PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — It is almost all up to the surviving Pennsylvanians whose votes have yet to be counted. That means me.
My head swelled for awhile as Joe Biden, Donald Trump and their surrogates traversed Pennsylvania’s 46,000 square miles imploring us to vote for them. With Election Day past, the nation’s eyes are cast upon a handful of states to add up the remaining mail-in ballots. To think that the fate of the nation – and the world, for that matter – depends on the few, the Pennsylvanians, especially in my corner of the state, Philadelphia.
If the former vice president takes Pennsylvania by one vote, and with it the election, I’m taking full credit. Doubtful, of course.
Then again, it may not be the case. Biden could still reach 270 electoral votes without Pennsylvania. After all that.
So we endured four years of Trump’s presidency, and more than a year of campaigning to reach an electoral standoff.
It is perplexing that after all this we are back to square one. I watched more of the returns this morning as they were posted on television and learned a few skimpy but disturbing details.
The Jewish vote for the Democratic candidate appeared to drop slightly from its usual 75 percent, and in Florida it dipped all the way down to 58 percent, allowing Trump to acquire 41 percent, according to Jewish Insider.
It begs the question of what Jewish areas were most affected that way. Broward and Palm Beach counties comprise two of the largest Jewish populations in America, and both those counties are – or were? – Democratic strongholds. I would suspect more of the erosion came in Miami-Dade County, where the Jewish population is smaller but still high.
I like to think I did not underestimate Trump, but I underestimated the mindsets of every single person who voted to re-elect him. I wondered how we reached this point. Trump has been a horrific and dangerous president. I expected a sizeable amount of Americans, including Jews, to support Trump, but not this many.
I can only presume that more Jews voted for Trump because of the rising hostility toward Israel among Democrats in the House of Representatives, even though most House Democrats are as pro-Israel as their Republican counterparts. Still, Democrats tolerated insensitive outbursts within their ranks, especially from Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
Television pundits attributed Trump’s takeover of Florida to the votes of Cuban-Americans and other Hispanics in Miami-Dade who hail from communist countries, meaning that Republican fears of a coming socialist coup worked.
I wonder how they’ll feel if they must put up with the current burdens imposed by the Affordable Care Act or worse should we return to the old system when no health coverage was available to those who could not afford it.
Probably the protests over police shootings of Black people frightened many voters. Tactics of the Black Lives Matter movement enraged people as they observed television footage of lootings, vandalism and rioting, including those who sympathized with the underlying causes.
They handed Republicans a hot issue that could scare many voters.
They were right. Mayors and governors did not, or could not, control these demonstrations when they got out of hand. They deserved the Republican pushback.
I would love the opportunity to offer a more in-depth take on these developments, but so far the information is too thin.
It is evident that by January 20 we will be addressing our neighbor in Wilmington, Delaware, as President Biden. He will have some incredible and conflicting challenges. We do not expect perfection, but we must expect him to do his best.
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist. He may be contacted via bruce.ticker@sdjewishworld.com