Nov. 5 was a sunny, pleasant day. And then the election happened.
Nov. 6 was a gloomy day outside. The skies are gray, it rained overnight, and will probably rain again sometime soon. For the first time in a long time, I understand what English teachers mean when they talk about the symbolism about the curtains in a bedroom being blue.
I know that a lot of people are feeling what I am right now: a feeling of being absolutely gutted, hopeless, and unsure that it’ll all be okay. I really wish that I could sit here and tell you that it will be okay, but this is the first time in quite a while that I truly can’t.
Now for the big question: What the hell just happened?
Here are the things that I think went wrong.
First: low voter turnout. This election, even after it was called, sits at a popular vote of 146 million votes counted. Four years ago, we exceeded 155 million votes. Because Democrats do worse with lower voter turnout, things could’ve been different. In this election, Trump won the popular vote by almost four million, as opposed to four years ago, where he lost it by 7 million, and by 3 million 4 years before, in 2016. Turnout in certain pockets of the area did increase for Harris this election, but she lost more ground in other spaces – such as with men, working class voters, white women, and hispanics. President Biden, 4 years ago, was able to drive a significant level of turnout in the 7 swing states where it mattered the most, and Harris really struggled with that. President Obama did even better in his two elections, even after the Tea Party rise in 2010. He was able to hold states that are now seen as unwinnable for Democrats, including Florida, Ohio and Iowa both times, and North Carolina and Missouri in 2008. Turnout has steadily risen over the last decade or so, but that rise has been on both sides of the aisle, which has turned states increasingly in either direction.
Second: misogyny at its finest. I can’t believe that I’m quoting Taylor Swift right now, but there’s something she said a few years ago that really stuck with me. It was about how when men are smart, they’re intelligent. But when women are smart, they’re cunning. We are in a country where a woman simply cannot win. But it’s not just that. It’s the fact that Harris was accused of sleeping her way to the top, despite winning elections as DA, AG, and a U.S. Senator, and being incredibly intelligent and qualified. But when Donald Trump says something about “grabbing them by the p****,” he doesn’t get the same criticism. Bogus. We are the world’s largest superpower, and somehow the only developed country who has yet to elect a female head of state. The fact that we allowed a convicted abuser to get back into the White House over a highly capable woman is something that we should be ashamed of.
Third: bothsideism, which is this concept that both sides are equally garbage. While I believe that both parties require a large overhaul, there is not a single shot that they’re equally bad. Quite frankly, if you believe that, I’m heavily concerned about your lack of paying attention to what’s going on. I’m truly sorry if that offends you, but when one side calls for a ceasefire, protecting abortion rights, protecting gender-affirming care, and so many other basic rights, and the other does the complete opposite thing, no, they’re not the same.
Fourth: third-party votes. I am not someone who believes that Jill Stein and the Green Party were the sole reason that Clinton lost in 2016, and I’m not someone who believes that they’re the only reason that Harris lost in 2024. But, to pretend like there wasn’t a role she played is naivete. Take the Pennsylvania Senate race, for example. Bob Casey, the incumbent Democratic senator, lost by the same margin that the Green Party Candidate, Leila Hazou, received. That’s one vote in the Senate, and one vote more for the next three Supreme Court justices that Trump is bound to appoint in his next term. I’ve seen so much from Stein voters pretending like there is a moral high ground they receive if they vote Green, when Stein is far from an ideal or moral candidate.
The kicker to all of this is that, the morning after the election, the leadership of the Rochster’s Students for Justice in Palestine sent out an email entitled “[URGENT CALL TO ACTION]: Post-Election Rally [November 7],” which details the way that they believe in the “transformative power of dialogue and justice.” Closer to the end of the email, they talk about sharing frustrations at the election results and the implications of the result in occupied Palestine. I’m sorry, am I missing something? SJP has spent the last months pretending that a Harris administration would be just as bad as Trump and has effectively been convincing people to vote third party, or to not vote at all. To my friends in SJP, is this the justice you guys claim to support? I don’t doubt that most of you mean well, but you don’t get to stroll in and act like you’re the heroes. You’re not. So many marginalized people have been begging you to suck up your pride and endorse the person who would hurt the least amount of people. And while Stein might not have exceeded the margin of votes Trump received, she was part of the reason people didn’t vote or voted third party. In a number of critical Congressional races, including Casey’s Senate race and the house race in Arizona’s 6th district, among others, when people elected to vote Green, the race was handed to Republicans, putting them one seat closer to control in each of houses of Congress, and by extension, trifecta control of our federal government.
Fifth: the way she was chosen. The blame for this lies solely on one man: President Biden. If he had dropped out earlier, we could’ve had Democratic primaries. And Harris might not have been the nominee, I don’t know, but there were too many people who felt voiceless due to the way she was chosen. Trump’s entire 2016 platform that he was able to extend upon this time was based on the narrative that he was going to “drain the swamp” and be a voice against the establishment. And because Harris was not chosen by a vote in the primaries, he proved that point this time.
Sixth: Democrats made the crucial error of trying too hard to appeal to conservatives, consequently alienating their core base. For example, campaigning with Liz Cheney in the state with the largest Arab-American population. Liz’s father, Dick, is one of the main instigators of America’s invasion of the Middle East. It was a bad choice. But during this election, Harris had the choice to appeal to their core bases and make up ground that Biden had lost during his term. Her campaign was about a new way forward, but instead, she chose to portray herself as a continuation of an incredibly unpopular administration. While I understand the difficult politics around criticizing your boss as Vice President, it was definitely an opportunity she should’ve taken to, at the very least, point differences, even if she didn’t criticize Biden.
Seventh: Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema. Both are former Democrats-turned-Independents, and both chose not to run for reelection. Granted, Sinema’s seat went to a Democrat, but had both of them not been a pain in congressional Democrats’…party mascot…, maybe we would’ve gotten more done and not made concessions that pissed a lot of people off.
So basically, congratulations, Trump supporters. You won. And I hope that the pain and suffering that is about to ensue in the next few years was worth it.
Kamala, for so many of us, presented a beacon of hope and light that many of us haven’t seen in our albeit short politically involved lifetimes. If we’re all honest with ourselves, this has been coming. A party that has slowly accepted more and more deranged and hurtful rhetoric has now successfully re-elected a man who has said he wants generals like Hitler’s. Bigotry comes in so many different shapes and sizes, and even if someone voted for Trump for the economy (which, he will categorically be worse for), as Waleed Aly said in a broadcast about Christchurch, “This is not a game. […] That we are one community. And that everything we say to try to tear people apart, demonize particular groups, set them against each other, that all has consequences, even if we are not ones with our fingers on the trigger.” This speech has stuck with me since I first heard it years ago, and to me, it rings true now for the state our country is in.
To those who feel distraught and as broken as I do, now is the time to breathe and process. We will recollect and continue to fight the good fight. As long as we fight, we can’t lose, because so long as there is darkness, there is light.
