Thoughts on the 2024 Election

I went to bed Tuesday not having seen any surprising or indicative results, and still felt relatively confident that Kamala was going to pull through. I woke up in terror the next day, pretty much as bad as it was the first time. I went into work because I didn’t want to be at home, on my own. Getting out of my head did help a bit, and now, Thursday morning, I don’t feel the active terror I had. I have been cycling through some thoughts about the election that I want to get down while they’re fresh in my head.

In the immediate time, the thing that helped me calm down most was the fact that nothing had happened that day. He won’t be instated until January. That doesn’t mean I’m not scared, but that I don’t need to be actively panicking. We have time to prepare. It helps that I’m the type that doesn’t get excited until the thing actually happens; once I processed that the thing(s) hadn’t happened yet, I could breathe.

I saw some posts online about how it’s ok because we woke up in the same country as before. Like it’s supposed to be some comfort, and not the terrifying part. Unlike the wishful liberals that it’s easy to make fun of, I was never surprised, even in 2016, that people would vote for Donald Trump. I’ve always known that America had the seeds of fascism and autocracy. I know our history of oppression and imperialism. Most everything I heard about the political left growing up was baseless rightwing propaganda about how the country would be ruined if we helped each other. So I know I woke up in the same country as before; I’m not surprised that people voted for Donald Trump.

But at the same time, I am surprised that people voted for Donald Trump, right? Again? The obviously incompetent compulsive liar? The living cartoon supervillain? The incurious idiot criminal tied to every scandal and crime he accuses his political enemies of? The creep who wants to have sex with his own daughter? The racist who believes brown people have bad, criminal genes? These are just the things we can plainly see as facts from his own behavior and public statements, without getting into the rapes and statements behind closed doors that his supporters often claim are fabrications. That guy? I’m angry, scared, disappointed, demoralized, etc., to know and not be surprised that America voted in fascism a second time, after having seen how bad it was the first time, but I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that Donald Trump is the guy. You remember how he got hundreds of thousands of us killed by telling us to ignore a pandemic and that safety measures were somehow worse than being sick and potentially dying? There are so many things to list, once again without getting into interpretations or other people’s testimony. He was in on our joke, for decades, about how he’s the living embodiment of everything bad with rich people and America. We all agreed on that. Then he went down an escalator and called all Mexican immigrants murderers and rapists, and suddenly a huge chunk of the country, including people I know and love, decided he was actually really smart and good and should be president. I still have trouble with that, because I know they know, or at least can see. Can’t they?

With all that said, part of me keeps wishing that something happens before January that means he doesn’t actually get to be president. Maybe we’ll find a voter fraud scheme in Georgia and Michigan, and those electoral votes flip. Maybe we’ll find out that some states were called by corrupt election boards before all the mail-in votes were counted. I know that’s not going to happen, it’s just wishful thinking. It seems more likely that there will be another assassination attempt. Remember how only one candidate had assassination attempts this cycle, but they’re equally bad? He’s also just really old and in poor health. We forget that because we mostly see him at rallies, and he feeds off the energy of the crowd, so it can look like he’s in better shape than he is. He could have a heart attack at any time, or maybe he’ll choke on the ten Big Macs he shoves down his throat every morning. President Vance won’t be good, but let’s face it: No one besides Trump has the juice. Once he’s gone, his movement will likely fall apart, and with it, hopefully, goes the Republican Party, since they clearly have nothing except for Trump.

Another thought that I keep cycling back to is: He said he would.

When they ask, “Why are you so upset? Why can’t you let this go? Why are you treating me this way because of my vote?”

He said he would.

When the bad thing happens and they’re shocked, “I didn’t want this! I didn’t know! How could this have happened?”

He said he would.

If we make it through this again, and our institutions hold, and he doesn’t get to fully implement all the things he wants to do, and they say, “You were overreacting and making things up!”

He said he would.

I don’t see how it’s any better if he doesn’t really mean it, the most oft-cited excuse. Why say it, then? Why vote for him, risking that he did mean it? This isn’t politics, it’s human rights; it’s non-negotiable. I also don’t really expect that they’ll be shocked by the bad things. Like last time, they’ll cheer for it, or pretend it’s business as usual. That’s more being hopeful that they can change their minds, at least if the bad thing happens to someone they care about. We can let them back on the team, but they have to acknowledge it. And if we manage to avoid this asteroid, I’m going to be happy and relieved, not bitter that I was wrong. This isn’t a team sport. But I do want to be firm that we weren’t making it up. If they don’t recognize that, they’ll vote in the next person who manages to have the juice.

