Thoughts on the 2024 US Presidential Election
Yes, I'm in shock. I am profoundly confused. I keep wondering how in the hell Trump not only could win, but make gains everywhere including "blue" states, and win both the Electoral College and the popular vote. Not only that but it all happened fast. No waiting for days or weeks this time.1
I keep hearing a bunch about "democracy is dead". Democracy actually worked great yesterday, it's just that many of us don't like the outcome. We don't like that so many people voted for the vile things that Donald Trump represents, or worse that they ignored all of the vile things Donald Trump represents and voted for him for things like "he's better for the economy" despite the fact that our economy is the best in the world. But vote they did and decisively.
The punditry on MSNBC banging the drums of Fascism and "this could be the last election" (funny enough folks like Elon Musk were saying the same thing on the other side) were oddly silent on those subjects this morning. Joe Scarborough now seemed to have all of the answers as to why this happened and suddenly didn't seem all that worried about this being the last election.
I am far more worried about the damage that the people Trump puts into place can do than I worry about not having another election. Elon Musk as the "government efficiency czar"? RFK Jr. as a public health person? That is the kind of crap that scares me. The damage four years of Trump could do could take generations to repair.
What is clear is that the Democratic party has some soul-searching to do. We got our asses handed to us. Thankfully even with the loss of the Senate the damage is minimal as their majority is slim. As I write this the House still seems to be up in the air but likely that the Republicans retain control but again a slim majority.
We will see what happens. Will Trump even do a portion of what he said he will? Will Trump even last four years? He's old and unhealthy. That would mean JD Vance becomes President. I'm not sure if that's better or worse.
The one thing I do know is that it is finally time for me to take a very long break from cable news. I am exhausted by it all. It's finally clear to me that they're all full of shit, even if they're on my "side". I don't think anyone has done more damage to our democracy than those folks. Between Fox News spreading lie after lie after lie that got us here or MSNBC scaring people to death we have not been well-served by any of it.
- The election denier/conspiracy folks are oddly silent today. So the system is now not rigged? Or maybe they were just wrong. ↩︎