Only one thing is certain about Wednesday morning, half of America is going to be pissed off. Infuriated, alienated, disenfranchised.
If the winner is known, if the presidential race isn't hung up in some court challenge or Russian hack, the only prediction that can be made with any confidence is that this election will leave about 50 percent of the people in this country feeling like this isn't their country.
The divide will be wide and deep.
And the prospects of bridging it are meager.
But first, who's going to win.
It's anybody's guess.
Reasonable arguments can be made for several scenarios. The polls could be right and Hillary will win before the thing leaves the Eastern time zone. The Trump surge in the polls could push put him just past her and he squeaks it out when they close the polls in Nevada. Or there could be a rumbling subterranean tide, a huge surge of enthusiasm for Trump shown at his rallies but not in the miscalculated polling samples, and he could win in a landslide when they tally up Ohio and Michigan.
The range of reasonable outcomes stretches from a Clinton landslide to a Trump landslide, and any number of hanging-chad situations in between.
Both sides hope for victory, both sides are holding their breath.
And one side is going to be kicked in the ass.
And kicked to the curb.
The first responsibility of the president elect will be to reach out and welcome in. The great challenge will be making peace, not with foreign governments, but with American citizens.
And that doesn't seem likely.
Neither candidate seems inclined to graciousness. Neither candidate seems particularly interested in or capable of reaching out to people who disagree. Trump has spoken more of love, and been less specifically condemning of his opponent's supporters, but his brand has been so destroyed among Democrat voters that the only reasonable response they can have is hatred.
And it seems that a great deal of hatred has been shown by Hillary and her supporters for Trump voters. Election Day isn't a magic wand that makes "unredeemable" and "deplorable" go away, and when you have described your opponents as racists, xenophobes, sexists and Islamophobes as a matter of course, victory doesn't make bygones be bygones.
There is a likelihood that either side will see electoral victory as a justification for its own delusions of infallibility. Wednesday won't be brotherhood and understanding, it will be taunting and end-zone celebrations.
And one side will read the outcome as a giant middle finger in the face. The sense of being disregarded, disrespected and disenfranchised will be enormous -- no matter who wins. Recent years, and this campaign, have exacerbated dramatically social division along the lines of race, gender, religion and politics. Even the things that used to unite us -- God and country -- have become flash points of anger, with both being disregarded and dumped by some.
There is a revolution afoot, and one side is going to lose.
And the losing side is apt to be shouted into silence, defined out of the new America.
In times past, that would have troubled the winning side.
But not anymore. On Wednesday morning, half of America is going to be pissed. And, sadly, that is going to thrill the other half.
In recent days, people have been saying, "Won't you be glad when this is over?"
The answer is, "No."
Because when the election is over, that's when it's going to get bad.
Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.
