Election Day stress disorder grips the nation

Follow Us Get the newsletter This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a DSM-5 of Bloomberg Opinion's opinions. Sign up here. Today's Agenda Every vote must be counted. We need better Covid-vaccine planning. Stocks may be in for a long bad time. We need sea walls, not border walls. Fear and Loathing, 2020 Election Edition Do you currently suffer from: chronic insomnia; relentless feelings of panic or dread; rapid heart rate, breathing or perspiration; difficulty focusing or thinking clearly; and/or an obsession with tweets by people named Nate? Then you may be experiencing Election Day stress disorder (EDSD). Not to be confused with politicophobia, a general fear of politics, EDSD is a syndrome unique to the American electorate. It's relatively new but has gotten far worse since roughly Election Day 2016. The president's supporters naturally fear the steady polling lead of rival Joe Biden. But everyone else in the country has much more to fear, writes Jonathan Bernstein, from the still-real possibility of Donald Trump's re-election to his and his followers' threats to subvert democracy to make it happen, up to and including violence.   Election Day could well linger for days or weeks as the votes are counted, and Trump will aggravate our EDSD by claiming premature victory and demanding the counting stop. We shouldn't listen to him, writes Bloomberg's editorial board. All votes must be counted, no matter how long it takes. It's really not too hyperbolic to say getting this right is an existential matter for the American experiment. Neither Congress nor the courts have checked Trump's abuses of power. Voters are the last line of constitutional defense, writes Noah Feldman. If we fail to make Trump pay for his mismanagement and misdeeds, then the Constitution itself will have failed.  Unfortunately, the Constitution is part of the problem, thanks partly to its creation of the Electoral College. Its very nature makes disputed elections more likely, writes Stephen Carter, exacerbating not only our EDSD but also our toxic polarization. Many of the Founders knew it was a mistake from the start, writes Justin Fox, and politicians have wrestled with fixing it for 230 years.  Even if Democrats take the Senate, they probably won't be able to change the Constitution and kill the Electoral College. But a unified government will have the constitutional right to neuter it while reforming America's mishmash of voting systems, writes Thomas Geoghegan. They can make voting easier and more democratic. After this election, we'll need such stress relief. Further Political Reading: Martha McSally's humiliating capitulation to Trump perfectly exemplifies the GOP. — Frank Wilkinson  There Are No Vaccine Shortcuts Nobody's nerves are helped by the coronavirus pandemic making another unwelcome comeback. Medical science has heroically gotten vaccines close to completion very quickly, but they're still months from being ready. Getting solid data on vaccine effectiveness just takes time, writes Max Nisen, as we must wait long enough to give trial subjects a chance to be infected.  Meanwhile, we also need governments to craft plans to turn this medical miracle into actual shots in actual people's actual arms. As Ferdinando Giugliano notes, in news that probably will not shock you, not all governments are doing such a great job at this. Poor planning will slow distribution and make people less likely to get protected. Take Boris Johnson's government. It has struggled so much with messaging about lockdowns and testing and the like that its credibility is already strained, writes Therese Raphael. Johnson this weekend executed the latest in a series of crisp about-faces by declaring a four-week national lockdown. It may be necessary, but inconsistency and what Martin Ivens describes as Johnson's deep empathy deficit won't help bring the public along. Here in the fractious Colonies, there's a real risk our political toxicity will spoil vaccines for us, too, writes Tyler Cowen. That will be bad not only for our nerves but also for our health.   How Not to Spend It At least the stock market mostly rallied today, something it hasn't done much of lately, as Mohamed El-Erian notes. Hopefully nobody still believes Dave Portnoy when he says stocks only go up anymore. But Erin Lowry hears some of you are tempted to take your rainy-day funds and put them in stocks, hoping for better returns than the [checks bank statement] zero percent you're getting in that bank account. Don't do this, Erin advises. Emergency savings are to be kept under glass until emergencies.  In fact, the stock market may soon become a rocky place where your nest egg can find no purchase (apologies to the Coen brothers) for a decade, warns Chris Bryant. Bloated valuations are a problem for stocks, but not the only one. The utter dominance of the FANGs sure looks a lot like some past speculative bubbles, writes Gary Shilling. You win no prizes for guessing how those ended.  Of course, some of you may be asking, "What is this 'savings' of which you speak?" That's because many of us are bad at putting money aside, because a cheeseburger in the hand is worth two cheeseburgers in the bush, or something. Mmm. Cheeseburgers. Anyway, apparently we have brains that make us do dumb stuff with money, like not save it, writes Vicki Bogan. She has some tips for overcoming such biases.  Telltale Charts Rising seas and storms threaten oil and gas production on the Gulf Coast, warns Julian Lee.   Dunkin' will be the priciest restaurant buyout in history partly because it has figured out how to thrive in a pandemic, writes Tara Lachapelle.  Further Reading Momofuku's David Chang, a big iceberg lettuce fan, explains what restaurants must do to survive this pandemic. — Bobby Ghosh  The global food supply has held up so far, but pressures are growing. — Clara Ferreira Marques  Racial income disparities will widen again without more stimulus. — Claudia Sahm  In deep-red Wyoming, wind power is big business. — Frank Barry  Covid-19 is influencing  street art in hard-hit New York neighborhoods. — Camilo José Vergara  ICYMI A federal judge rejected the GOP's request to toss drive-in ballots in Texas. Trump financial guru Allen Weisselberg's own finances face scrutiny. New Mac laptops with Apple chips are coming soon. Kickers The black metaltail hummingbird saves energy by nearly freezing. (h/t Scott Kominers) Somebody killed the "Sausage King" in the sauna with a crossbow.  Tunnels are exorbitantly expensive in the U.S. compared to everywhere else. Letting forests regrow may be better than planting new trees. Note: Please send crossbows and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. Sign up here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.   Like Bloomberg Opinion Today? Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access and get much, much more. You'll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022