That just happened. Again.
Jumbled thoughts from election week 2024
Welp. Here we go again.
Like many of you, I’ve been trying to process the rollercoaster of thoughts and feelings since last week’s election.
Here are a bunch of impressions, in no particular order:
* I wrote a similar “WTF just happened?” post 8 years ago. Reading it again, I was struck by how many of the same feelings I had this week. Deja vu has never felt worse.
* I guess I’m less shocked this time…but more mystified and sadder. I get that we’re in the midst of a global election trend where the incumbents were likely to be defeated, but it’s hard to fathom that a majority of Americans are willing to hand the keys back to this guy? After all we know about him? It’s depressing AF.
* There are some parts of this I just…can’t get over. How dangerously, profoundly unfit this guy is to be president. Historian Stephen Beschloss wrote up a list of 7 things he can’t get over; I agree with all of them.
* I’m always amazed at the righteous certainty that emerges immediately after an election. They’re still counting the votes in some races, but just hours after the polls closed, pundits and “thought leaders” rushed in to tell us exactly what went wrong/right. I take this snap analysis with a grain of salt; it often proves to be incomplete and/or incorrect.
* I thought Harris ran a fine campaign, given the hand she was dealt. I was proud to vote for her. I think she would have made a good president and I would have loved to see Walz in the VP chair. I liked her platform and policies and think they would have been better for the country. It sucks when your preferred candidate loses.
* I know it wasn’t the focus of her campaign, but it would have been really, really good to have a woman as president. This woman in particular. (And women have every right to be furious about this outcome.)
* In hindsight, of course, Biden should not have run for reelection and there should have been a Democratic primary. I’m not sure Harris would have been the candidate in that scenario, but whoever emerged would have had a better shot as they wouldn’t have had the same “incumbent” baggage. But even so…I’m not sure it would have been enough to overcome the prevailing political mood.
* Yes, I think the macro economic picture is better than the “vibes” suggest. But people feel (and vote) how they feel. It will be annoying to watch the GOP get credit for economic progress that’s a result of the Biden admin’s policies. But that’s the cycle: the GOP screws it up, the Dems fix it, but for some reasons the GOP gets credit as “good on the economy.” Rinse and repeat.
* Trump is a terrible person and degenerate liar. Who knows what he believes besides preserving his own skin and enriching himself. He’s proven that he’ll say whatever he has to in order to get and stay in power. But he did get more votes and he’s going to be president. Again. Don’t tell me that character matters; this one proves it really doesn’t.
* Do I hope Trump “fails?” I don’t want him to crash the economy or weaken America’s position in the world. I don’t want to watch the country burn so that I can say, “told you so.” But I sure hope the policies he’s advocated fail: retribution against his political enemies, gutting the protections of the affordable care act, ending bodily autonomy for women, rounding up and deporting immigrants, tariffs that make goods unaffordable, and other items on the Project 2025 wish list. I hope those fail spectacularly.
* But he’s also notoriously vague about his real agenda. Who knows what he’ll actually do. If he he does run the playbook the Project 2025 folks have outlined for him, a lot of people who voted for him are going to discover that they voted against their own self interest.
* He was pretty crappy at implementing some of his worst policies last time — he doesn’t have the temperament for real leadership. Plus, his worst instincts were curbed by the “adults” in his cabinet. Unfortunately, having seen him up close, most refused to support him this time around. Trump 2.0 is likely to be more idealogical, more rabidly focused on their cruel agenda, and more “loyal” to the whims of their dear leader.
* Yes, he’ll have GOP majorities in both houses of Congress, but they will be slim. Perhaps some of the more sane, moderate voices will save us from tipping over into the abyss? He’s already packed the Supreme Court (and will packed the lower courts over the next few years.) It’s grim, y’all.
* Here’s the dirty-little-secret: as a middled-aged white male, I’ll probably be mostly fine under a Republican administration. I can game the tax code to my advantage. My doctor won’t tell me what procedures I can and can’t do. Kick the can down the road on environmental disaster so that the worst outcomes don’t rear their head until after I’m dead. OK…there’s a pretty good chance that healthcare will get worse and more expensive (but the current system is already pretty broken, TBH.)
