On Tuesday, November 5th, we were supposed to make history. And we did, though not in the way many of us had hope. Instead of electing the first woman to the office of President of the United States, we elected the first convicted felon. And not just by a technicality of the electoral college.

It was a devastating trouncing. A “shellacking.” A veritable mandate for racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, and ignorance — and all, allegedly, in the name of the price of a bag of groceries. On November 5th, hate won, carried on the wings of greasy self interest.

Surely, We Had This in the Bag

Where do I start? Like many, I was blindsided by this turn of events.

I don’t consider myself as living in a bubble, but I suppose this election has shown up as a fallacy. (Mea culpa; I guess I’ll add this video on the subject to my watch list.) Apparently, I have built a very robust echo chamber for myself. Apart from a few backwards family members (Boomers and rural cousins), everyone I knew was going to vote a Democratic ticket, if only to save us from the orange menace. Coworkers, women friends and their husbands, queer people, self-identified libertarians, hardcore leftists — all were united in the knowledge that this election was important. Perhaps even more than 2020.

Did I perhaps notice more Trump signs than Harris ones in peoples’ yards? Well, yes, but that has always been a constant. The most insecure people tend to be the loudest, and I figured that, like me, many people were unwilling to put a yard sign out for fear of reprisal. Various polls, news articles, and a slew of posts on Facebook, Reddit, and Instagram had me cautiously optimistic. People were pulling together. We understood this assignment, and we were going to knock it out of the park.

Oh, how misguided I was.

What Actually Happened?

After a sleepless election night and days spent reading news and social media (though, admittedly, those same ones that so woefully misled me), I’ve come across any number of theories on why Kamala lost:

• Democrats specifically lost the male Gen Z demographic.
• Democrats lost a large number of voters, especially members of Gen Z, due to their pro-Israel stance and refusal to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza.
• The country as a whole hates women and would rather vote for a convicted rapist.
• A large percentage of women (mostly white and religious) were determined to vote against their own interests.
• Hispanic voters trended more conservative than expected, considering Trump’s rhetoric against them.
• People were angry or otherwise unenthused because there was no primary.
• Democrats have lost the plot and don’t understand that personality, not policy, is now the basis for successful campaigns.
• Low turnout affected Democrats this year.

At this point, I don’t think anyone really knows why the Democrats bombed so hard. It will (I’m sure) be the subject of future work, scholarly and otherwise. For us poor plebs not ensconced in an ivory tower, the important part is…

What Does it Mean for The Sane Among Us?

I’m still trying to process how all of this is likely to affect me and other like-minded individuals. For now, these are my thoughts:

1. Reproductive rights and healthcare standards are under threat. I am in a somewhat privileged position; after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 (was that only two years ago? It seems like a lifetime), I went straight to my OBGYN and requested a salpingectomy — the more modern equivalent of having your tubes tied. Maybe I’ll write a post about it at some point, but ultimately, I am mostly safe because (barring IVF, which I would never willingly do) I am never going to get pregnant. However, I worry for all the women and assigned-female-at-birth people out there who now face the plausible reality of losing bodily autonomy. Even more, I worry about the standard of care for women’s health in general. Could I be put in a position where important care is refused or delayed because a doctor refuses to believe that I can’t get pregnant?
2. My financial security is in question. I fully expect Trump’s tariffs and immigration policies to screw up the economy. While I don’t feel particularly vulnerable to a layoff (knock on wood?), I think it’s wise to do some hedging. More than that, I’ve written before about how my mental health might hinge on saving enough money to exit the rat race. Love it or hate it, the truth is that there is basically no way to do this without aggressive stock investing. Not day trading (although I admit I’ve tried … a post for another day, perhaps), but index funds, which will certainly plunge off a cliff if we’re driven into a recession…or worse. On top of this, Republicans are hardly the party of labor. (Case in point.) They may pretend to be for the working man, but their policies are engineered to benefit capital, and are necessarily antagonistic to the proletariat. Union busting, wage suppression, benefit reductions, deregulation, health and safety violations, and fewer protections — all things to look forward to. (‘Scuse me while I go set my stop loss.)
3. Participating in activism feels more unsafe than ever. Of course, attending protests has been somewhat fraught for years, as we saw plenty of retaliation — from random whackos and law enforcement alike — during the Black Lives Matter protests. But since then, the hate rhetoric has been ramped up even more. When people have been fed the idea that the other side are traitors who want to destroy democracy, there’s always a risk that someone will take it upon themself to “do something” about the perceived threat. Bad enough when the justice system can actually be trusted to, you know, carry out justice. But what about when that system becomes an arm of hate itself? I’m not strong like the civil rights pioneers of legend. I’m just tired.
4. I am Other. I have long accepted that my ideas about work are far from mainstream. But in terms of social values, I thought I was safely in the majority. Despite a small (but certainly persistent) subset of the population screaming about liberal indoctrination, immigration, and who should use what bathrooms, it seemed clear to me that the rest of the country stood for equality, acceptance, and love. After this election, I’m not so sure anymore. While this feeling is familiar (the 2016 déjà vu is real), it’s so much worse this time. We should know better now. We had seen the failed administration, the public health shitshow, and the insurrection. And despite that, people have welcomed the hateful encore with open arms. How can I feel at home in a country hell bent on making cruelty a feature, not a bug?

Where Do We Go From Here?

So, what’s next? Somehow, there needs to be a balance between acknowledging the shock and grief of the election loss, preparing to fight for the rights of marginalized people, and conducting the business of going on living. Just the last, though, is often hard for me, so I’m facing a real quandary. Relying on the guardrails of democracy to stop Trump from establishing a dictatorship may be a dangerous fool’s errand, but for now, it’s the best I can do. I can add my voice in support of civil rights, but I also need to have the energy to go to work every day.

I don’t have any earth-shattering explanations or solutions. Heck, I barely have any good words, but here are some. If you spent any time at all on social media after the election, you probably saw this quote from The Lord of the Rings floating around:

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you… that meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”

We may have a hard and uncertain road ahead, but I know we won’t turn back. Let’s find something to hold on to together. 💙

Title image by Element5 Digital on Pexels.