#27
View attachment 431408
Election night 1982, 11:26 p.m. ET
Tom Brokaw is just wrapping up.
“Welcome back to NBC news coverage of Decision ‘82. If you’re just joining us, the word of the night appears to be 'Indecision,' or at least a lot of close calls. Polls are now closed across the lower ‘48 states and in Hawaii- if you’re watching us from Alaska you still have just over half an hour left to get out to your polling place to vote; remember, every vote counts.
“But for the rest of us here, as we get ready to sign off for the night, it’s really just a waiting game.
“There are some things we can be reasonably certain about. For one, no party will hold a majority in the Senate, and unless something very unlikely happens, no party will hold a majority in the House. We are going to have a continuation of the non-majority government that we’ve had for the past two years. A lot of Republicans and Democrats were hoping that the Conservative Party rebellion would prove to be nothing more than a fluke, but it appears that, while they may return with slightly reduced numbers, the Conservatives are here to stay.
“And I think we all have to start asking ourselves: what does this mean for American democracy? Roger Mudd, can our system withstand the kind of results we’re seeing tonight?”
“Well Tom, we’ve seen the two largest parties come together to govern effectively over the last two years, perhaps tied together by their mutual dislike for what they saw as defectors. But now the Conservative Party has run under its own banner and won, so I think first of all they’re legitimized, I think the Republicans and Democrats will have to start treating them like a real party and won’t be able to ignore them any more.
“Second, we could have an interesting leadership contest this year in the both chambers of congress. Last time around leadership was decided by an ad-hoc gentleman’s agreement, you might say. It was based on the election results before the Conservatives officially left. This time even that sliver of legitimacy is gone, and we really can’t say what will happen.”
“And that brings us to point three: I think the reality is going to set in here...we may have to take a serious look at reforming the procedures for the running of Congress. This isn’t necessarily a constitutional issue; the constitution gives Congress a lot of leeway on how it conducts business. But we’ve got about 200 years of tradition that we’re staring down here, and the question is, does anyone have the political wherewithal to enact major reforms?”
“What sort of reforms do you think they should be looking at?”
“Well I don’t want to make any qualitative judgments, especially not with midnight looming on an election night. But you know there are plenty of democracies around the world that have learned to work with coalitions. There are plenty that set different standards for how power is divided, how bills are introduced, how budgets are passed. There are lots of ways for a democracy to be run, and I think we’re going to see the parties take a good look at these alternatives.”
“Let’s take a final look at the results for tonight:
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Conservatives 60
Democrats 179
Republicans 151
SENATE
Conservatives 13
Democrats 42
Republicans 40
“Connie, you want to break these numbers down for us?”
“Well, there you have it, Tom. 45 races still too close to call in the House. Five too close to call in the Senate. Also six governors’ races too close to call. At least four incumbents have lost in the Senate with four more still in danger. We’ve so far had 87 incumbents lose in the House tonight, we think that's an all-time record.
“Since the mid-1960s the number of competitive districts in the House of Representatives has been decreasing, from just about 90 districts in 1964 to 56 in 1980. Well, this year that trend has more than reversed, it has blown up. With the emergence of a three-party dynamic, it looks like at least 250 districts- possibly as high as 290 districts- are going to be decided by 10% or less; that’s what is considered a competitive margin.
Additionally, the number of winning candidates receiving an outright majority of the vote in their particular contest has dropped precipitously. We won’t have exact figures for a few days, but by our estimates it seems likely that only about 40%-50% of victors will take office with majority support.
“We’re also looking at an unprecedented turnout for a midterm. All signs point to something north of 53% of registered voters casting their ballot. The closest we've come to that for a midterm was 1966 when the turnout was 48.7%. And indeed there’s an outside chance, if totals from the West Coast are particularly high, that we might even catch the presidential election of 1976, which had a turnout of 54%.
“What we can say about these results, at least the ones that have come in, is that this national realignment is probably going to up-end the traditional political landscape. The narrative that’s been emerging over the last few months, and which was largely confirmed tonight, is that the ACP are consolidating their gains in conservative-leaning parts of the country. The GOP are losing a lot of their right-wing voters, but are replacing them with moderates who were formerly swing-Democrats. And the Democrats are losing a lot of their right wing, a good chunk of their moderates, and are shifting to the left.”
“And you’d think that that would leave the Democrats out in the cold, but here they are tonight, likely to gain seats in both chambers.”
“That’s right, Tom, and you can thank the three-party dynamic for that as well. While there are probably not enough out-and-out liberals or conservatives to run the country with a majority, the bar is now well below a majority. You need perhaps 35-40% to win in a lot of these districts.”
“Thank you, Connie. And thanks to Roger Mudd, as well as our team out in the field and here in the studio.
“And so we won’t be able to deliver final results tonight, in fact it may be several days before the exact tally of seats is known. I thank you for joining us on this strange journey; we’re going to cut to your local news next. Strange times ahead. I’m Tom Brokaw, and for all of us at NBC Election News here in New York, goodnight.”
----
7th and Euclid
“EXTRY! EXTRY! Final election results are in! In the House we have:
162 Republicans
199 Democrats
74 Conservatives
And in the Senate it’s:
40 Republicans
46 Democrats
14 Conser-”
“Alright that’s IT!”
A big guy is stomping over from the direction of the park.
“I’ve had it! I’ve had enough!”
Al’s a little nonplussed.
“Uhhh...paper?”
“I come to the park every morning to eat my muffin in some goddamn peace, and EVERY MORNING, there you are, flapping your meat off like a goddamn cartoon character. It’s not cute. You’re a joke and you need to just shut-”
Hashim comes out from behind his stall.
“heyheyeheyHEYHEY! HEY! NO! You do NOT get to talk to him like that! You need to leave.”
“Butt out of it, buddy, this isn’t about you.”
“No, this is about YOU getting out of here before we get really mad. You want a scene, we’ll give you a scene. My brother-in-law’s a cop, I will bring in the law, my friend.”
The two try to stare each other down. Al is uncharacteristically speechless. After a second the man leaves in a huff. Al moves to stand next to Hashim as they watch this hombre walk away.
“You don’t have a brother-in-law.”
Hashim gives him an annoyed stare, then reaches down to the rack for a magazine.
“I’m taking this Popular Mechanics.”