* But I’m still afraid. Not so much for myself — for the millions who will be impacted by his cruelest polices, including many people that I love. I pray that my worst fears proved to be unfounded. But I think there is a lot of bad shit coming and a lot of people are going to be hurt.
* And even middle-aged white guys aren’t immune from things like, oh, global pandemics made worse by science denialism and anti-vax conspiracy theories…who knows what he’ll blunder into this time.
* I don’t think you’ll see the preemptive marches and “resistance rallies” that you saw in 2016. Most of the Harris supporters in my feed are quietly resigned to the slog of the next four years. They’re girding themselves for the battles ahead. They know they have to save their energy to advocate for those most impacted by what’s coming.
* There’s a lot of talk about “self care.” So many folks have forgotten the horrors of Trump 1.0 — the daily deluge of bullshit. The dumpster fire is coming back to Washington, but it doesn’t mean we have to give the flames same level of oxygen. I’m going to try not to get sucked into the crazy. I will watch less news to preserve my sanity.
* BUT it’s a tricky balance. Trump’s (sadly effective) tactic is to flood the zone with bullshit and make the whole political arena so toxic that you get sick of politics and pay less attention…so it’s easier for him to enact his extreme agenda. We don’t have the luxury of complete disengagement, as much as we want to turn away from the shit show.
* Because, as David Remnick writes in The New Yorker, “Trump’s reelection is a deeply dangerous moment in American life.” The unthinkable CAN happen here. So we have to think about it and guard against it.
* Naming completely unqualified people to critically important roles is part of the plan. They want to rile you up while they burn it all down. Breathe. (And maybe turn off breaking news notifications as he fills the cabinet.) There’s nothing you can do about the crazy. America invited the circus back to town. Here come the clowns.
* Act local” feels especially important. I’m frustrated by the outcome of the presidential election, but I can still advocate in my community. This past week, I tried to focus on the work I’m doing on my kid’s school board. Make a difference where you can.
* There’s a lot of post-election media analysis to unpack. But one of the most tired tropes is MAGAs constant whining about “the mainstream media.” Conservative media (Fox, Joe Rogan, the manosphere podcasters, the conservative “pink slime” sites and pay-to-play right-wing propaganda newspapers) ARE the mainstream media now. Untethered to facts and pushing a clear agenda, they have an enormous sway over the electorate.
* How do you “win” in the marketplace of ideas when “low information voters” refuse to enter the marketplace? (Today’s Beschloss piece makes this point: voters who consume NO political news went for Trump by +15 points.)
* I find it nauseating, but you to have to admire Trump’s message discipline. He’s been saying the same thing for almost a decade. “Make America Great Again” is a startlingly cynical line (in other words, “America is a shit hole that only I can fix”) but he’s proven the power of over-simplification and repetition. Eight years ago I wrote about the Democrats’ need to rally around a single, pithy anti-Trump line and stick with it. They never did; they never will. (Getting everybody to agree on a strategy and sticking with it is not the Dem’s forte.)
* The road ahead is unclear and the consequences of elections don’t really manifest until much later. Who knows where this path leads? Democrats were devastated when Kerry lost in 2004; but if he doesn’t, no Obama in 2008. Through one lens, performing better than expected in the 2022 midterms may have been the Democrats fatal flaw. If they’d gotten their butts kicked, maybe a new challenger would have emerged? Trump 2.0 is terrible outcome and there are dark days ahead…but the pendulum will swing back. (long, quiet pause) I mean…it will, right?
* Finally, some thoughts on surrounding yourself with “your people”…
I live in a political bubble here in San Francisco. The same way I lived in a very different political bubble growing up in Bakersfield.
In this election, I was naive about the mood of the country and the decision we were facing. I saw it as a referendum of hope vs. hate with only one obvious choice. But, clearly, more people saw Trump as the more hopeful option. (And/or, a lot of people are OK with hate as long as their leader hates the same people they do, which is a depressing thought.)
But I like my bubble. I like my friends. I like my community. They share my values. They care about the things I care about. And they have similar sense of empathy.
I don’t believe “social justice” is a pejorative term, but something that recognizes the dignity and equality of every human being.
I believe in a more hopeful, inclusive vision of politics and service. And I recognize that an election is just another milestone in the American experiment — not the final chapter. We have to keep writing.
About the Author
John Kovacevich is a writer and creative director based in San Francisco.
