It is very early on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. Because of the recent change from daylight saving time to standard time, I am up even earlier than usual, or rather Jupiter the cat and I are still on daylight time. Jupiter has gone back to bed, and I am going to the Keene Valley firehouse to vote at 10 a.m. I’m nervous. Hopes and fears. Here’s what I wrote in this column four years ago:

“As I begin this column early on election day, Nov. 3, 2020, I find myself in much the same position as I did four years ago. I refer to the column ‘Martha Sez 11/10/16’ here: “It is the Monday before Election Day. By the time you see this, the presidential election will be over; you, the reader, already know the election results. I, Martha Allen, on Nov. 7, 2016, do not.”

One election day after another, every four years. So similar. Like a nest of Russian dolls! But let’s not talk about the Russians.

The suspense is painful. Should I resort to reading the cards?

Those are pearls that were his eyes. … Fear death by water.

All right, I did consult the Tarot, but I can hardly stand to look at the cards I laid out; I can tell you there are a lot of Swords, and the central card is Six of Swords, “passage away from difficulty.” What if I am actually right? But the deck was new, and I don’t think I shuffled the cards very well. Besides, who believes in fortune telling? Never mind.

On the morning of Election Day 2020, I wrote: “One good thing is that you will no longer hear certain words and phrases that have insidiously become part of our national vocabulary during the long, drawn-out campaign.

“Pivot. I am so sick of this word. Please please stop using it, except maybe as a basketball term, once the election is over. People have stopped breathlessly waiting for Donald Trump to pivot toward acting “presidential.” Now that he is nearing the end of his first term it does seem a little late. Or maybe, after four years, the definition of the word ‘presidential’ has changed. People have also pretty much stopped saying ‘Give him a chance,’ and ‘Let Trump be Trump,’ exhortations we used to hear on a daily basis. I mean, it was never as if he was going to pivot.”

Well, it is true that by now, in 2024, we don’t hear any news anchor folk wondering out loud when and if Donald Trump is going to pivot. That question has finally been laid to rest. Luckily for the youth of this nation, we have had a president for the last four years who has spoken without promoting violence or hatred or disrespect toward women or using profanity on the public stage (although Donald Trump labels him as head of the “Biden Crime Family”). Other candidates have been held to account for statements far less outrageous than many of Mr. Trump’s.

Remember how shocked some people were in 2012 when the news outlet “Mother Jones” broke the news about Mitt Romney making disparaging remarks about “the 47%,” United States citizens who pay no income tax?

Romney’s remarks were secretly videotaped by Scott Prouty, who was working as a bartender employed by the catering crew during a fundraiser Romney held in Florida. Romney stood by his comments (now we would say he “doubled down”) while conceding they were “not elegantly stated.”

My point is that, no matter what Trump has to say, he is not held to account for it as other candidates have been; and we have become inured to his language. I find it amusing to think I’m defined as “left-wing vermin” in Trump terminology.

As I wrote on election day morning in 2020, “This is a highly charged election. I have spoken with both Democrats and Republicans who fear post-election-day controversy, and even violence, from the opposition.”

So, as I say, you, the reader, know more than I do as I write this, although possibly the election results will still not be clear when the paper comes out, or even for some time afterward.

As former — and possibly future — President Trump likes to say, “We’ll see what happens.”

Have a good week.

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the News since 1996.)