Rationality triumphs for now, but irrationality remains

Today two events mark the return of rationality to America on two fronts:

1. The Electoral College vote for Joe Biden to President;
2. The first vaccinations against Covid-19.

It’s ironic of course that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were developed in record time by companies run mainly by immigrants, while Donald Trump was President. He claimed the epidemic was a hoax and would go away. He has tried to block as much immigration as he could.

The only hoax was his epidemic claim. The vaccine is real.

On the electoral front, Trump has lost more than four dozen legal cases filed to overturn the election results. He intends to continue the fight in court. Why shouldn’t he? It is filling his coffers with donations and ensuring that he remains in control of the Republican Party. Never mind that his defiance of the outcome hurts his country and confidence in its electoral system.

If, as many Republicans fear, the President’s claims of electoral fraud reduce Republican turnout in the January 5 Senate run-offs in Georgia, that would be a good thing. Democrats will be voting in record numbers, if they are allowed to do so. Republicans are still trying to limit absentee voting by mail and the number of drop boxes for submission of ballots.

If the Republicans win only one of the two seats in question, Mitch McConnell will continue to have the majority in the Senate and therefore the capability of stymying Biden’s legislative agenda. He is doing that even now, as Republicans and Democrats are negotiating a further Covid-19 stimulus package intended to relieve not only financial pressure on individuals but also on states. McConnell will hope to be able to stick Biden with the blame for the second dip of the Covid-19 recession, even though it has likely begun during the Trump Administration.

Biden’s win in the Electoral College should not obscure the deep and abiding irrationality of its continued use. It was invented to protect slave states. It risks electing a president with as big a loss in the popular vote as Trump suffered: more than 7 million votes. Biden’s win is due to a margin of 40,000 that put him over the top in the closest call states. But fixing this anomaly requires either a constitutional amendment, which is virtually impossible, or approval of the “compact” that would pledge a majority of the Electoral College votes to the winner of the popular vote. That isn’t likely either.

Irrationality will persist also in the world of vaccines. A lot of people are saying they won’t take it. I am not one who ignores the risk: none of the vaccines has been tested more than a few months. There are no data to demonstrate there are no long-term effects. But given the benefits of vaccination and the eventual “herd immunity,” it makes a lot more sense to run the risks than not to do so. But I expect many of the racists who are claiming that the election was stolen will also want to refuse vaccinations. But that is not what the White House that failed to prepare or respond adequately to the epidemic is doing. Its staff, not mentioned in CDC’s priorities, is among the very first getting vaccinated.

So yes, for today rationality triumphs. But the deep irrationality not only of the Electoral College but also of the White House who supported a failed president abides.