This could be the story of untold millions of Americans. You gotta love it. And especially the elite media-prog condescension.
Thursday, Nov. 5
By Thursday morning, the Roccos had given up on Fox. “There’s definitely people at Fox who don’t like Trump,” Mr. Rocco said. “The commentators, they are normally aggressive. I think they got a leash put on them somehow, some way.”
He took the position that the vote count should have ended on Nov. 3. He reassured his wife that the decision would finally lie in the hands of the Supreme Court.
“They’re doing anything they can to stop him from becoming president,” he said. “It’s not over yet. He’s going to win. It’s just a matter of who has the balls to close down first.”
But an alternative path was beginning to take shape in his mind, in case Mr. Biden prevailed.
Maybe the Republicans could impeach Mr. Biden. Maybe a Republican Senate could tie his hands for four years. Maybe, after a long-planned Caribbean vacation, Mr. Rocco would fly out to Arizona and join the protesters. Maybe he would post new yard signs.
“Like I told you, I hate to lose,” he said. “If he loses, I’ll feel like I’ve lost.”
When Mr. Trump delivered remarks at the White House, Mr. Rocco was struck by his appearance. The president looked drained and serious, no longer a happy warrior. The message the president conveyed was grave: that American democracy is a farce.
“He’s been telling us about that for months, and I think it’s actually happening now,” he said. “How are we ever going to be able to vote for a president again, now that we know that fraud has been going on?”
Friday, Nov. 6
The news on Friday morning was no surprise. Officials in states that had not been called had spent much of the night meticulously counting ballots, in the presence of observers from both parties.
Mr. Biden was a hair’s breadth from the presidency, on course to win at least 270 electoral votes.
“Every time I went to bed, it was the same,” Mr. Rocco said. “I go to bed, he was winning, I wake up, he was losing.”
Ms. Rocco sounded resigned. “I think that basically it’s pretty much done,” she said. “But they cheated. But it’s done.”
The people she had spent the summer with, the Trump activists, she could see them packing it in, returning to normal life.
“They’re just going to want to move on,” she said. “My aunt’s already saying, ‘Stop being a crybaby.’”
Mr. Rocco was not ready to give up, though. The president would not concede, he was sure of that. “I’d be pissed at him if he did because I would never do that,” he said. “He’s not that type of person. He doesn’t give up easily. I see a lot of myself in him.”
Casting his mind into the future, past this election, he could imagine any number of outcomes.
He could imagine the United States splitting into two countries, one governed by Mr. Trump and one not. He could imagine suspending elections so Mr. Trump and his family could rule without interruption for 20 years.
“I guarantee you, Trump supporters would not care,” he said. “I guarantee you, if you got 69 million Trump supporters, and you said, ‘Would you be good with Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump as president?’ a lot of people would be 100 percent behind that.”
He was gathering his things — he had a shift at the salon — and his tone was calm. He is only 26. There is plenty of time. He was waiting for cues from his leader.
“In Trump we trust, and as far as everything else, it’s all going to fall into place,” he said. “It’s not happening today, and it’s not happening tomorrow.”