I also have thought about our history of progress and backlash. We had slavery, and it took a Civil War to end. The response was Jim Crow. The Civil Rights movement was able to uproot that, in the end, by leveraging new mass media. The response was the colorblind neoliberalism crystalized by Reagan. We had the Black Lives Matter movement. The response is Trumpian fascism. Obviously, I’m simplifying – this is primarily through the lens of race, and there were other forces of progress that shaped the backlash in each era – but I bring it up because this grab for power the far right is engaging in is, hopefully, the last gasp of that ideology. The Republican Party, like I said, has nothing to offer. They’ve been too successful at implementing their agenda, and the only thing they have left to stand on is the promise that they’ll maintain the social caste systems that have defined America and continue pulverizing the left. Trump is the endgame for them, and the silver lining is that it’s a cult of personality. I honestly don’t think that MAGA has a future with anyone else, partly because so many Republicans have been trying and failing to take the reins and bottle that lightning, to no avail. All of which means that after fascism comes true democracy. Maybe, at least. We’ve seen what happened in Germany and Italy after their fascists fell. They’re not in the best spot right now, especially Italy, but that’s the dream. The night is darkest before the dawn. We just have to be vigilant for the next night.

The Democrats could also hopefully go away, or cycle through all their leadership, right? I mean, since we know they won’t learn their lesson. I haven’t seen it in the news, but I already know the headlines. They’ll blame Arab-Americans and progressives for not voting for Kamala because of the genocide in Israel. And like, I don’t have the electoral maps in front of me to directly make or refute such a case, but also that wouldn’t be the point. We were all saying, the whole time, what we wanted from Kamala. Just say you won’t sell them weapons and call for a ceasefire. It really is such an important issue that I can’t be mad at anyone who didn’t want to vote for Kamala because of it. Her campaign, her party, her current boss ruined her chances by reining in the enthusiasm and folksy progressivism that switching to Kamala and bringing on Walz gave them. Just like in 2016, just like in 2020, they thought that they could just say, “Trump is real bad,” and win, and that by winning, they had done all the work. So if they refuse to do the real work, we have to do it for them. It does seem more likely right now that it will involve taking over the Democratic Party and lighting the path for a new FDR type, but I honestly don’t think it’s unrealistic that the Dems will fall apart and give us an opening to form an actual left-wing party, or maybe expand and empower a current third party like the Greens. But outside of any of that, believe me when I tell you that progressives and Arab-Americans didn’t lose this election for us, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s a mistake they’ve been making since Carter, when the Democrats first abandoned the popular and successful progressive New Deal politics for centrism. Kamala had her chance. I gave her one out of a cold, practical calculation that she had a shot at being not Donald Trump in office, and I know there are many who did the same. If she wanted all of the available left-wing support in America, then she should have diverged from Biden on Israel. If they can’t lie in this bed, then we shouldn’t let them make it anymore.

And of course, there’s the more practical hope for the future. Trump is so incredibly bad, including at doing the bad things he wants to do. We saw it last time. With any luck, despite being emboldened, he’ll continue to trip over himself, and all his far scarier and more competent advisors will be unable to work around him. I also have some hope that the military won’t actually move against US citizens, no matter what Trump orders. Maybe that’s naïve, but I think even the most headfirst soldiers won’t be able to hear an order to “clean up Chicago” or “round up all the brown people” and think it’s anything other than obvious evil. I’m less hopeful about their involvement with putting down protest movements, though. Kent State and the recent pro-Palestine protests. And we still have some of the House and some judges. I don’t know how I should read his chances on implementing Project 2025, but I have to think that there’s still some institutional power that can at least resist that. The government isn’t unified. Here’s to hoping that it’s just another four years. We’ve been through that before, and it was Hell, but it came to an end. I hope we see each other on the other side.

That’s about where I’m at right now. It’s all pretty horrible, but more in the background. We have some time left where we can enjoy being in public and living our lives. We have time to prepare for what’s ahead. On a personal level, leaving the country isn’t off the table for me. I’m not in a position to do it right now, but it’s a nice thought. I’m not built for these streets, if they start running red. But like I said, there’s still not-unrealistic reason to think they won’t. It would be great to be in America when we decide to start being America, you know?