This editorial note consists mostly of my miscellaneous impressions of the presidential election and its aftermath, as I observed these events unfold in South Central Pennsylvania. Given its impressionistic character, my verbal exercise does not claim to be entirely dispassionate. It’s no secret for whom I voted, as the sign on my front lawn indicated.

November 5. 

As a resident and voter in what is likely to be the most decisive battleground state in this year’s presidential election, the importance of today is not lost on me. As I vote in my borough in South Central Pennsylvania, it’s already apparent that most of the locals are going for The Donald and the Republican senatorial candidate, Dave McCormick. The voting line, which has formed in front of the polling station next to the local Lutheran church, stretches on and on. I’ve never seen so many people around here waiting to vote. In contrast to previous presidential elections, when the MAGA voters hid their identities even in our heavily Republican area, on this election day they are ebulliently upfront about their political preferences.

An attractive, personable 29-year-old lady, who took time off from her job to perform her civic duty, is standing in front of me. I gather from conversing with her that she’s an exuberant Trump supporter who (not at all surprisingly) never attended college. This lady, like most of my neighbors at the polling station, abhors all those “weird people” on the opposite side of the political fence. Although there are generational and educational differences between the two of us, I find my fellow-voter to be someone who gives me hope for Millennials and Gen Zers, at least for the members of those cohorts whose brains have not been infected by what is misleadingly called “higher education.”

In Pennsylvania, thanks to former governor Tom Wolf, the current governor, Josh Shapiro, and other Democratic fixers, there is no identification requirement for voters, other than signing a list of names, which unfortunately may no longer be current. Opportunities for cheating abounded in 2020 and even in 2022, but there seems to be more thorough Republican supervision this year; and the Republicans look at least as lawyered-up as the opposition. 

I noticed peering up at me near our local shopping center one of those controversial drop boxes that Democrats managed to put up everywhere in 2020. It seems these ballot-deposit receptacles are now less common than they were during the government-incited COVID scare. And those who avail themselves of this convenience must see to it that their ballots have been received by the appropriate board by 8: 00 p.m. on election day. Although some hanky-panky may still go on in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh precincts, closer Republican oversight has made it somewhat harder to engage in shady practices than was the case in previous elections.

Most significantly, early voting in Pennsylvania’s rural areas and hamlets has been unexpectedly high, while those reliably Democratic urban precincts that usually carry the state for the Dems have not shown comparable partisan enthusiasm. I’ve heard that a former female student of mine, who has since embraced wokery, is part of a Democrat team organized 1,300 miles away in Oklahoma that drives minority voters from there to the polls in Philadelphia. This call for distant aid may suggest a certain desperation on the part of state Democrats. 

Writing at 2:05 p.m., several hours before the polls in my state close, I am already skeptical that the Dems will achieve the statewide turnout they were hoping for. All the same, Kamala has been running around in these parts, ringing doorbells to solicit votes. Last night, I observed her on TV chatting up voters at their homes somewhere outside of Reading, Pa. This may be the closest our vice president can come to mixing with people in an unrehearsed way, an art form that Trump mastered and showcased brilliantly throughout his campaign.

November 6. 

Early this morning, about 1:00 a.m., I learned that Donald Trump carried our state by about two points in yesterday’s election. I’m still waiting for definitive returns as to whether the Republican senatorial candidate Dave McCormick bested Democratic fossil Robert Casey, Jr., who is a mostly invisible, tongue-tied rubber stamper (pardon the mixed metaphor!) for the Biden-Harris agenda. 

McCormick, a West Point graduate, former combat officer, and more recently, hedge fund investor, may well pull out a tight race, and right now he is leading Casey, Jr. by a slight margin. McCormick’s opponent has benefited from his association with his father, an old-fashioned pro-union, morally traditional Democratic governor. Bob’s father, a devout Catholic, was an outspoken critic of abortion; the son, by contrast, as McCormick stressed in his TV ads, is a dismally predictable leftist politicians on all social issues.

November 7. 

As we’re still waiting for a final decision as to whether McCormick, who is now leading Casey, Jr. by 40,000 votes, managed to capture a Senate seat, certain thoughts are moving through my mind. I am puzzled by why more than 70 million people voted for the Democratic ticket, given the Democratic administration’s disastrous performance for the last four years. Inflation, soaring crime, the welcoming of up to 20 million illegals into our country (who have been waved in and subsidized as future Democratic voters) has not elicited as large and tumultuous a reaction as one might have expected.

Among further Democratic sins have been the government-imposed discrimination against white Christians, particularly heterosexual males, kinky sexual experiments imposed by the state on young children, and the Democratic-sponsored, totally unnecessary COVID lockdowns. Trump should have won this year’s election not by 4 million votes, but by ten times as many. 

The despairing reactions of Joe Scarborough, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen  Colbert, Kathy Hochul, Gavin Newsome, Letitia James and other woke celebrities and politicals have gone viral over Trump’s victory. I would have expected such reactions from this fatuous company. What revolts me far more than seeing those people is how the soon-to-depart Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is pushing a petition to strip Trump of legal immunity even before he assumes the presidency. If enough signatures can be gathered, he hopes, some way can be found to allow the lawfare against Trump to continue even while he’s president. 

Considering that Trump was an early supporter of Schumer’s bid for his Senate seat and that the two are still friends of sorts (as shown by their amiable banter at the Al Smith dinner), Schumer’s gratuitously malicious behavior surprised even me. Although Mark Pulliam, a Chronicles contributor and legal scholar, assures me this outrageous petition, pompously titled “No Kings Act,” can have no legal standing, it is the kind of tasteless behavior that is not exactly foreign to Schumer’s political style. Still, this gesture has driven even lower my already profound distaste for this politician. Indeed, I may soon be approaching Chronicles columnists Taki Theodoracopulos and Mark Brennan, both residents of the Big Apple, in my repugnance for their senior senator.

While engaging in such gloomy thoughts, I just learned that the hardly pro-Republican Associated Press has declared McCormick to be the winner in the senatorial race in Pennsylvania. Although the margin of victory remains at half a percent, that should be enough to put him over the top. About 100,000 votes remain to be counted, but since those votes were cast mostly in deeply red Western counties, McCormick is likely to increase his lead before the count is over. 

Although I’m not sure the new administration will meet all or even most of my expectations, I am delighted that the other side was roundly defeated. Looking on the bright side (which, given my nature, is hard for me to do), it seems that we could have done a lot worse.

—Paul Gottfried