Just a few pertinent facts, y’all, largely to serve as a sobriety test for any misguided right-field celebrants of ‘total victory.’
Out of approximately 245 million eligible voters, just under 150 million voted; therefore, of the 330 million of us ‘Muricans, the will of one-half of less than one-half of us determined the winner of the presidential race. This is no overwhelming mandate, although it does (unfortunately) open the door to the GOP’s Golden Toilet Eras Tour (Part Deux), setting the stakes for who and what our country prioritizes. That’s a fact for the next two years — checked and balanced by the house, which holds the purse strings and is very evenly divided as I write this, and thank goodness for that fact!
Fact: 2024 has been, in every country holding elections, a change year. A continued trail of post-COVID anxiety and anger, economic inequality, snowballing mis- and disinformation chasing folks down dangerous rabbit holes (and away from one another), the effect of climate change, conflicts near and far, refugee crises — all of these have combined to defeat incumbents or severely reduce legislative pluralities around the globe. Fact: Only autocrats like Putin have broken that established pattern of change, because autocrats like Vlad not only count the votes, they kill or jail their legitimate — and even legitimately elected — rivals.
Fact: Of the top 10 daily news-oriented podcasts in the U.S., eight are far right, politically. This makes a difference in how and from whom the electorate gets its information, which in these pods is often misleading and grievance-based. Local news is consolidating or disappearing, while major media outlets are losing readers and listeners to fringe cable and internet cranks, mostly older men who soft-sell right-wing views along with junk supplements to young men open to influencers of dubious integrity; these opportunists have little or no interest in taking responsibility for the impact of their nonsense because sell, sell, sell! Fact: Our government is not leading responsibly by regulating new media in the internet age.
Fact: On the local level, the “flips” elections of Democrats Josh Riley (CD19), and John Mannion (CD22) is an immense help in the effort to provide a check on power. Fact: Abortion access ballot initiatives passed in seven states, protecting women and girls in Missouri, Nevada, Nebraska, Montana, Colorado, Arizona and Maryland, making necessary health care easier to access across the nation — albeit not enough, because these measures don’t even come close to protecting all American women. Geography should not be a death sentence for women experiencing complicated pregnancies or miscarrying in any state, but here we are post-Dobbs.
Fact: A majority of white women supported You-Know-Who. Ouch. Black women are the smartest voters out there; they always have been, because they’ve had to be; their lives, the lives of their husbands and brothers and uncles and cousins and sisters and aunties and neighbors depend on smart, strategic choices when voting while in a minority. White women? Not a minority, nor as pragmatic or smart, because their — our — race and privilege protects, benefits, and rewards us, most often sparing us the consequence of our choices.
I’ve argued for years that sexism is an even more powerful force in America than its ugly twin, racism, because there are enough white women who believe — because their pastor or priest or parent or culture has told them so over and over and over again — that women actually are second class citizens in the land of ‘equality for all’, that women really aren’t meant to lead or occupy the highest offices in the land. Google ‘complementarianism,’ but not on a sensitive stomach; these beliefs are, as my dad might’ve said, a load of horse manure.
The clown car — pulled by horses, I guess? — is already leaving the station. Fact: Pete Hegseth, Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. are simply not qualified to hold the positions they’ve been nominated to, although they would look good, I guess, playing those parts on TV? Maybe?
Fact: The election of ’24 wasn’t rigged, nor was the one in 2020. Fact: Joe Biden has been a consequential — not perfect — president. Fact: Biden and Democrats will facilitate a peaceful transition of power; we also won’t storm the capital this January because we don’t think losing a national election requires acts of domestic terror. Speaking of which, maybe now the minions of Mr. Golden Toilet will stop harassing and threatening election workers and officials. Fact: Most election workers are women, committed to doing the work of protecting democracy whatever the cost, usually for salaries well below what they deserve while serving as a bulwark against disruption.
The saddest fact of all: A spoiled elder-baby and actual threat to democracy will shortly be occupying the White House once more. Buckle up!