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The 2020 election is a postmodern novel: no ending, unreliable narrators

Political Theater, Episode 150

An activist stands at the Columbus Fountain in front of Union Station in Washington on Wednesday, as people gathered to protest President Donald Trump’s premature declaration of victory.
An activist stands at the Columbus Fountain in front of Union Station in Washington on Wednesday, as people gathered to protest President Donald Trump’s premature declaration of victory. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

If you like tidy stories, then, man, 2020 is not for you. As election officials continue counting votes for the presidency and Senate and House races, the 2020 campaign just keeps going, like a weighty postmodern novel, filled with lengthy digressions, pertinent footnotes and many unreliable narrators, twists that go one way and turns that go the other.

Some things we do know: More Americans voted than ever before. Former Vice President Joe Biden has already received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history and has multiple routes to victory in the Electoral College. Races key to control of the Senate are still not called, with Republicans retaining an edge, but there being a real possibility it won’t be clear for a while. And while Democrats are on track to retain the majority in the House, they lost key ground after setting expectations high for big gains.

Joining us to make some sense of the 2020 election are two political animals: Rodell Mollineau, co-founder and partner at ROKK Solutions and a former top aide to Senate Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Tom Daschle, and Liesl Hickey, a partner at Ascent Media and former executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee as well as chief of staff to Illinois Republican Mark S. Kirk when he served in the House.

Show Notes:

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