Now that I’ve had a chance to digest the results of the 2024 election, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts about it. I want to avoid just saying it was a disaster (although it was) and I want to avoid just saying we’re screwed (although we are). I hope my thoughts are more nuanced than that.
First of all, I want to reiterate something I said last time Trump was president. Strictly speaking, he’s not a liar. He’s a BS artist. It’s an important distinction that no one talks about. It makes him immune to fact checking. It makes him unbeatable in debates. It’s like his superpower.
In fact, in a weird way, Trump is honest. During his first presidency, he tried really hard to fulfill his campaign promises. Build the wall! Tariffs on China! Etc., etc. You better believe he’s going to put tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. He’s going to try really hard to deport record numbers of people. The Department of Education is as good as gone. (The one upside to losing the Department of Education is that Linda McMahon will be out of a job.)
I knew this before the election, but we live in a deeply sexist, xenophobic, and racist country. As a woman, and a woman of color, Harris never really stood a chance. I was consistently surprised when the polls showed a close race. It made me a little bit hopeful, but, as usual in recent elections, the polls were wrong. As much as I hate to say it, if the Democrats want to win in 2028, they better run a white man.
There will be no checks and balances now that the Republicans control all three branches of government. Of course, there haven’t been real checks and balances for a long time. But it’s going to be worse than ever.
It won’t matter if Trump and the Republican Congress crash the economy. It’s been so long since the economy felt good that people won’t notice the difference between Biden’s economy and Trump’s economy. We can’t count on the economy to bring us a blue wave come midterms.
They’re going to be coming for LGBTQIA+ people, especially trans people. That commercial they ran incessantly that said Harris wanted to give prisoners free gender affirming care should be all the proof you need on that.
The Republicans will drop all pretense of states’ rights. That means a national ban on abortion is a distinct possibility. We may be going back to the days of coat hangers in back alleys.
Trump is supremely confident right now. He’s trolling the Democrats with his appointments. His confidence and swagger are a large part of his appeal. I don’t know how, but someone has to humble him.
And finally, I hope the rest of the world starts treating the US like a pariah state. We deserve the North Korea treatment. I know we’re too rich for that to happen, but a guy can hope.
There’s a lot more to hate about a second Trump administration, but these are the things that are top of mind right now. Maybe I’ll write some more on it later. Or maybe I’ll be too depressed to think about it. We’ll see.
