Election Results

As expected, many elections have not yet been settled. Close counts require closer scrutiny, adding mail-in ballots and absentee ballots. Then there are the disputed votes and the endless processing involved in making any election count final.

Once the ballots have been tallied, then there is the endless analysis of what it all means. What nuance was told by the voting public, and which nuances were absolved. Then there are the state constitution amendments and ballot referenda to be analyzed to death. In the end, what the public meant by their voting actions is not open to question. Too many variables make this so.

Local context and regional issues warp some count totals. Others are wrapped up in candidate loyalties and regional pride.

You and I vote on the person, the issue and the interpretation of campaign literature. We know what we trust and what we don’t. Others do as well. And yet, the conclusions are so very different!

Political Science is a social science, not an empirical academic discipline. Poli Sci can be used to organize highly varied topics and combined to predict elective outcomes. But it cannot empirically define the outcomes and why they are as they are.

Like economics, poli sci relies solely on individuals and how they behave in a specific context. You consume goods and services dependent on your individual circumstances. So do I. We may be similar, but I bet we will act differently. Our circumstances drive highly specific actions that make what we do so very different.

Social sciences and empirical sciences (biology, chemistry, astrophysics, physics, etc.) are measurable, definable and predictable. They embrace more laws than theories. Social sciences do not. They are organized specifically to help us understand what is happening and what will happen. But they cannot be 100% certain.

Elections come and go. Like court decisions, what was isn’t anymore, changed by the whims of the electorate. Or ignored by the electorate until a more certain circumstance begs clarification and change.

Abortion is like that. Its favor is in one decade and out the next. Its symbolic value to an ideology comes and goes and leaves yet again. Variable. Nonsensical uncertainty. Reliant on minds and logic of impure consequence. These are the times that try men’s soul, but then again, it always has.

November 14, 2022

 

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