We are inviting our readers to partake in a short quiz about America as we continue to distill the many outcomes and significances of last week’s elections. To honor the recently deceased TV game show host Alex Trebek, we are patterning the quiz after the Jeopardy format by listing a series of answers that need to be matched with the correct question. (Example: Donald Trump. Who was the 45th president of the United States?)
Ready? Wait, first a warning. This quiz will be so difficult even Ken Jennings would get stumped more than a few times.
ANSWER: 75 million and 71 million. What were the total votes tallied so far for Joe Biden and Donald Trump? The highest number and percentage of eligible US citizens in history just voted in a presidential election. Is that encouraging news because so many people care about who gets elected and who will lead the future direction of our country? Or, does such a close election add more proof that we remain a very divided nation of red or blue states? As we enter the post-Trump era, we remain a populace that is dreadfully divided, quite bitterly so in many places. Even fighting to rid us of the pandemic and coronavirus and saving our own lives has not been enough to bring us closer together.
ANSWER: Climate Change. What is the hoax foisted by sauvignon blanc-drinking liberals aimed at bankrupting our fossil fuel industry and making us vulnerable to economic domination by China? Try again. What should be America’s and all nations’ top priority to save our planet for our grandchildren and their children? For the correct answer read the Paris Agreement by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the agreement that President-elect Biden said we will be rejoining very soon.
ANSWER: Kamala Harris. What was the most historical outcome of the Nov. 3 election? One hundred years after U.S. women won the right to vote, the first woman has been elected to the nation’s highest executive office of vice president, standing second in line to the presidency. Born in Oakland in 1964, Harris is also the first multiracial person elected to the vice presidency after becoming only the second Black female U.S. senator. Only 57 women have been elected to the U.S. Senate since the passage of women’ suffrage in 1920. Harris’ ascendancy to being Biden’s vice presidential partner is epic.
ANSWER: Non-college educated white males. What demographic made up the largest voting block in the 2020 election? While it is shrinking, this sector of voters represented 37% of the total of all 2020 voters. In the 2016 election it was 48% of the total vote. It’s shrinking fast and with anger.
ANSWER: Gen X and Millennials. Who will be the dominant voting bloc in the next presidential election in 2024? This year Baby Boomers outnumbered these younger generations by a margin of 43% to 24%. But in as little as four years, the two age groups will be about equally represented and by 2028, the Gen X and Millennials vote will dwarf their older counterparts. How will these new generations of citizens align with political parties and how will they vote? Demographic studies right now see these voters as more progressive and pro-government. They don’t wear many red MAGA hats.
ANSWER: We, Us and Ours. As Americans seeking calmness and security, these are the words we must use to replace ‘them, those and yours.’ We can be red, blue or purple. We can be a GenXer or we can be an “OK Boomer.” But we all need a sense of belonging to something, much more than just opposing something. Our biggest jeopardy question (or answer) is defined by our attitude. It begins with our own self-understanding.
ANSWER: Joe Biden. Who is the youngest person to serve in the U.S. Senate over the past 50 years and who is about to become the oldest person ever inaugurated to the U.S. presidency? It’s as if we cloned a GenXer with a Baby Boomer.
