Wednesday Walk: America is not Inevitable
Some thoughts on Election Night and where we go from here
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
Every Wednesday, I offer a few short ideas that I hope will inspire you to do some more reading, thinking, and exploring. Let’s take a little walk together and see where the path leads…
Cognitive Dissonance
I am struck with a strange feeling waking up this day after Election Day.
It is one of the most beautiful mornings that I’ve experienced in a while: the sun is shining and the animals in my yard all seem abuzz with activity. I watched a blue jay perched in a high limb of our apple tree while a chipmunk scurried on a lower limb. It’s warm enough to sit out on my deck and write this column, even though it’s early November.
All around me, I see life, beauty, nature.
And yet, there’s also something else in the air, something harder to quantify.
In past elections, it was easy to couch Donald Trump’s candidacy. When he won the presidency in 2016, it was because of the antiquated Electoral College system, not because of a popular vote victory. Similarly in 2020, he was squarely defeated by both systems and we could say with certainty that he never won the popular vote.
But this time it’s different. This time, tens of millions of people voted affirmatively for this man. A man who is no longer a political newcomer with no track record. They’ve seen his particular brand of vitriol, racism, sexism, and selfishness and they have actively opted in.
I have been critical of both candidates, especially Harris’s stance on continuing to arm Israel despite the ongoing genocides in the Middle East. I have been truly conflicted with my options this election and was weighing four options: not voting at all, voting on other issues but leaving the presidential question blank, voting third party for president, or holding my nose and ultimately voting for Harris.
My mind was made up after seeing clips of Trump’s racist rally at Madison Square Garden last month, where Trump adviser Stephen Miller said “America is for America and Americans only” and Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of hot garbage.”
I wanted to see Trump defeated by such a decisive margin that it was clear that his racist rhetoric had no place in America. I reluctantly voted for Harris with a pit in my stomach, knowing that Trump had to lose and thinking supporting her was the best way to make that happen.
I was wrong.
The racist rally at Madison Square Garden was not a bug, it was a feature. America has always been a country for white supremacists.
Looking at the exit polls this morning, it’s clear that this election was not really a repudiation of the first female Black/South Asian candidate. It was not an election where third party candidates decided the outcome. Even the large voting bloc of Arab Americans in Michigan seem to have not moved the needle in either direction.
This election was simply an affirmative vote for Trump by a large portion of white America. Which is terrifying.
But as I’ve wrestled with how to interpret how so many of my fellow citizens could be so conned by this monster, I’ve also been thinking about the path forward. And I keep coming to the same conclusion: none of this is inevitable.
For most of the readers of this newsletter, America has represented a steady constant for their entire lives. Our flag has flown with 50 stars since 1959 when Hawai’i was added as a state. The readers who were alive at that time were probably in elementary school. Our elections during all of our lives have always been between the same two parties and almost always between two white men.
But if you take a long view for a moment, I return to the idea that none of this is inevitable. Look at the view of the earth from space. Sure there are some easily recognizable landmarks, like Florida, the Baja, or the Yucatán, but it’s also quite difficult to make out specific places. Could you accurately draw the borders of Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, or Illinois onto the image above? Can you tell where Mexico or Canada end and the U.S. begins?
What I see when I look at the image above is one continuous land mass, stretching from the Arctic Circle to nearly the Antarctic. Our countries, our states, our cities are defined by us, and we have the ability to change them.
For thousands of years, these lands were inhabited by hundreds of different Indigenous groups, some that worked in cooperation with each other, some that competed. Each group’s culture was deeply rooted in the land, with everything from their style of housing to their diet determined by the local weather, soil, and native plants and animals.
247 years ago, America was a small country made of thirteen states that hugged the Atlantic Ocean and stopped in the Appalachian mountains. Over time, the Northwest Territories (or what today is the Great Lakes region), the Louisiana Purchase, and the Mexican territories of California, Arizona, and Texas were added to our borders.
Virginia was once a giant state, until a separatist movement created the distinct state of West Virginia in 1863. There was a time when the Philippines, Guam, or Puerto Rico could have been added as our next state (for more on this, check out Daniel Immerwahr’s great book How to Hide an Empire).
In other words, the U.S. is always in a constant state of flux. For the last 65 years, our borders have been constant and our economy relatively stable, giving us the illusion of stability. But, just like the world around us, where leaves fall from trees and birds migrate south, everything is always changing.
America as it is right now is only that way because we all choose to accept it as such. But it’s not inevitable.
We place great importance on the leader of our nation, but in truth, the real power lies with each of us. If we don’t like something, we can fight to change it. Sometimes this is done through legal means like ballot initiatives and petitioning the legislature, and sometimes it happens through protest movements, boycotts, and divestment.
Last year, I wrote a piece about the scene in Finding Nemo where all of the fish are stuck in a net and are all swimming to save themselves. It’s chaos. But when Nemo convinces all of the fish to swim in one direction, they are able to free themselves.
Trump may be the winner of the election, but we are still the fish. Whether we chose to swim towards our own freedom to fight for our collective liberation is the choice now.
From the Archives
I’ve been talking about American racism and white supremacy for a long time on my podcast. If you’re looking for some better understanding of these issues today, here are a few episodes that I think are worth hearing/revisiting:
26. Author and Podcaster Sarah Kendzior (Quarantine Creatives)
47. Culture Warlords Author Talia Lavin (Quarantine Creatives)
119. Richard Frishman and B. Brian Foster on Ghosts of Segregation
122. Author Richard Rothstein on America's Deliberate Segregation
Remembering The Victory Party That Wasn’t
In 2004, my wife (then-girlfriend) was living in Boston where we both attended school (I had an apartment in nearby Revere, just north of the city). On election night, we learned that John Kerry, our U.S. senator and the Democratic nominee for president that year, was going to hold his “victory party” in Copley Square, just a few blocks from my wife’s dorm room.
