Forces

There are forces that led to Trump's win. 

Misogyny is one, the idea that women are inferior or that you don't want to be led by a woman. By any measure, Harris was more qualified than Trump. 

White women voted for Trump, because if they admit the patriarchy exists they would get upset and depressed, so they have to live in denial. They voted for the most openly anti-women president ever. Yes, perhaps they don't believe the rhetoric I'm laying down. They have other ideas. Abortion wasn't the issue democrats hoped it would be. It persuaded the people who were going to vote for Harris anyway.

"Time and again, voters, very often women themselves, told me that they just didn’t think that “America is ready for a female president”." (Guardian)

Racist won't admit to it, they just don't like a Jamaican and Indian woman, can't say why. I know conservatives are tired of being called racist by liberals, but what do you call not giving a chance to someone who is a non-white woman? (Article which suggests racism).

Biden got 81 million, Harris got 67. 14 million people who might be inclined to vote for Biden stayed away from Harris. This was an issue of turnout for me. They were not, like me disgusted and horrified by Trump, they saw him as a cranky reality personality, and he entertained them. 

Trump got less votes, he got almost 72 this election, he got 74 in the last election. About 2 million people were perhaps disgusted by his felonious rapey insurrectionist ways. Is that progress for humanity? 

I'm disappointed in the American people. If someone gets a whiff that one candidate will lower taxes, true or not, even if everyone says that Harris had the best economic plans.

Looking at the electoral map of NYC you see Asians and Jewish people voted for Trump. Why? I honestly don't know, do they imagine lower taxes? They're brainwashed? They're used to venial rulers, and that's what they expect, they think they're more honest? Why would the two uber minorities favor a venial strong man? 

I've always felt many people just want to blow up the world. Kaboom. Trump will do that to a degree. A friend thinks America's institutions are robust enough to mostly protect Americans. I hope he's right, but I don't think the Supreme Court is, they're bought and sold. 

It can't be for economics, Trump is going to head us into recession and chaos. 

Immigrants voting for Trump is just punching down, an American past time. 

I'd hoped America would vote more along the lines I envision America. A place for justice, fairness. We have a legal system, but we don't have justice. 

In an open society there will always be outside forces. Russians called in bomb threats to polling places, and spread misinformation. I'm more disappointed that Americans were susceptible to it. That as reported on Reddit that high school boys were happy Trump won so they wouldn't be drafted into war. That could only be a perversion of the fact that indeed Democrats do go to war more often, but not significantly so, and they don't institute a draft since the Vietnam War.

Disappointed only begins to express my feelings.

Yes, you can try to reframe positively:

"Many of those shattered by this result will be tempted to withdraw into passivity—or recoil into performative radicalism. Reject both. We should focus, instead, on how to win back to the cause of liberal democracy a sufficient number of those Americans who voted for a candidate who denigrated this nation’s institutions and ideals." (David Frum)

I understand I have a political bias. I understand I'm more informed. I understand the temptation to political apathy. I take Frum's point that maybe America isn't as idealistic as I want it to be. I get it that most people are focused on the here and now, and politics isn't interesting, or just fantastical entertainment. 

I'm trying to invest less energy in politics. This blog is about trying to ventilate so I can move on. I don't want to dread the next 4 years. 

Woman in the park had an equal humans t-shirt. I asked her how she's going to cope. She says she's just going to try to live her values, like getting caught up in politics was a mistake. She's focused on what she can do. 

My friend in Iran thinks the government just wants to make people's lives miserable in Iran. I guess that's what we voted for. I'm going to look for counter examples of that, to disprove that hypothesis. 

Meanwhile Rebecca Solnit has words of wisdom:

Going to read Anand Giridharadas too. 

Should we manically dance on stage with Kamala Harris, pretending to be happy?