It can be truly staggering to witness how hard it is for love to overcome hate. Watching all of the people who came out to push back against misogyny and hatred and vile language and behavior was inspiring. We’ve rarely seen so many people from all backgrounds come out like that. I mean we didn’t take to the streets or anything but a wide swath of people saw this for what it is and raised their voices. And while it wasn’t enough we should be encouraged that we exist and we can see the difference between right and wrong. Count yourself lucky not to be one of those lost in the fog of delusion, or worse blinded by bigotry and hate.
And yet, in every demographic, a growing number of people went to the ballot box and used their vote to say — I’m okay with the ugliest that America has to offer. And now, arguably, the most outwardly crass, racist, misogynist person to ever be elected will become President. He’ll have unchecked powers with no oversight from the Supreme Court or Congress. We’re going to be making sense of this for a long time, if we’re lucky. But I think it’s reasonable to say that it was a perfect storm of misogyny, racism and an incredibly effective propaganda mechanism that got us here. I know, we’re not supposed to say Trump was elected because of bigotry, we’re supposed to say it was the price of eggs, but c’mon let’s be real. It’s more important than ever to be real.
In every interview, focus group and exit poll with voters of all stripes, it’s clear that they made their decisions based on what Kellyanne Conway likes to call alternative facts. That was also clear in every conversation I’ve had with Trump supporters as well. In some cases, it’s just a cover for understanding and still liking what Trump represents and in other cases, it seems like people just can’t make sense of reality through all of the noise.
The Republican propaganda apparatus is so effective because it feeds on, and perpetuates, bigotry of all kinds. One of the most insidious aspects of bigotry is the inability for people to see certain other people for who they really are. So you couple that with disinformation and you end up with statements like “I just don’t know what she stands for.” We heard that a lot and it’s bullshit. Kamala had a website, there are clear policy initiatives that are knowable for anyone with any real interest in being informed. And if they didn’t know who she was, but were still willing to overlook what Trump so obviously is, well that says a whole hell of a lot. Doesn’t it?
Then there are those who didn’t vote. The ones who have just given up on the idea that they have a voice, or that anything matters. That’s been the main goal of Republican propaganda for a long time. It’s straight out of the autocratic playbook. Their strategy for decades has been to make the government so dysfunctional that enough people just lose faith and stop participating. That’s been incredibly effective. And It’s easy to buy into that, especially with so much consolidation of money, resources and power.
But I’ve always believed in activism and because of that, I’ve always been frustrated by the lack of progress and then surprised by the sudden advances that sometimes occur. They’re really not sudden, they’re usually the result of years of unheralded work. But when there’s success it often seems to come quickly in the moment. There’s no doubt that these are going to be very dark times. We have millions of people who won’t recognize our democracy being dismantled, our rights being stripped away or the pain and suffering they’ve participated in bringing about. It’s okay to lash out at them, as we all have, but we have to recognize that very few of them will come ever to their senses and join us. And yet, as angry as we all are with them, if any of them do we have to be ready to welcome them in. It’s kind of like zombies, if you can unzombify one zombie it’s sort of like killing two zombies. See what I mean? But likely, we’re not going to chastise them into understanding.
I see people posting about job losses and things already happening that will affect the people who voted for Trump. None of that will change their minds if they’re already invested this much. Fascist autocrats can always find a scapegoat and that’s exactly what Trump will do, and they’ll most likely buy into it. If they’ve bought in this far it’s very likely they’ll continue to buy in going forward. Especially since winning this election is the strongest affirmation that their mixed-up version of reality is the correct reality. It’s not, America has spent many decades in darkness before, times when huge swathes of our population weren’t afforded the most basic of rights. And that’s not the reality we want again.
But that is what the Republicans are trying to return us to, don’t have any illusions about that, especially when tens of millions of fellow citizens will either not recognize it or worse willingly embrace it, and tens of millions more will just continue to give up.
Remember, we didn’t get all of these freedoms by accident. Everything we have, all of the freedoms we have, were fought for by someone at some time. And they were fought for in the face of exactly what we are seeing today. A delusional populace bent on depriving others of rights and authoritarian rulers doing what they can to preserve their power. And yet, enough of us had succeeded in moving things forward to make everyone’s life better, not just their own. Because that’s a fallacy anyway. As Fanny Lou Hamer said in a speech delivered at the Founding of the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971, “Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s Free.”
Losing rights after being gained is not unheard of in the history of the world, or even in the history of America, but we happen to be a group of people who have seen a steady rise in inclusion over the course of a couple of hundred years, and especially in the past 60 years. We got used to thinking that this is the normal order of things. It’s not. It’s only been the case because somebody stood up and made sure that it was.
And now that somebody is us. There’s going to be a lot of work to do. Don’t give up, the people of the future are depending on you.