By Senior Copywriter, D’Anne Witkowski
Around these parts, and by these parts I mean TGP’s office in Detroit, I’m known for being, well, a little sarcastic. I like to joke around, keep the mood light. Because life can get stressful, you know? I like to think that the team appreciates my sense of humor and I definitely appreciate them laughing at my jokes.
But if you’re expecting me to write some zingers about the 2024 Presidential Election, I’m sorry to report that I’ve got nothing.
I went to bed early on election night and woke up as my wife and son were getting ready the next morning. I could tell by the look on my wife’s face that things were bad. “It wasn’t even close,” she said.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that it feels like I’ve been in mourning since Nov. 6.
It feels a lot like 2016, when another incredibly intelligent and capable woman was defeated by the lowest common denominator of man. Except this time no one could claim that they didn’t know who Trump was or what he stood for. We had four years to get to know how incompetent, selfish, and dangerous he was.
Surely, I thought, surely this time the country will reject Trump.
Oh, what a fool I was. Instead of rejecting him, we handed him the keys to the White House. Again. Inciting an insurrection, 34 felony counts, being found guilty of sexual assault, bragging about overturning Roe v Wade, lying about the 2020 election, telling the country that COVID-19 would magically disappear while hundreds of thousands of people died, spewing racist invective at every rally. None of it mattered to the majority of voters. None of it was considered disqualifying.
You know what they say: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, congratulations, you get to be a fascist dictator.
Bottom line: Vice President Kamala Harris told voters she would give them $25,000 to buy a house and make Medicare cover home health care, a huge cost financially and emotionally for so many families. Trump said, “I’m not a Nazi” and waxed poetic about Arnold Palmer’s dick size.
And voters of the United States overwhelmingly said, “We’ll take that guy.”
There’s some rumbling on the left that the election was somehow stolen from Harris. That Trump’s overwhelming support could not possibly be real.
But it’s real. To anyone trying to make sense of this election by spending time in conspiracy theory rabbit holes, knock it off. You’re wasting your time and making fools of yourselves. You might as well let Jill Stein steal your money again.
There are a lot of factors that played into Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss. But anyone who does not acknowledge the racism and sexism at play does not deserve to have their opinion taken seriously. We live in a deeply racist country that celebrates misogyny. The majority of white voters went all in for that, including white women.
The United States is deeply divided and broken. For a lot of people devastated by this election result, it’s not just the horror that is Trump. It’s being forced to acknowledge that this is who we are as a country. Granted, it’s not who we have to be, and there are a lot of great progressive leaders and nonprofit orgs working tirelessly to build a more just and equitable world, but it is who we are right now.
We had a choice about what kind of country we wanted to be. And voters declared that we are a country that hates women more than we hate rapists, a country where fascist dictatorship is more appealing than being led by a Black and Indian woman.
And now we are all going to have to live with the consequences. Actually, not everyone will live through a second Trump presidency. Women are already dying in states where they’re denied abortion care. Police violence against Black people, something Trump openly enjoys, will get worse. Immigrants will live in increasing danger. Transgender people will have even bigger targets on their backs. Victims of sexual assault will find it even harder to be believed and those who commit sexual assault will find it even easier to get away with. Armed white supremacists will feel emboldened to use their weapons in order to “defend” America from anyone they don’t like.
This all feels… really bad. Because it is really bad. And Trump: The Revenge doesn’t even officially hit theaters until January, 2025.
The day after the election I called my mom. She was crying. On top of Trump’s election she had a sore throat. Maybe it was the crying. Maybe it was from the flu and COVID shot she got the day before.
“I really want a milkshake,” she said.
“I can bring you a milkshake, Mom,” I said.
“You don’t have to do that. I can go out and get one myself.”
“Mom, I can bring you a milkshake. What kind do you want?”
“Just a vanilla milkshake, but you don’t have to.”
“Mom, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone do something kind for you right now?”
She admitted that it would. And that’s how I wound up with my very own online National Coney Island account, something that I am sure I will put to good use as a vegan.
When I got home after dropping off her shake I got a text from her that read, “This feels very nice on my throat. Thank you.”
If you’re wondering what you can do right now in the face of a very bleak future, you can start by bringing someone a milkshake. Take care of the people you love. Trump and his supporters might not give a shit about other people, but we do. And that matters. That’s what we need to focus on. That’s how we endure.
Love,
The Guerrilla Politic