Now that I’m able to stomach the news cycle again, I clicked on an article on NPR that was detailing the polling for the presidential election. The default map displayed is referred to as the “Electoral Weight” map and it shows how much of an effect each state has on the overall election.

It looks something like this, stolen without any sort of permission from NPR:

Pretty self-explanatory, right?

Those of us out here in the middle country are small-to-medium sized squares, almost exclusively dark red. This represents the states that the GOP can reliably count on securing in November. That should come as no surprise when you look at the states in question, many of which push some of the most backward and regressive policies the country is capable of. Perhaps a more important detail is that you can see with few exceptions that most of these states have much less of an effect on the electoral college than the ones on either coast.

I just think it is a fitting picture of how little the concerns of Middle America actually register when it comes to decisions of leadership. This is reflected in the words and actions of both campaigns as they blow tons of cash in the “yellow” states in order to persuade as many independent and undecided voters as they can. Granted, you can make an argument that Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are all considered Middle America, but they are exceptions, not rules. But for those of us who aren’t conservative and Middle American, it can feel like we are being abandoned.

I completely understand that it is sound strategy to go for broke in the states that actually decide the election, and I have come to terms with the fact that I don’t live in one of those states. I live where we routinely go back in time 50 years to a simpler, more openly discriminatory state.

It should be noted that all of this is educated guessing based on poll aggregation on today’s date. So if the election were to happen tomorrow on Tuesday the 27th of August, it might turn out like the map shown. This is just data as it stands, and it should be treated with a healthy dose of doubt. I am honestly amazed that there are so many states that are effectively a toss-up, and I’m confident that this election will be another that won’t be decided for several days or even weeks.

I am also confident that if Donald Trump loses, he will refuse to accept defeat. This is not a statement of praise, it is an admonition. He refuses to believe any result that involves him losing in anything, and he’s been that way his entire life. I am not confident I know what will happen next, but I am sure that it will have his face on every news channel and publication for months. The exact thing he strives for to his core will be his if for a brief time: attention.

If he wins, I fear it could be the end of democracy. And although it can feel as though democracy died decades ago out here in the middle, I know that it is alive and well elsewhere in the country.