ways that we think.   In my mind it feels like we are not looking at the right clues. We should not concentrate on the 1960s, but rather the 1950s. Our textbooks consider this period one of transition and development, while in reality it is equally a period of fear and chaos. The desire to replicate the 1950s in 2020 is peculiar. Maybe for older Americans Pre-COVID 2020 offers similarities. For example, the economy was humming along and the stock market was soaring. Many Americans could feel like they were living in a second golden age. The 1950s was an era of a booming economy. An infrastructure wa...

I awoke to a nation trying to understand an election that remains undecided. 2020 has proven to be a year full of surprises, but this moment was not supposed to be one. We all knew that the election results would be late because of the unprecedented number of mailed votes. Americans were told to be patient and wait for the decision. However, indecision and uncertainty appears to be against America's creed. Our president is not waiting, and he is encouraging others to join him. He is making demands and suing several states. To help insure his victory he has placed his confidence in the federal courts, mostly because he appointed hundreds of judges. He also has faith in the nation's highest court. A court to which he has appointed three justices, and a court filled with justices who have had a hand in securing the 2000 election.  For months President Trump has told crowds that the system is rigged, and now as the leader of this nation, he is doing his best to prove that point. He...