I'm sure a lot of you who have been following this website for a long time have been wondering, "where are the 2020 updates!?" Usually I start preparing for an upcoming election at least a year in advance. Yet here we are 30 days before election day and I've yet to do much of anything.

I apologize.

Not necessarily for not updating the site, but for not letting you know what was going on.

I'm going to be entirely truthful. As longtime readers know, I stive to be completely non-partisan here. I enjoy the process, but the actual politics? Not so much! So nothing I'm about to say comes from a partisan place, even it you think it sounds that way.

I love our system of electing the chief executive. I believe in it. And even when I dislike the results of an election, I will always respect the will of the people and the office of the president.

But these days I feel like the only one who believes that anymore.

I wrote a long post with examples of the kinds of things that have disgusted me over the past four years, by politicians, by the press, by social media networks. But after writing it all out, I decided I really don't want to rehash it all here on my site. Long story short, it seems like everyone is more concerned with winning, or ratings, or silencing their opponents than they are concerned with coming together on the things we agree with and working through the things we don't. (And if you think I can't be talking about your side of the political aisle, you're wrong!)

What's always fascinated me about the United States presidency is that we the people have created a system to peacefully transfer power to someone who we might disagree with, and that this system actually works. But the past four years have shaken my trust that people believe in the system anymore. And that scares me to death.

So what's that mean for the site? I don't know. I still love the history and I love the process and I love answering questions about those two things. But for my own mental health, I don't think I want to deal with the politics of current elections anymore. I might still throw out map analyses without commentary. And maybe I'll still do an election night live blog. But after 2020, I think I'm going to focus more on past elections rather than the next one.

The day after the shocking results of the 2016 election I said:

The most amazing thing about this is how the American people completely ignored everybody that told them this was impossible. All the polls said he would lose. Only two of the top 100 newspapers endorsed him. Cable news didn't give him a chance... The voters ignored all that and said, "we decide, not you". No matter what side you're on, it makes you feel good about our democracy that it's still possible to buck the entire system.

I still believe in the American people and the process we have to elect our leaders. I may not always agree with their beliefs. I may not always like their decisions. But I will never tear them down for their choice. Over the past four years it feels like those in positions of power have tried to take away the possibility of the people ignoring them ever again. Regardless of what you think about the current election, for the sake of the country and its future, let's hope they don't succeed.