Reflecting on a lifetime of presidential elections today. My first, as a 20 year old college student, was 1972. Viet Nam was heavy on all of our minds as our friends and brothers were getting drafted, some not coming back. Protests everywhere. Richard Nixon won. I feel for the young people who are new voters and now feel like I did in 1972. My track record is not great (6/14). I have lived in blue and red areas of red states, in blue and red areas of blue states and overseas. Even with deep disappointments, I have never felt as devastated as 2016, and did not want to feel that way again. Which is why I did not watch returns, and locked up the whiskey. Oh well, here we are, gut punched again by a felon who has no business running for president of anything. My sparkling wine is still in the fridge.

In earlier times, people all sat down to watch the nightly news with Walter Cronkite, and I think we were all better aware of reality. Decades of misinformation from too many sources have taken a toll on the electorate. Our education system is under attack. Our justice system is no longer just. Separation of church and state has been blurred. Our national empathy and understanding of people who are not like us is disappearing. Too many people caring about only themselves.

I don’t know what the answer is. You can’t stop people from watching/reading poor ‘news’ sources and believing them, no matter how many facts you counter with. You can’t undo racism and misogyny. I’m so afraid that until the consequences of hate touch the haters personally, nothing will change. It will take a shooting at your kids’/grandkids’ school, a loved one dying of sepsis when they can’t get a D&C, suffering shortages of fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, when all the harvesters and processors are rounded up and put in camps to deport. When they can’t find any elder care or day care providers. When their imported cheap products at Walmart and the Dollar store become unaffordable due to tariffs. We will all suffer, but those who can least afford it will suffer most. The wealthy oligarchs are calling the shots.

I will keep trying to understand, and be thankful I live in a state that fits me. That my daughters live in states that will take care of their reproductive health. And I will move forward, as soon as I’m done grieving. It might be a while.

Historians will be scratching their heads over the 2024 presidential election for decades to come. How a clownish buffoon who uses too much bronzer and too few brains could have won any election at all with 34 felony convictions goes beyond the pale.

I have my own idea why this happened, but first I did “my own research” as independent voters are wont to proclaim. What do “the experts” say?

Former Obama advisor David Axelrod lays the blame at the feet of priggish over-educated Democrats: “[Democrats have] become a smarty-pants, suburban, college-educated party. You can’t approach working people like missionaries and say, ‘We’re here to help you become more like us.’ There’s a kind of unspoken disdain, unintended disdain in that.”

NY Times journalist Frank Bruni says people weren’t really paying attention to Bronzer Boy’s “florid ugliness,” especially toward the end. We who paid attention were outraged, “but we’re arrogant: We assume our experience is everyone’s and our knowledge ambient.”

I was guilty of this more often than not. As a matter of fact, I was known to say anyone could beat Trump. My refrigerator could beat Trump.

The New York Times (which replaced WaPo on my digital subscription list) lists the thoughts of several pundits, two of which struck me as being non-repetitive.

Politico’s Ankush Khardori says “a critical mass of voters were willing to set aside their concerns about Trump’s alleged misconduct because of their dissatisfaction with the Biden-Harris administration. Fair or not, this was absolutely their right as voters.”

Maybe.

John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times thinks that it’s the economy, stupid: “Ultimately voters don’t distinguish between unpleasant things that their leaders and governments have direct control over, and those that are international phenomena resulting from supply-side disruptions caused by a global pandemic or the warmongering of an ageing autocrat halfway across the world. Voters don’t like high prices, so they punished the Democrats for being in charge when inflation hit.”

And at the Brookings Institute, we have William Galston, who put it all on getting out the vote: “Convinced that Trump’s intense personal bond with his supporters would do most of the mobilizing work, the campaign decided not to invest heavily in traditional get-out-the-vote organizing and instead outsourced it to supporting organizations. Although the Harris campaign touted its advantage in the “ground game,” there is little evidence that it made much of a difference.”

But it’s like the parable of the blind men and the elephant. Each used their sense of touch to discover what an elephant looked like and came away with conclusions based on their own narrow experiences.

