Glad tidings to those of you who stuck around!
It wasn't just the electoral college-- he won the popular vote, too. Apparently, serious character issues, naked bigotry, and old age doesn't faze 51% of American voters. Trump galvanized the uninformed in 2016, and did so even more in 2024. In hindsight, now I see why Trump's Nuremberg-like rallies devolved into open mics and impromptu dance parties: he knew he had it in the bag.
Why did Kamala Harris lose? Exit polls suggest she lost support from Black men and especially Latino men, and never found footing with white men. Even though the economy improved under Biden and inflation gradually stagnated, it was hard to ignore the administration's overly patient approach to immigration, as well as a clumsy response to the Israeli-Hamas war. Progressives grew frustrated with Secretary of State Blinken (Biden's point man in the Middle East) in a no-win situation, but there's even more disappointment in Attorney General Merrick Garland. The administration's crown jewel, a sprawling infrastructure improvement program, will probably be left to rot.
I had hoped that we were turning a chapter in American history. Instead, the worldwide pattern of totalitarianism has found footing where the international sport of soccer never quite has: the United States. In lieu of Messi, we have messy. I don't know what the next four years behold. On one hand, Trump is so notoriously distracted that he seldom follows through on threats and promises; on the other hand, he now has a legion of lapdogs that can do that for him.
I've let the news settle in my head for over a week now, but it still feels noxious. To no one's surprise, most of Trump's cabinet appointments have been almost exclusively yes-men and bootlickers. If your instinct is to resist, keep resisting. The battle is lost, but the fight isn't over.
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