[originaltext] Between ten and midnight the United States is politically lea

Between ten and midnight the United States is politically leaderless -- there is no center of information anywhere in the nation except in the New York headquarters of the great broadcasting companies and the two great wire services. No candidate and no party can afford the investment on election night to match the news-gathering resources of the mass media; and so, as every citizen sits in his home watching his TV set or listening to his radio, he is the equal of any other in knowledge. There is nothing that can be done in these hours, for no one can any longer direct the great strike for American power; the polls have closed. Good or bad, whatever the decision, America will accept the decision -- and cut down any man who goes against it, even though for millions the decision runs contrary to their own votes. The general vote is an expression of national will, the only substitute for violence and blood. Its decision is to be defended as one defends civilization itself.
    There is nothing like this American expression of will in England or France, India or Russia. Only one other major nation in modern history has ever tried to elect its leader directly by mass, free, popular vote. This was the Weimar Republic of Germany, which modeled its unitary vote for a national leader on the American practice. Out of its experiment with the system it got Hitler. Americans have had Lincoln, Wilson, two Roosevelt’s. Nothing can be done when the voting returns are flooding in: the White House and its power will move to one or another of the two candidates, and all will know about it in the morning.