We had both voted for Kerry in the first election in which we were eligible. George W. Bush had assumed the office of the presidency after a contentious election in 2000 that was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, and the 2004 election felt like a chance to correct that wrong.
We didn’t have credentials to join the actual event, but were able to watch from barricades placed at the edge of Copley Square. There was a giant stage set up in front of the Boston Public Library with giant TVs.
Throughout the night, the crowd was energized with live performances from musicians like the Black Eyed Peas, James Taylor, and Carole King. The mood was celebratory.
Sometime late in the evening, perhaps around 10:30 or 11:00 though, the mood changed. It began to rain on all of us, and the CNN feed on the giant TVs began to foretell bad news for the Kerry campaign.
In the rain, Jon Bon Jovi came out and performed some acoustic versions of his classic songs. They weren’t the driving rock songs of the 1980s, but were slower and more contemplative versions.
We all felt the tension as Bon Jovi slowly sang “Whoa, we're half way there, Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer, take my hand, we'll make it, I swear, whoa oh, livin' on a prayer…”
At some point, rumors began to circulate that Kerry himself, who was supposedly watching the results from the nearby Westin hotel, might come out and address the crowd. Then the rumor was that John Edwards, his running mate, might come out.
Ultimately, the concert died down, nobody from the campaign appeared, and we all watched CNN on the Jumbotron in the rain. My wife and I left around midnight if I recall.
I think about that event every Election Day, remembering that there are confident campaigns on both sides who are poised to celebrate a victory but also ready to accept defeat.
Programming Note
There will not be a new podcast episode this week due to a combination of the election and my cold that refuses to quite go away. I hope to resume new episodes soon.
I publish new issues every Wednesday and Sunday. Sign up to always receive the latest issue and support my work:
Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
This is the largest set of political nonsense that one could not back with evidence before a legal body.
As a Mustang Officer ot two wars, you elected the Democratic Party leaders that killed my comrades overseas while funding our enemies. So drop the anti-Trump rhetoric as those of us who have worked and still do in our federal government know who violated the laws, regulations and policies; and like Obama and Biden, add Senator Hillary on her two Russian collusion deals (Boeing and Uranium One that had nothing to do with her state of NY), the illegal foreign contracting for federal IT services, her campaign crimes by finding 3 Russian and 1 British agent, that after Trump was elected is a violation of the Espionage Act .... and the Biden crimes as Senator and VP who posses ed classified material that only a POTUS can, and illegally distributed it to uncleared facilities and sold off to his biography writer ... but he is too old to hold him for legal prosecution in time frames similar to Trump's all edged violations of exactly what still mystifies me.
In case you do not know those of a non-professional standing and with liberal arts degrees or similar persuasions, under democrats the warning for men to register for the draft came out in public venues, but liberal media just ignored it so as not to alarm their small audiences delicate natures.
As we are all equal except when it comes to men having the same programs and hiring preferences and health care as women do, and to reset the left wing mental perspective of the world as it is and always has been, it is time to draft women for combat. My Gulf War I women-only detachment are proof women can fight and operate independently of men that kept out social problems they and I left back home where those who can waste such time can ponder on.
A few tours overseas to touch the face of God every morning one wakes up before the next mission where people just envy and hate what and who we are and prefer the care of despots and dictators or have no voice at all - reality back here of what is a lie and what is important and why the USA is what it is because we are not like the very nations, cultures and on some cases, religions our families all fled from.
Election night proved what we truly knew all along that the Big Lie repeatedly works on those who lack rational thought, no practical experience in being engaged in the world marketplace, and lacks years whether civil or military living overseas as a benchmark to judge the pure propaganda from those preaching and dinning behind campus walls is all fantasy.
Unlike Venezuela who had the world's recognized most legal and ethical election and yet whose citizens embraced left wing socialism that thousands of their citizens have fled thereafter, our system as designed still works.
For the uneducated in Republics going back to Rome, populist based elections always end the same way - our founding father were far smarter than Democrats are today in that for all 50 states to be equal despite their populations and economical power, we have the Electoral College that mathematically normalizes the number of votes just like we do for the House of Representatives ... so large or small, and not using subjectively flawed majority of the populations as the metric that would have belong ago destroyed this nation, the system still works.
Out here in the real world where what I and my peers destine, build and you drive, fly, sail and whose products you use, we adjust numbers of groups and risks by such disciplined and mathematical processes otherwise, the results would be as dipterous as the last two Democratic Party administrations have proven to be here and abroad.
Who can ever say those with wigs and centuries ago did not envision the evils of mob rule under corrupt oligarchies? Their genius is measured in the fact we are here using a computer, internet software and speaking our minds without breaking some group's taboo or sensibilities.
History 101 - the Romans avoided drafting legionnaires from their large cities as they were more likely to be pampered by local political bias and payoffs and just plain free stuff (food and entertainment) than those in the suburban and rural regions. That held the empire together until government was for sale to the highest bidder and the citizen soldier was replaced by those half citizens (Latinos) and mercenaries of Partnered and conquered nations. Who are we to think we are far smarter and can avoid the very pitfalls that Rome had done?