In the Midterm Elections, the Fat Lady Has Not Yet Sung

In America there is a saying that “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings.”

I had always assumed it was a Yogi Berra comment about baseball—and it may well be, because Yogi was a wealth-fund of such sayings, although the provenance of the phrase is cloudy. The reference there applied to the final aria in opera, when the ofttimes overweight diva (playing the part of a young and attractive damsel) brought down the final curtain with her lung-power.

Yet there is another possibility I find interesting that has to do with steamships. In those old times the huge steam engines that drove such ships were called ‘the fat lady.’ Crews on shore-leave amused themselves with whoring and drinking until the whistle blew, summoning them back aboard. They called that ‘the fat lady singing’ and shore-leave was not over until the fat lady sings. Interesting, the paths upon which Google sets one’s feet.

But everyone was wrong in their assessment of the about-to-happen midterm elections, accept me

I told anyone who cared to listen that for the first time in decades I was stumped and hadn’t the foggiest notion of what was about to occur.

We Americans were about to have a civil war or we were not. There would be armed rebellions in the streets or there would not. Our fragile republic was about to fall into pieces like a controlled demolition or it was not. The final aria was about to be sung, tolling the end of democracy or it was not.

Who the hell could know?

The fat lady remains behind the curtain, but the orchestra is increasing its tempo and we know the final aria is about to come

It takes a long time to count votes. Those elections that can be called have been called and it’s not yet the disaster the Democrats feared or the red river the Republicans hungered for. It seems that no matter which way the House and Senate fall, they will remain close enough that wringing out a vote or two in either direction may yet remain possible.

In short, democracy in America has not yet come unstuck. Remaining stuck can occasionally be looked upon as a victory. Europe, where I happen to live, is breathing an enormous sigh of relief. A close Brit friend of mine told me just before the polls opened, “if democracy falls in America, Europe will be close behind.”

Yeah, and with all that was at stake, stuck may be good enough.