What's Tony Thinking

An Election Eve Prayer and A Prediction

I spent Saturday in Battle Ground, Washington, which is just north of Vancouver, canvassing for Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, the incumbent member of Congress from our state’s 3rd legislature district. She’s in a tough race against full-MAGA Joe Kent, whom she narrowly defeated in 2022. I saw quite a few Trump signs and banners there in Battle Ground, none for Harris/ Walz. I did see a sign I liked (right), though not in Battle Ground.

As I went about my canvassing it struck me that it was refreshing to be working for a candidate about whom I am genuinely enthusiastic. I really like MGP’s work in Congress, her priorities and her style (the whole cowboy boots and salty language thing). Most of the time lately I have found myself more against someone than for someone. Like I said, refreshing.

I had the impression in Battle Ground that quite a few married couples were splitting their votes in this election. So it appeared, from my small sample that gender is, as we have been hearing, a factor in this election.

Though I don’t take the Wall Street Journal, one of you readers sometimes forwards Peggy Noonan’s Saturday columns, knowing I generally like what Noonan has to say as well as her straightforward way of saying it.

What she wrote in her election eve column I found comforting. Here’s Noonan:

“I can’t shake a feeling of peace. As I said, we’ll get through it. No one knows what will happen Tuesday or Wednesday, or what will follow a close election in the weeks and months to come. But yes, I believe our institutions will see us through, not because they are strong — they are battered old things shot through with ideology and self-seeking — but because they are strong enough for the moment.

“Our courts, our laws, the free press, the academy, the military — all have taken hits in the past decade, many self-inflicted. But they stand, and can do the job. Many unsung heroes see to this each day.”

I found comfort in her words. but for those who like their comfort a bit more practical I did, the other day, learn something important to keep in mind as we hear about Trump’a plans to contest or invalidate the election. One of his strategies is to get the relevant legislative body to refuse to validate the election, whether that be a state legislature or the House of Representatives.

One commentator pointed out that if such a body invalidates an election they won’t just be invalidating the Presidential results, they would necessarily be invalidating the whole election, including all the down-ballot races as well. Which means that those voting to invalidate would, in at least some cases, be cancelling their own election or that of other people in their party. Seems unlikely.

A prayer for Election Day and the days after:

Lord, it’s a mess here, but . . .  after chatting this morning with that young Hispanic woman on her way toward the ballot box with two ballots in hand and a proud smile on her face, I am humbled and grateful . . . that we are still voting, that our votes do actually matter, and they will decide the outcome. Like so much with you, Lord, what looks small and insignificant turns out to be strangely, wonderfully grand.  

If the candidates we are rooting for do prevail, grant us joy in the moment, gratitude for the folks who put themselves out there to run for office, and graciousness toward candidates and voters on the other side. 

If the candidates we want to win end up losing, grant us your company in our grief, then fresh courage and resolve to continue to in the struggle for justice and for peace, and a confidence that the story is not over. 

Lord, help us to learn whatever lessons are to be learned from this present time of testing. Protect us from cynicism, bitterness and despair. Make us a better, stronger and wiser people. And help us, I pray, to take ourselves a little less seriously, and to take your grace and power and promise far more seriously. In the strong name of Jesus. Amen.  

Okay I’m going to make a prediction, though I fully understand precisely no one is waiting with bated breath for my prognostication.

If you had asked me two weeks ago, I would have said Trump wins. Not thinking that now. My prediction: Harris wins. I go back to a view I expressed in August. Trump has his base, but lots of people (a majority I hope) are sick and tired of his schtick, one that has gotten only more course and unhinged this time around and has poisoned the well of our common life.