Election Reflections

“I don’t think Democrats should be singing, ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ if election night is as good [for Democrats] as some people think it may be. … Because I think this is more Republicans losing than Democrats winning.  I think there’s a big difference – a big difference.  I think Democrats fielded really strong candidates … but I don’t think the party can pat itself on the back and say, ‘We’ve got this figured out.’”

• Former Democratic Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, before Election Day

“[N]ow is when the real work starts.”

• Conclusion of an email from a very close friend on the morning after the Election.

I haven’t been in a position to say much since the Election, but the delay has enabled me to reflect a little bit more on the meaning of its results.  My first reactions – aside from a relief which was even greater than the joy – are summed up by Mr. Vilsack and our friend.

Democrats would be well to recall that history teaches that there are no absolute victories, no absolute defeats.  They thought former President Barack Obama’s victories in 2008 and 2012 heralded a new progressive era.  Big Oops.  Republicans gerrymandered a number of congressional districts in the last two years expecting that President Donald Trump’s 2024 support was sustainable.  Big Oops.  😊

In the preceding post, I indicated that I thought Americans’ vote would render a verdict on themselves, and I think it did – but by its very breadth and depth, I don’t consider it the verdict some commentators are labeling it.  On Election Night, Van Jones of CNN declared that the result was a “repudiation of Trumpism.”  Later last week, MSNOW Commentator Anand Giridharadas opined, “I would argue that [the Election’s result] dwarfs [previous American one-party landslides] … in a moral and substantive [sense], because of what the referendum was about.  This was during an advanced authoritarian attempt in this country. … This was about oligarchy – whether the country is run for the benefit of Donald Trump and his billionaire friends or regular people.  And I think it was about whether primordial hatred in this country should be the [motivating] force of our public life or the better angels of our nature.  … This was about those fundamental things.”

I would love to believe that Messrs. Jones and Giridharadas are right, but I cannot.  While there were undoubtedly many individual motivations involved, I would submit that this election was about survival (for Americans of nonwhite colors, non-Christian faiths, and nontraditional sexual orientations, against the Trump Regime’s overt effort to either actually or figuratively purge them; for financially-stressed Americans of all hues, faiths, and sexual persuasions nationwide, against Trump policies that had made their economic desperation even worse than when Mr. Trump took office) and betrayed outrage [by some 2024 Trump voters, that Mr. Trump had shown that he didn’t give a damn about them (the President’s obsession with his ballroom, his garish gold Oval Office, reflecting pool, and arch; his unabashedly enriching himself and his family while cutting their subsistence and health benefits and denying that there was an “affordability” crisis – ignoring their desperation)].  I would agree with Mr. Giridharadas that some voters were probably moved by antipathy toward oligarchy; an inherent American maverick streak took over.  (My guess is that Elon Musk is the most hated man in America; if I were a politician, I’d like nothing better than to run against a candidate being funded by Mr. Musk.)

I will venture that the primary message that Americans delivered last week was not about preserving democracy, or driven by our “better angels”; people don’t change that much that fast.  If these were voters’ primary sentiments, Donald Trump would never have been more than a marginal figure in our political story.  Two years ago, when Americans collectively reelected to our highest office a traitor who had incited a violent attack upon our nation’s Capitol, a convicted felon, an adjudged sexual assaulter, an obvious wanna-be dictator, a racist, a philanderer, a Russian sympathizer, etc., etc., they made clear that they vote their pocketbooks, not their “better angels.”  I said in an earlier post that I considered the election to pit the economy against culture and tribal loyalty.  Until now, in at least much of conservative America, culture and tribal loyalty have trumped (if you will) economy – until now, millions of financially desperate Americans have stuck with Mr. Trump, although he did nothing substantive for them, out of Republican party affiliation and hatred for the “other.”  What this election proved is that if a citizen is financially desperate enough – or angered enough at perceived betrayal – s/he will – albeit uneasily – align with “them.”  Such alliances are fragile.  I would differ from Mr. Jones:  I think that Americans have collectively repudiated Mr. Trump, but not what Mr. Jones called, “Trumpism” (what I have referred to here as “MAGAism”).  Even polls indicating Americans’ anger at Trump Regime corruption must be sifted carefully:  were that many Americans offended by the rampant corruption on moral grounds – or because it was taking place while they themselves were being left behind?  Does not even this issue come back to the economy?  I fear that to ascribe any higher purpose or intent to the election’s results is a dangerous – indeed, probably ultimately politically fatal – delusion. 

Cultural antipathies and tribal loyalties have not gone away.  For me, the question is not whether Trumpism has been repudiated; it is whether Trumpism – and the alt-right media propaganda machine that propels it — can be managed.  This is not offered as a pessimistic assessment, but a pragmatic one; one uses the tools and motivations available to protect democracy.

So – to extend our friend’s comment:  January is not only when the Democrats’ real work starts; between now and then, they need to carefully consider what the “real work” should be, and how it should be undertaken.  Since the Noise on that won’t be particularly short, this is enough for one spout.  For now, it is enough to savor the notion that American democracy is seemingly on firmer footing than it has been for much of the time since Donald Trump came down the golden escalator.