The First Strands of Understanding

Over the next few days, we’ll get a lot of insight on who voted, and the related demographics. I haven’t seen enough data yet, and we won’t know for sure until all the county-by-county data is analyzed. But I have some strong suspicions.

From what we do know…

There are a lot of people who will look to place blame. On everything from Joe Biden, to the choice of Kamala Harris and the related process (or lack thereof), to the Democratic messaging problem (specifically in this instance not responding to the trans ads), to the press for not holding the Convicted Felon’s feet to the fire, etc., etc., etc.

But placing blame for the sake of finding someone or something to blame is counterproductive. We need to understand why this happened, and to find ways to move forward through the coming horror and darkness.

Polling kept saying that the issue was the economy. That people can’t financially cope with inflation. That their hopes of ever owning a home have been dashed. That they cannot afford childcare, nor medical care, nor cars, nor insurance. And I think we all, regardless of our financial position, realize that prices are higher than they used to be.

So that begs the question “who would do a better job with the economy?” I think that a lot of voters actually believe that inflation can be blamed 100% on Joe Biden. They’re wrong, but most people are stupid.

There is no doubt that there was a dual prejudice related to race and gender. A neighbor told me this morning that, in his opinion, Kamala Harris WAS a “DEI hire” because Biden said he’d pick a black woman as his running mate if he got the nomination in 2020. I argued that she was eminently qualified, but he said that didn’t change the calculus for a lot of men. It pained me to write those sentences from the depths of my being.

I think we’ll find that turnout was down from 2020. We’ll learn more in the next few days about turnout at the local level. They ARE still counting ballots. I know in my area, a lot of precincts had lower turnout compared to 2020. The question is WHY? I know from my conversations with voters whose issue was Gaza that they planned to leave the presidential line blank. That doesn’t explain enough, but it’s a start.

Mostly though, Kamala Harris lost because for far too many people, voting for a sexual abuser, twice impeached, convicted felon, failed businessman, who is a racist, misogynistic, antisemitic, homophobic, white nationalist WAS NOT DISQUALIFYING.

It shows a level of severe stupidity.

The fact that people voted against humanity is the most heart-breaking of all. I am terrified for my friends and relatives and neighbors who are women, or LGBTQIA+, or people of color, oh hell — who are anything other than white evangelical Christian men. They are going to come for ALL the rest of us. Some people will be in danger more quickly, but they’re out for all of us. And most of the voters THOUGHT THIS WAS OKAY.

More later.