Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A Black, South Asian Indian woman, from Oakland, Calif., the first ever to be elected to the United States presidency.
That was the headline of hope.
Kamala Harris represented joy and positivity. Her election would have been a historic win for America and our country’s great diversity.
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But on Election Day, the electorate did not turn the page on Donald Trump.
Was it a gut punch or a reality check?
When major networks called Pennsylvania for Donald Trump, it was essentially game over. There was no way that Harris could get to 270 electoral college votes without Pennsylvania.
ADVERTISEMENTTrump, with substantial leads in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, seemed likely to get the votes needed to become the 47th president of the United States.
Now we don’t have to worry about the peaceful transfer of power as CFDT34, (Convicted Felon Donald Trump, 34 counts), the twice-impeached former president gets to call the White House home again. It enables him to avoid practically all his legal problems and possible prison time, a prime motivator for his seeking re-election.
That makes invoking his favorite parts of Project 2025—deportations of undocumented immigrants and the vengeful roundup of his political dissidents, the “enemy from within”— the sour cherries on top of his electoral victory.
ADVERTISEMENTAnd who will stop him? The checks and balances are practically gone. The Senate and possibly the House will be in Republican control. The Supreme Court and the Judiciary already is.
And the corporate media as watchdog? When major newspapers failed to endorse a candidate they were already on bended knee.
Where does that leave good, non-elite regular people who tried to do the right thing this election?
Among them: The women angered over reproductive rights.
Activists who fought for further erosion of civil and voting rights.
The undocumented concerned about impending ICE roundups.
The parents of trans-children, used to polarize voters and will now face real discrimination.
The voters repulsed by the hateful, misogynistic, sexist, racist, bigoted sentiments that came out of the Trump campaign.
They will all either find a way to stay enthused enough to keep fighting for our rights in our democracy.
Or they will drop out and join the ranks of the so-called “low propensity/low information” voter, go back to their lives, and tune out until some politician or issue comes around to turn them back on.
Maybe they go with the flow and learn to hang with Trump. And keep quiet.
I sensed we’re there already when one of my columns critical of Trump was being circulated on the Facebook site of my former San Francisco high school this week.
One reader blasted the person posting it for triggering readers over the politics of the day. The immediate reaction was to declare the site a “politics free zone” because politics was a turn off.
Maybe the person who blocked my column was just ashamed of her own politics because she voted for Trump?
It’s now clear there’s a new strange coalition of working-class urban people, non-college educated women and rural voters who revere Trump.
“This will be the Golden Age of America,” Trump said as he spoke early Wednesday morning victory rally in Florida and heralded MAGA’s diversity.
“Union, non-union, African Americans, Hispanic American, Asian American, Arab American, Muslim American, we had everybody, and it was beautiful,” Trump said, saying his coalition was “the party of common sense.”
Add them to his Bro/males, the original “low propensity/low information” voters, a good deal of them who are Black and Latino, and you have the winning American electorate.
They react to the feels of a political brand. Trump’s is strong. Harris was seen as weak, of course, because she’s a woman. And the nation needs a strong man, right?
And the issues were simplified to basic selfish interests like the cost of gas.
In this environment, real debate isn’t necessary. Trump loves these “low propensity-low information” types because he’s one of them too. He never read a briefing book in his first term. He wants you to be the same way.
The better to subject us all to his authoritarian bent.
Now, you may be one of those who voted, but did it secretly, not publicly. You stayed private maybe because you felt the fear of being trolled. Or you feared the threat of violence.
Trump talked about rifles training on Liz Cheney’s face. That could easily be yours.
Across the U.S, 36 percent of voters said they would feel scared if Trump is elected president, according to an early CNN exit poll on Tuesday.
47 percent said only Trump was too extreme.
71 percent said they were concerned about violence as a result of the election.
On Election Day, American voters were far from celebratory as they exercised their right to franchise.
Many were afraid.
Now with the presumed president-elect, Trump’s brand of bullying politics leads the way. And the voters say they like it like that.
There is good reason to be afraid in the New America we did not expect.
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. See his micro-talk show on www.patreon.com/emilamok. He performs an excerpt from his Emil Amok Monologues, “Transdad,” Nov.18 at the Marsh, 1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. Tickets here: https://themarsh.org/monday-night-marsh-stream/
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