The Real Winners in 2024

Democrats trying to figure out HOW the 2024 Election outcome happened must resist the temptation to point fingers and say "I told you so."

There is a difference between identifying causes and assigning blame, and that distinction must be maintained. Recriminations won't help anyone and will only fracture the party more than it already is.

Yes, Nancy Pelosi, I'm talking to you . . . but to others as well.

Though we have differing views on how the timing affected the outcome, we must continue to hold President Biden in esteem for his years of service to our country and his remarkably selfless act of stepping down to let someone else run. Which one of us in his position could/would have done this?

And, we must continue to respect and thank VP Harris for having the courage to step into the fray on such short notice and devote herself entirely to the challenge of standing toe-to-toe with one like her opponent. The failings that led to her defeat belong more to the current state of the Democratic Party than to her.

The bottom line is that sexism, racism, and xenophobia were the victors in this election. Those of us who thought we Americans could set aside such puerile biases and choose a leader based on character, temperament, and judgment thought wrong.

If we MUST point a finger, then let us admit that our willful naivete regarding our collective national character is to blame. Many of us have said, "I thought we were better than this." We aren't.

Now, as we start trying to figure out what to do next, let us at least reclaim a realistic assessment of ourselves: we are a flawed country, inhabited by flawed people and led by flawed leaders. But we have also demonstrated at times in the past that we are capable of transcending those flaws. Hopefully, we can do so again.

The Hard Work of Reassessment

The outcome of the 2024 election (and not just at the presidential level, but across the board) is prompting me to undergo a top-to-bottom reassessment of my understanding of this strange political/geographic/ontological construct I was born into 71 years ago.

And one of the first by-products is the final admission on my part that trump isn't the source of our problem, but rather the most obvious and easily identifiable manifestation of the cancer that has been gnawing away at our country's soul for an indeterminate length of time. I already knew this, of course, but have resisted making it central to my worldview. No more. "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

A potent catalyst for this new resolve was reading the following transcript of a radio call-in show from 1994 with guest Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. Thirty years ago, the defect in our national character was already on full display.

TRANSCRIPT:

On the Air in the Midwest (October 29, 1994)

“You’re on Talk Radio 95, The Charles Walter Show, where you hear the news when it’s news! Joining us this evening, the United States secretary of labor [Robert Reich]! Here to take y-o-o-o-u-u-u-r calls! … John from Garden Park. You’re on Talk Radio 95!”

“Hello?”

“You’re on the air, John! Do you have a question for the secretary?”

“Yes. Mr. Secretary, have you ever held a real job in your entire life?”

“Well, John, I used to teach.”

“Just what I thought. You don’t know nothing.”

“Thank you, John! Diane from Oak Brook, you’re on the air!”

“Hi, Charlie.”

“Hi, Diane!”

“Love your show, Charlie.”

“Thanks, Diane! A question for the labor secretary?”

“Why does the secretary think government has all the answers?”

“I don’t think government has all the answers, Diane.”

“Yes you do. You and all the other liberals in the Clinton administration. Ever heard of free enterprise? Socialism doesn’t work!”

“Thank you, Diane! Next up, Peter from Lakeview! Pete, you’re on the air!”

“Great show, Charlie.”

“Thanks, Pete! Your question?”

“I don’t understand something.”

“What is it you don’t understand, Pete?”

“I don’t understand where these guys get off.”

“Your question for the labor secretary, Pete?”

“Mr. Secretary, why do you think you have the right to tax honest hard-working people? It’s our money.”

“Pete, your federal taxes pay for national defense, Medicare, highways, environmental protection, air-traffic control, safe workplaces, all sorts of things you rely on.”

“It’s my money. I should decide what I need. You have no right.”

“Thank you, Pete! We’re cooking tonight, folks! The board’s all lit up! Ted from Orleyville, you’re on the air!”

“I really appreciate your show, Charles.”

“Thank you, Ted! Your question for the secretary?”

“Yes. Mr. Secretary, you’re a fucking —”

“Michelle in Garden View! You’re on the air!”

“I’d like to know why we spend billions and billions of dollars on welfare for people who do nothing all day but sit around and watch TV.”

“Michelle, all welfare spending is less than 3 percent of the federal budget, and most people on welfare are off it and into jobs within two years.”

“You’re lying.”

“Tony in Lakeview! You’re on the air!”

“I just lost my job. My company went to Mexico. I want to ask the labor secretary how anybody can get a good job in America if we have to compete with Mexicans who are paid a nickel an hour?”

“Good question, Tony! Mr. Secretary?”

“Tony, I’m sorry you lost your job. But there are millions of good new jobs out there, some of them exporting to Mexico and other countries. You can get —”

“Good new jobs? Where? The new jobs pay nothing. They pay shit. You’re talking out of your asshole.”

“Afraid that’s all the time we have! Mr. Secretary, thanks so very much for being with us this evening!”


We have let ourselves become a nation of hateful, angry, spiteful, ignorant, selfish people who have no concept of what is required to live in healthy, mutually responsible community with one another.

And yesterday, we elected the infantile poster child for THIS America to a second term, opening the door for him (and HIS Masters) to end democracy as we know it.

The marriage of boorish, myopic ignorance and unrestrained oligarchy.

The Morning After

I have voted in all 12 presidential elections since 1976 (I was eligible in 1972 but didn't feel I was ready, so I sat it out), and I have never voted for a Republican. Not because I hate Republicans. I just feel the values ostensibly represented by the Democratic Party align more closely with my own than with those of any other party and will be better for America.

For the record, as of this morning, I'm 50/50.

A fundamental shift in American presidential elections in 2016 laid the groundwork for an insurrection in 2020 and the now election of the dictator-wanna-be who incited the insurrection four years ago.

Before then, at least during my lifetime, this pattern prevailed: two dominant political parties nominated conventional candidates, ran conventional campaigns, did and said all the right things when a winner was finally declared (yes, 2020 was different, but it still ended with the system intact), and cooperated in the same peaceful transfer of power.

As of today, all bets are off. We have no way of knowing how bad it might be. The hackneyed cliche is actually apropos. Our situation is unprecedented.

With majorities in both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court in his pocket, if he wishes to, trump truly can be a dictator on Day One . . . and every day thereafter. Who will stop him? And if he doesn't serve out his term (however long that might be), his Faux-Hillbilly MiniMe is itching to step in and show all of us how governing is really done.

In the past, when my chosen candidate lost, I was disappointed, but I could accept the election results and keep working toward helping America become more like what I have always hoped it could be. But now, I don't know how to respond (other than trying to line up words in some way that makes sense).

But I do know this. At no previous time in my life have I been so disappointed in my country and my fellow citizens. The appalling reality that a majority of Americans who voted chose this man, knowing full well who he is and what he is capable of is simply beyond my comprehension. If, knowing him for what he is, they voted for him because they share his values, then we are so different, I fear never being able to understand who they are and how they think. If they were once again deceived by him and believed his endless lies, then I can pity their naivete, but not without ruing their ignorance, which has quite possibly undone all of us.

Reagan, HW Bush, and W? Not my choice (and certainly not without their faults and limitations—just as the candidates for whom I voted), but comprehensible. But trump? Twice?? I simply can't wrap my head around it.