For some people, November 5, 2024, was one of the greatest days in American history. Others may well remember it as a day that will live in political infamy. The 2024 presidential election is over, and Donald Trump has been reelected as the forty-seventh president of the United States of America. One can only imagine what Grover Cleveland would think of this chain of events. Cleveland was the only other president to serve nonconsecutive terms — he was the twenty-second and twenty-fourth US president from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897.
If most people are honest with themselves, they would probably admit that Tuesday’s results shocked but did not totally surprise them. Trump went on to win both the popular vote and the Electoral College. The latter ultimately determines who wins the presidency. In all fairness, despite what many pundits, critics, radio hosts and numerous other commentators assessments, the election was not a blowout as opposed to the democratic presidential elections of 1972 between presidential-election-
When it became clear that battleground and bellwether states were consistently dropping into the GOP column, what was once seen as cautious optimism rapidly dissipated in many liberal circles, and unhinged delirium amplified in conservative quarters. When the drama settled, many individuals, both inside and outside the media, engaged in fierce postelection-day morning, afternoon, and evening quarterbacking. They bandied about various scenarios and theories regarding how such an outcome could possibly have occurred. In truth, many people again voted for Donald Trump for several reasons, despite knowing full well of his past and present transgressions.
Throughout various periods in our nation’s history, charismatic politicians espousing a populist message have sporadically emerged onto the political scene garnering the support of those citizens who felt disenfranchised or ignored. Both Trump (and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in 2016) successfully tapped into the intense populist tsunamis that were raging throughout the nation. Both men fervently discussed economic marginalization, outsourcing of jobs, Wall Street (Trump has made a U-turn on this issue), unchecked globalization, neoliberalism, and other factors they saw as contributors to many working-class people’s demise. The major difference was that Trump has brazenly tinged his message with a blatant and dangerously high level of jingoism and nationalism.
Another undeniable factor was the double standards that segments of the media applied to both campaigns. The passive-aggressive approach which Harris was subjected to was disingenuous and annoying. While Trump routinely went off the rails and little if anything was said, with Vice President Harris, every comment was meticulously critiqued and dissected. CNN commentator Van Jones stated it most accurately when he declared Van Jones Comments on Kamala Harris that “[Trump] is allowed to be lawless, she has to be flawless.” Indeed, this appeared to be the case!
W.E.B. Du Bois accurately stated in his classic book The Souls of Black Folk that race would be the definitive issue of the twentieth century. His prophetic message still rings true today as we are about to arrive at the end of the first quarter of the 21st twenty-first century. To be blunt and to keep it real, the Trump campaign once again engaged in a blatantly racist, sexist, shameless, divisive campaign. Remember the October 27 Madison Square Garden carnival? His advisors and surrogates employed the same nativistic playbook that has preyed upon and exploited fearful Whites’ resentment toward immigration, DEI and affirmative action (despite the fact that White people, especially White women, are the biggest beneficiaries of the policy), multiculturalism, LGBTQIA+ rights, and other issues often considered anathema to a number of racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic members in this group.
Voters leveled numerous double standards toward Vice President Kamala Harris but not to Donald Trump. Throughout the campaign for president, some voters insisted they just did not know enough about her. Several political pundits argued that she was light on specifics; journalists bemoaned that she did not engage in long interviews, or avoided answering tough questions, or answered easy questions more sharply. She didn’t provide enough policy details. Some wondered: Do we really know her? Is she too aggressive? Is she not aggressive enough? Her opponents cast her as an “empty suit,” a lightweight with dangerous ideas.
In contrast, they gave Trump leeway to espouse all sorts of crude, incoherent rhetoric, which much of the mainstream media largely dismissed, if not outright ignored. They would often let him go off on tangents about various topics without challenging him to verify his statements as they required of other candidates. It is also probably safe to say that the press was largely unprepared to cover a presidential candidate who was already a professional media celebrity. He was able to manipulate much of the press core successfully. There are others. This fact itself was disturbing.
Differences and double standards aside, many American people returned this morally deficient man to power, notwithstanding his past and present behavior, including chronic sexual abuse, rampant fraud, abundant lies, multiple felonies, racism of his campaign, insults, and threats. In the most blunt and searing terms possible, many high-level individuals warned the American people of the impending danger. His previously loyal vice president declined to endorse him, his top generals referred to him as a “total fascist,” and some of his closest aides and Cabinet members described in detail his unhinged character and callous indifference to the Constitution.
The nation awakened to a president-elect who ran an overtly sexist and racist campaign, who threatened to weaponize the armed forces against his political enemies, and who terrorized transgender and imm
Race aside, we cannot totally dismiss the reality that Trump’s political coalition was totally devoid of people of color. In fact, he achieved a surprising upset victory in a heavily Black county in North Carolina and won Dearborn, Michigan’s largest Arab-majority city. He doubled his Black support in Wisconsin and won Hispanic men by ten points. On the contrary, Harris’s efforts to bolster her appeal in the suburbs failed to materialize. In fact, she performed worse than Biden did in 2020. Trump created a new one by turning out new voters, often young and male, who view him as an entertaining figure. Each of his three presidential campaigns rejected traditional notions of political decorum and ran instead on grievances and cultural concerns.
Trump’s solid win demonstrates that he has assembled a reliable and diverse working-class coalition. He maintained solid support with every voting group and increased his gains with most. In 2020, he lost Latino men to Biden by 36 to 59 percent; this year, he won them 55 to 43. Many female voters supported abortion rights ballot initiatives while simultaneously supporting Trump, whose Supreme Court justices successfully overturned Roe v. Wade. Men under age 30, whom Biden won by 15 points four years ago, supported Trump by 14 points. The entire nation , including historically durable blue states, moved rightward.
As is the case with race, America is a nation with sexism deeply etched into its social fabric. Hillary Clinton was unsuccessful in her bid to become the nation’s first female president. Kamala Harris fell short in achieving this goal. If we are honest, more than a few women refused to cast a ballot for another woman. They can be conditioned to be misogynistic, whether conscious or otherwise. In Harris’s case, being Black and Asian were additional impediments against her. The intersection of race and gender worked against her.
While the forces of White Supremacy, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia were triumphant on Tuesday. The nation is entering uncharted territory. Those of us who are committed to liberation and equality for all citizens regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion are unrelentingly committed to equal and humane treatment of all human beings as opposed to the preferential treatment of a select few.
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