Why everyone who can should vote before or on Nov. 3

This is the last column before the Nov. 3 election, if I calculate correctly. One of the craziest election years in memory is ending, blessedly. This observer can make a number of observations, without in any way claiming to know for sure what is going to happen.

Here goes: First, this lifelong Republican has signs on his lawn for Biden/Harris, Sununu and Pappas. That should indicate how confusing this year is.

Second, Joe Biden has been endorsed by many, many Republicans of all stripes, and in New Hampshire, most recently by legendary pundit and former Attorney General Tom Rath, as well as former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey and former Congressman Chuck Douglas. This should be significant to indicate that the present incumbent is not regarded as a Republican by many who have spent their lives supporting Republican values.

Nationally, former candidates for president, their spouses and cabinet members in many GOP administrations have abandoned Trump to endorse Biden, out of patriotism and not as a matter of policy. It is reported that the majority of the Bush cabinet members have endorsed Biden.

In the two debates to date, the GOP incumbents have demonstrated for all to see, how they ignore rules and proper decorum, just the way they have governed. After being stricken by the virus, President Trump has done nothing to keep others safe, just talking about himself and his experience, another action true to form.

Four more years of Trump, as many have observed, could threaten the very nature of our shared democratic values they and I maintain.

I have been asked to predict the outcome. Sorry, I am not going to take the bait. However, there is an analogy that keeps coming up in my mind, which is the election of 1980.

In 1980, for those whose memory does not go back 40 years, one-term President Jimmy Carter, who had beaten Gerald Ford in 1976 after the Watergate years, was unpopular, or seemingly so, and was running for reelection. Former California Governor Ronald Reagan had obtained the GOP nomination, and was controversial as too conservative for some, and just a retreaded actor to others.

In New Hampshire, Gov. Hugh Gallen was running for a second term, and Democratic Senator John Durkin was being challenged by former Attorney General Warren Rudman, who had come in first in a field of many candidates, closely followed by one John H. Sununu. New Hampshire’s congressional seats were split between the parties.

On election night, it became clear that there was a Republican wave sweeping the nation, with candidate after candidate and state after state going into the GOP column. In New Hampshire, Durkin conceded to Rudman for the U.S. Senate, although Gallen was elected to a second term in office.

Early in the evening, a dejected President Carter conceded the election, to the amazement of many, when it was still only 5 p.m. or so on the West Coast, allegedly causing many voters to stay home.

When the smoke cleared, the GOP had captured the U.S. Senate for the first time in many years, giving support to the Reagan revolution that followed, and which changed the image of the former actor forever.

If this is an analogy for 2020, it would be a mirror image of 1980. If true, Biden will win by rolling over Trump nationally. The U.S. Senate will turn to Democratic control for the first time in years. In New Hampshire, the Democratic wave will be resisted by the reelection of the Gov. Chris Sununu, who, like Gallen, will overcome the tide. The Legislature will stay in Democratic hands, and the governor will have his hands full trying to get things done, notwithstanding his personal great popularity.

It is easy to say how important voting is, and how democracy depends on it. However, this year, with the very strange actions of the incumbent president, every voter needs to be recorded as supportive or in opposition to the status quo. I know where I am, and it is as one horrified by what I see in Washington every day. But it is what each voter perceives, and therefore votes in support of or opposition to, which will insure that our democratic system survives.

Vote in person or absentee, but VOTE. I hope by the next time you read this column, we shall have a definitive result.

Brad Cook is a Manchester attorney. The views expressed in this column are his own. He can be reached at bradfordcook01@gmail.com.