I awoke on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 flabbergasted and dumbfounded that Donald Trump had once again been elected President of the United States. I went through so many emotions: fear, deep disappointment, anger, and full-on gobstoppery. I just couldn’t believe that after all that has happened that there were enough people that chose to vote for him for a 3rd time, even after he and his potential administration have boldly told us how they are going to destroy whatever remains of this American democracy experiment.
I still can’t believe that there’s anyone in this country that still thinks that he is worthy of the office. The man is the physical embodiment of hate, capitalism, fascism, populism, felony, grift, and elitism. He is a national embarrassment and I think that deep down, everyone knows that he is a puppet whose strings are held by many, many masters that care even less about “the people” than he does.
And now, a day later, I think the emotion that I feel most is a deep, deep disappointment in my fellow Americans - not just the people that voted for fascism, but also the ones that didn’t vote at all or just couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the “not fascist but just more of the same” candidate. I’m just so deeply disappointed that yet again, a very large portion of my fellow Americans couldn’t be bothered to think of other people for once and instead only focused on themselves and what they wanted.
Sadly, that is the real American way.
And I can’t express this enough, but I get why a lot of people didn’t vote. I can understand why some people just couldn’t vote for any candidates; I’ve heard all the reasons, and I know that it was incredibly difficult to cast one’s lot on the permanent record with a particular candidate that they just couldn’t get behind. So many people just couldn’t stomach more “business as usual” status quo in our government, even in the face of bald-faced fascism, because even the “lesser of the two evils” had a lot of nauseating behavior embedded in their current practices. Please believe me when I say that I get it, because I do.
What I’ve decided is that I’m not going to point fingers, provide any “hot takes” on why I think this happened, who was wrong, who was right, why people chose X candidate over the other, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Because to me, an average citizen, it doesn’t matter who’s fault it was or is. I’m not going to condemn anyone for their choice, nor am I going to blame them, as much as I might want to, because it’s not productive nor constructive. The only people that need to figure out the “whys” and “wherefores” are the losing parties - they need to understand why they lost and do better than “well, at least we’re NOT like that person” next time.
Update #1
Actually, you know what? I am going to point a big ol’ middle finger at the Democrats in specific, and the American (essentially) 2-party political system in general for this debacle. The Democrats failed so soundly because they didn’t bother to really campaign on any actual issues and fell into their haughty hubris that the people who had always voted for them would vote for them again this time because “fascism”. In actuality, they sort of lived up to their critiques of “elitism” by just assuming that any “intelligent”, “socially conscious” person couldn’t possibly vote for the crazy fascists and so were completely tone-deaf to their own glaring issues that many people couldn’t and wouldn’t accept.
For the last 10-12 years, Donald fucking Trump has dictated the tone of the entire US political system because he just does and says whatever the hell he wants to and dares everyone else to stop him, which means that the political apparatchik is completely reactionary all of the time to the whims of Trump. The GOP operates either in fear of going against anything that Dear Leader Bully says to keep their personal status quo or embraces him because now they’re free to let their worst impulses and true fascism out into the light of day because Dear Leader Bully does it, so why can’t we? And Democratic policy is essentially just doing nothing but reacting to and undoing all the crazy bullshit that comes out of him and his cadre’s mouth such that they’re not actually doing their own things come election time. Their M.O. is to “just keep undoing” what was done (so long as it doesn’t intersect with things that they actually want, such as supporting a genocidal “ally”).
Basically, what this amounted to was a single-issue campaign, and apparently that particular issue in and of itself was not enough to get a large enough portion of the country to vote for the Democrats. This is why I’m such a big proponent of Ranked Choice Voting. The 2-party system with its infernal Electoral College has run its course and it’s time to change it up. Only 2 parties means only extremes get to control everyone for at least 4 years.
Barring some incident, we’re faced with another Trump Presidency in a couple of months. We’re faced with fascism on a scale that the U.S. has yet to experience firsthand, and the entire world is going to pay for it. This is our reality now. Collectively, we, as a society, have gotten the President that we deserve because this is the person that was chosen by our system. We have to accept that our country is a rotten bushel of apples because we have collectively been unable to expunge the bad apples from our orchard. Whether we wanted it or not, this is what we now have.
And therefore, my position is that I will not hold the average American responsible for how we got here and just accept that this is the reality now and spend all of my time and energy figuring out how to fight this reality in whatever circles that I find myself operating within. I will not “preemptively obey”. I will not accept that fascism is “just the way it is now”. I will continue to try and think of everyone collectively as often as possible every single time that I am given the opportunity to vote on societal changes at all levels - from local government to federal. I will continue to do everything in my power to use my societal privilege to bring about equity for as many people as I possibly can.
Now is the time for revolution. Now is the time to fight back. Now is NOT the time to knuckle under. The fascists think that they’ve won because they won an election. If we roll over and accept their victory, then their perception becomes true. I, for one, am not willing to do that. I will not accept their fascism.
Now is the time for revolution. Become (or remain) ungovernable. I believe it would be that time no matter who won the election. It’s just that now, that resistance is going to be visible in a much more stark contrast than it otherwise would have been had Kamala Harris won. Fascist dictatorship requires an equally forceful revolt against it, and I do still have hope that the American people can do that. But it’s going to be messy, painful, and hard, so very hard. It’s going to be terrifying (as if it hasn’t been already); full disclosure: I’ll admit that I’m scared of what it might mean for me. My life will have to change significantly, and that’s terrifying.
But I’m more afraid of what it means for my friends and family if I do not. How can I possibly think of myself as “safe” when so many that I know and love cannot? That is the highest form of abuse of privilege, in my mind. It is this fear for others that hardens my resolve. I don’t yet know what I, personally, need to do in order to “resist harder”, but I’m committed to doing all I can to bring about equity for all. I will figure it out.
Fuck fascism. Fuck capitalism. Fuck the rich. Fuck control for personal gain and grift. Not that it ever was, but that shit is not welcome in my life nor sphere of influence. And collectively, we can show these anti-democracy assholes that we don’t want them around. We have to think of others more than we think of ourselves - together.
Keep resisting. Keep fighting. Time to lock and load whatever weapons are at your disposal, choombas - be they digital, societal, or otherwise.
