Public transportation and US election
Some thoughts after a visit to Europe and returning home
Credit: NPR VP candidates Tim Walz and J.D. Vance
Home again in Los Angeles after a visit to Europe, first Stockholm and then Paris —both great cities!
A big take away: public transportation, the lifeline of both cities. For weeks, I never drove a car or even took a taxi, as the metro and commuter trains efficiently and safely fulfilled all my travel needs, including getting to and from the airports.
That’s in stark contrast to Los Angeles, where I almost never use public transportation and spend all my time in a car, even to the airport, because there is no train or metro there. LA does have a public transportation and it’s expanding, but the going is slow and the city is a long way from where it should be. The trains don’t go everywhere; they don‘t run often enough; it’s not cheap; and it’s not safe, at least not to the high degree I experienced in Stockholm and Paris. Murders and assault continue to plague LA’s public transportation — a bus hijacking just the other day with a deadly outcome pointed, again, to the problems.
The LA life style is, in many ways, a life in isolation, in your car, not meeting or even seeing your fellow city dwellers, while in Stockholm and Paris, on the metro and in the trains, we meet and mingle, in a communal life style, experiencing the city, together. In America, only New York, and maybe Chicago, are comparable. LA is built for the car, and people like to drive. It’s freedom. So I wonder if Los Angeles will ever get there and certainly not, as many hope, in time for the two big international events rapidly approaching, the soccer World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028.
My other big take away: just like here at home, the U.S. presidential election was ever present in the news in both European cities. That was not really a surprise but what was remarkable was how intensively the battle between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was followed in the media, blow by blow, and how unpopular Trump is.
The fact is that little changed in that battle during my visit to Europe. We continue to be bombarded with often conflicting opinion polls and much of the media’s coverage centers on those polls. They show, after the highly successful Democratic National Convention, where Harris presented herself in a terrific speech to 67 million television viewers here in America and millions more around the world, and after her hugely successful TV-debate with Trump, that the momentum she created almost immediately with her candidacy has not only held but solidified and even strengthened. She has not only closed Trump’s solid lead in the polls from when President Biden was still the Democratic candidate, but she has now a slight lead nationally. Still, the race for the White House cannot be described as anything but dead even.
Like before, like from the start, the race will be decided in only seven states with a total of 93 electoral votes. It takes 270 out of a total of 538 electoral votes to win. The seven battleground states are Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina in the south and west, and Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in the north. In 2020, Biden won six of the seven, losing only North Carolina, all with very small margins. Can Harris duplicate that, or even also win North Caroline? It’s possible, but also impossible, according to the polls, because what they in fact are saying, and have been saying for a long time, is that anything can happen, and that we just don’t know.
On Tuesday, October 1, only a little over a month before Election Day, the two parties’ vice presidential candidates, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (R) will face off in the campaign’s only remaining TV-debate. Ordinarily, the VP-debates have little bearing on the final outcome in a presidential election. But this one might be different in that the two candidates are not well-known nationally, and that might produce surprises. The debate will give the voters the opportunity get to know Walz and Vance better during this, for an American presidential campaign, extremely short campaign, more like a parliamentary snap election of often just a few months, or even a few weeks. The brevity of this year’s campaign, in which Trump has been the only better known candidate, has put extra pressure on Harris, but also on Walz and Vance, to introduce themselves better to the voters, to give interviews, to hold press conferences, and to tell the voters where they stand on the issues.
For Vice President Harris that has meant venturing into two issues regarded as favorable to Trump: the economy and immigration. Both issues are high on voters’ minds. She has laid out a detailed 82-page proposal on the economy and yesterday she visited the border to Mexico. Polls indicate that Harris has decreased Trump’s advantages on these two issues, but perhaps more important than that: the picture is bright — the American economy is very strong with low inflation, lower interest rates, excellent employment figures, record high stock market. And illegal crossings at the border are way down, and Harris has promised more border guards and tighter border controls, while also urgently pleading for much needed immigration reform.
The dark, Armageddon-like picture of America today — Trump’s/Vance’s main message — just does not fit the reality of America today. But the two keep hammering away in their constant negativity, and many are listening among their faithful. But it’s doubtful that they are reaching any new voters, and that’s key.
So far, the selection of Tim Walz as running mate has turned out well for the Harris and the Democrats as Walz has found himself well-liked, with a more favorable than unfavorable rating, just like Harris, or 41-33 and 51-47, respectively. That is in contrast to Vance who is following the pattern of Trump with higher unfavorable than favorable ratings. In fact, Vance’s 35-percentage point favorability is even lower than Trump’s 42 percent, with 56 percent unfavorable.
People like to vote for someone they like, so let’s see how this plays out come November 5.
Welcome back; you were sorely missed.Thank you for your mature wisdom.
Short report on public transportation from another European capital, Madrid: underground runs 24/7 and the busses as well. Safe, practical, cheap and actually fun, as people talk; a lot and loudly!