I prefer to believe that the reason he won goes much deeper. I recall a consideration early on that Joe Biden was going to bridge to the new generation of 60 year-olds and serve but one term. It was not my imagination. I thought it was a good plan. He is, after all, no spring chicken. But they flipped that script, didn’t they? And when they saw their mistake – too late – the hair-pulling began. America, too used to 2-year presidential campaigns, had to adjust to a new paradigm of what became our version of a “snap election.”

Don’t get me wrong, it was a great campaign – all 107 days of it – and I enjoyed watching. It just wasn’t long enough to let the less engaged voters catch up. Had Biden committed to a 1-term administration, Harris would have been a huge consideration to succeed him along with others. But by waiting until very late before stepping aside, only Harris could have accessed the campaign war chest that Biden’s people had already amassed.

It was Harris or bust.

If you’re paying attention, like Salon customers are, it would have only been a slight change in plans. But with so many voters not tuned in – people were Googling the terms “did Biden drop out” on Election Day – the outcome seems inevitable in retrospect.

American Exceptionalism may be defined as the perception or belief that Americans live in a unique society that is exceptional, unusual, or extraordinary.

It usually carries a positive connotation that suggests the moral, ethical, intellectual, and economic superiority of America as a whole.

Obviously, we need a new definition if we are to consider the reaction of some Americans as well as other nations to our recent presidential election result. Two points to consider.

First, we need to reconsider the oft-repeated phrase “this is not who we are.” It depends on what you mean by “we.” If the “we” means “me” or, more probably, “us,” then that’s fine if the “us” is you and your like-minded cohorts.

But if “us” refers to the US, then maybe a rethink is in order. A majority of Americans just elected a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist to our highest office. That’s new and different. Some would say, exceptional.

Second, we should realize that, as a nation, we look like Rubes. A Rube is defined as “an awkward unsophisticated person or a naive or inexperienced person.” Short for Reuben, Rube refers to an uneducated and gullible country bumpkin. Rubes accept lies as fact and are even capable of concocting their own facts. You may not count yourself among them, but our overseas friends, enemies, and allies can and most certainly do.

As a people and as a society, America is exceptional. Just not the way we think it is. As a nation with 340 million viewpoints, this is exactly who we are.

VPOTUS-Elect

What was once a fairly good idea is now beyond the realm of reason.

“Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line the man come and take you away.” — Stephen Stills

I don’t know how much I have for you today. Most of the late evening and morning has been like walking through a fog. I keep telling myself just to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Allow me to tell you a little story I think most of you already know.

In the immediate aftermath when Jesus was crucified, his followers were despondent. Their leader had been executed. They went to his tomb three days later and it seemed that someone had stolen the body. In the immediate intervening years following the crucifixion it was illegal to be a Christian in Rome. So, Christians got by through symbols so they could reveal their intentions without anyone knowing about.

Masses were celebrated in homes at the kitchen table. That tradition in almost exacting detail was replicated through the early 1960s when the second Vatican council changed how the eucharistic prayer and the mass would be said. It wasn’t until Constantine that Christians in Rome felt safe. Most of the apostles were later martyred including Peter (the first pope) who refused to be crucified standing up. He wanted to be upside down because he had denied Jesus during his passion.

I’m not saying that the Roman soldiers are coming to round us up, but many of us will be a lot less boisterous than we used to be. I’ve never felt scared before following an election. I’ve been disappointed. I’ve been angry. I’ve been utterly depressed, but I have never felt quite like I did when I woke up this morning.

There will be time to ask those nagging Monday morning quarterback questions we always ask in these moments. Was Kamala the right candidate? Was there something wrong with her message? Was she hurt by the lack of transition plan from Joe Biden to her? Would the Democrats have been better off having a clean primary process without Joe Biden? Was the “garbage” thing a clear gaffe at the end that cost her a couple of key percentage points?

I don’t have answers to those questions right now and while we should ask them in due time, I am going to ask everyone to take a step back and take a deep breath. This is collectively who we are now. It really is a matter of a few percentage points shifting one way and not an avalanche. I know it must feel like one.

There are still decent and loving people in this world. Perhaps we can develop some sort of signal to find each other in a sea of divisiveness and hate. It is okay to be sad. It is okay to be angry. It is okay to be depressed. I’m not sure which one is winning out in me right now. It might be confusion more than anything else. I still don’t know how we got here yet.