Well This Is Bad
Processing the Election and Preparing for the Work to Come
Like me, I’m sure many of you are sad, frustrated, demoralized, angry, scared, and more. I’m torn between booking time in a rage room and curling up in a ball. What a ridiculous outcome. The man who still has not conceded defeat four years ago, who staged a coup (autocoup, if you want to get technical) to try and stay in power, who demonized every demographic imaginable, was somewhat comfortably elected to a second term.
Trump’s first term was a disaster. It’s likely the second will be worse. Democrats lost the Senate and appear unlikely to take the House. This means Republicans are likely to have a trifecta, and there’s little reason to think they will prove much of an opposition to Trump’s agenda. Few of the folks who served as the check during the first two years of his presidency are still around. Corker, Flake, and McCain have long gone. It’s possible that if Democrats can get to 215-ish House seats, the majority becomes difficult to manage for Republicans. But at 52+ in the Senate, Trump will be able to confirm pretty much whomever he wants to the cabinet and the bench.
Do not seek to blame voters for what happened. People were informed – it’s not like people don’t know who Trump is! They made a choice. What Democrats offered simply wasn’t compelling enough for enough people. Before you are compelled to go look at exit poll data crosstabs, remember that whatever you find is inaccurate and, again, it’s not the fault of a particular constituency for whatever “not voting in the numbers they’re supposed to” means.
Our goal, for the next two years at least, is to 1) survive and 2) blunt the most extreme threats to the country/democracy. Trump will do and say many bad things. We will need to pick and choose our battles (more on that in a future post). For the moment, what we can do is establish some patterns of behavior to help us.
What we can do immediately is reestablish social connections with those prepared to do this work. Invest in the relationships. We don’t know where the most dangerous attacks against us will come from, but we will need to stick together to weather them. Our comfort right now is that roughly half the country agrees with us. We are not isolated individuals, backed into a corner, waiting to be blasted into political oblivion. We are 67 million (and counting). A critical mass of people is prepared to stand up to the most egregious assaults on our institutions to come.
My promise to you is that I will be by your side in this endeavor. My commitment to individual liberties, equality before the law, a pluralistic society, and the democratic process is unwavering. “With liberty and justice for all,” right?
In solidarity now and always,
Alex