The Morning After – A Bitter Pill for me to swallow

This morning, I received a note from a Canadian friend who watched last night’s election results from a family member’s home on Sanibel Island, near Fort Myers Florida. She asked me for some thoughts on what we have all woken up to this morning, and about how I see the future before us. I have yet to respond as I am still, substantially, beyond words.

Like so many, I knew it would be close—the pollsters got it right, all along, apart from a last minute blip in Iowa—though surely, I thought and hoped, sufficient common sense would prevail; the pretentious and perverted antics of an increasingly deranged candidate would produce sufficient revolt, and Kamala Harris would be president-elect.

Alas, this was not to be. Last night’s very comfortable win in the Electoral College for Donald Trump, who garnered the largest portion of the popular vote in over 80 years, accompanied by substantial wins in all swing states, a re-capture of Republican senate dominance (which makes Trump’s senate confirmations and Supreme Court nominations slam-dunk easy) has devastated democrats and progressive thinkers everywhere. So what went wrong?

Simply put, a clear majority of Americans trust Trump and the GOP to make America great again. I, and we, mock MAGA as ill-informed and unrealistic, let alone arrogant and isolationist. A clear majority of voters across regions pin their future on the MAGA goal described in Project 2025, an implementation plan for a new conservative administration which I seriously doubt many have read even in abstract. The results expresses what most Americans (at least those who voted in what was a small turnout) think America could once again be–if America ever was that great. (Sorry, Canadian talking here.)

A clear majority of Americans remain anxious about unemployment and immigration levels. Many, including an enthusiastic 19-year-old interviewed on MSNBC last night see authoritarian measures as a necessary strategy to “fix” America. (Man, did he ever drink the Cool-Aid.) White males continue to distrust politicians except for superstar circus acts. Latino voters simply do not connect with Harris and any kind of democratic theory. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, counsels readers to “think again.” Great advice. I do wonder however if many voters “think” at all. Sure, politics is more than theory and strategy, but it needs both to present and embody a way for us all to live well and share together.

A clear majority of American voters asked themselves a basic question: “What’s in it for me?” I ask myself the same question, but I believe that I have been able to balance my concerns with the needs of others, of those who don’t necessarily look and think and talk and live like me. Many fellow voters find it difficult to think across party, cultural, socioeconomic, and socially inclusive lines. Until this changes, the USA, and all of us frankly, are stuck in a very dangerous place.

This morning at the dog park, a place where much public policy is shared, evaluated, and sometimes abandoned, the old political phrase arrived almost out of nowhere: “It’s the economy, stupid!” True in this race for sure, the economy (which according to The Economist and other sources, is healthy and booming,, though the benefits of such affluence are unevenly and unjustly shared) remains the number one concern for most voters, but there’s more. If people honestly think that wealthy billionaires will immediately share the fruit of their privilege with the rest of us, having spent their life taking from others to enrich themselves, well the economy is not the only stupidity out there.

Best of luck to all of my American friends. It’s all a bitter pill to swallow today. Tomorrow, I will have more hopeful reflections for you. Watch this space.