'BradCast' 11/4/2020: (Wisconsin's own John Nichols of 'The Nation' on unsettled 2020 Election)
On today's 'BradCast':\xa0 On the day after a very late Election Night, it appears that -- barring some sort of tabulation surprise or failure -- Joe Biden is on track to win at least 270 Electoral College votes to become the next president. In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, GOP-controlled state legislatures barred election officials counting any mail-in ballots until Election Day, so unofficial results are very slow to come in. But Donald Trump is attempting to gaslight the American people, falsely claiming that counting legal ballots after Election Day is somehow 'fraud', and vowing to mount a Supreme Court challenge. Republicans of all stripes condemned Trump's falsehoods and his scheme to stop the counting of lawfully-cast votes as shameful and counter-productive. In contrast, Biden called for every vote to be counted and reassured voters that 'Nobody is going to take our democracy away from us, not now, not ever.' So far, Democrats do not appear to have won back the US Senate majority, and lost five seats in the US House, even as voters approved progressive ballot initiatives in several states. It was certainly a confusing verdict from the American people -- presuming the reported, unverified and unofficial results prove to be accurate. What to make of all of this? Progressive journalist JOHN NICHOLS of 'The Nation' and Madison's 'Capitol Times' offers insights for both for progressives and establishment Democrats from his unique perspective as a Wisconsinite -- a state that took a very similar right turn over the past couple of decades, much like the nation, then barely went to Donald Trump in 2016, and now appears to have flipped back to Democrats. Plus: the hands-down most optimistic take on whatever the hell happened yesterday...