Analog

It's not rigged, it's math. During the 2000 election, whites made up 78% of the vote. Now it's down to 69%. This is important to Republicans because the only solid majority they have is 61% of white men. White women are evenly split in their party identity and slowly trending toward Democrats. All other ethnic groups in the Pew Research surveys have solid Democratic majorities. This means, as a co untry, we split 48% Democrats and 44% Republican. Notice how neither has 51%? This means the 8% undecided or 3rd party voters are more important than ever. Bizarrely, both candidates have lost voters who normally identify with one of the major parties. Hillary Clinton would have lost a 4% lead had she not gained so many Black votes (according to recent polls). Conversely, Donald Trump has lost 8% of voters. This puts Republican affiliation down from 44% to 36%. It also means 1 in 5 Americans are undecided or going for a 3rd party! These polls were taken prior t

I blame the Internet for this nationwide trend. Waldenbooks was in the leftmost store; unlike B. Dalton before it, it succumbed to Border's struggle with Amazon.com. Its neighbor, Mister Music gave way to smaller and smaller music players, defeated — like On Cue across the hall — by iTunes and the iPod. After years of struggling for relevance in a world of online and mobile access to TV and radio, Radio Shack on the corner closed its doors just when hobby electronics started taking off. Sears catalogs bypassed general stores in price and selection; the end of its catalog 100 years later happened as Amazon.com and Wal-Mart rose to prominence. Now that anchor of the mall is gone too. Malls were where we went to see what's new and run into those we know ... now there's Facebook, where we post our thoughts and online purchases. I find it a poor substitute for face-to-face interactions.