I always feel depressed in the last week of October before the U.S. presidential election every four years as people always ask me questions like who will win come Nov. 3. Studying the American election process has been my hobby for the past 44 years since I took U.S. Politics 101 at the University of Minnesota in 1976.
With that said, it had been relatively easy for me to predict the outcome of the 10 consecutive presidential elections up to 2012. Things have changed, however, since 2016, when most election geeks in Japan, including myself, did not foresee the Donald Trump victory — which is why I will not venture to make a prediction this time around.
I will say, though, there are more important things than the winners themselves. It is not that I do not want to be a bad loser. I just feel that something ominous has been happening to conservatism in America for the past decade.