I barely landed in England. I had time to arrive at Heathrow, catch a bus to Gatwick, check into a B&B, grab dinner, sleep, then head for my flight out. In many ways, this exemplifies my fear of traveling, that I’ll be gliding over the surface of a country without actually being there. I’d actually feel bad about it if I didn’t have several more trips to the country planned.

London will be fine. The real thing I’m missing is the election in the United States. That’s what I’m really avoiding. It’s awkward to be so checked out of what’s going on. Most elections I’m glued to the returns. But I’ll be in Kyiv while the election is running, which means late returns aren’t going be arriving before tomorrow anyway.

So hey, here’s my valid-for-12-hours hot take: for once, I’m short-term optimistic and long-term pessimistic. I think the Democrats take the House handily but come up short in the Senate. Maybe better, a lot of state governments tilt heavily Democratic. But that’s all table-setting for 2020; that election is going to determine who’s in charge for the next round of redistricting. If the Democrats don’t build on these results in two years, however they turn out, we’re screwed. I remain skeptical of their ability to do so.¹

But that’s why I’m thousands of miles away. The United States is so large that whether it slides further into illiberalism or not affects the world in a way that Hungary or Brazil doesn’t. But it really is a big world. You can still find places to hide in it.

Next: Kyiv (IEV) to Berlin (SFX)
Prev: Philadelphia (PHL) to London (LHR)

Footnotes

¹ “I am not a member of any organized party. I am a Democrat.” — Will Rogers