With a few hours of sleep between my last post and now, I want to talk about some of the trends that I'm seeing from some popular liberal talking heads and from the mainstream media as a whole regarding Kamala losing to Trump.
- While misogyny and racism certainly played a part in her loss because some people really do just suck, she did not lose primarily because she was a woman or a person of color. That is not the lesson that we should learn from this and should not be a reason to not run a woman/person of color in a future election. We should not give the Democrats this out to use when talking about this loss.
- Gen Z did not move en masse to vote this election cycle and those that did voted pretty predictably along gender/racial lines that we've seen in previous generations. The radicalization of young men in this country by the far right is an issue that isn't talked about too often and absolutely has to be addressed for there to be meaningful change. Keeping young men angry enough with the current institution that they would actively vote against their own best interests in order to dismantle that institution is useful for the right and the current ruling elite. The Dems have to learn to combat this through effective education and actual policy that benefits the younger generation. But they also have to figure out how to invigorate young people to vote as a whole and the best way to do that is to run on popular policies that actually address current issues that young people are facing. We know what those policies are (higher minimum wage, rent caps, ways to make homes obtainable, etc) and need to run on them instead of "vote blue no matter who" and licking the boots of moderates and the right.
- The Harris campaign was terrible. Worse than the Clinton campaign because Trump was an easier candidate to beat this election cycle. He is a shadow of his former self, in poor health physically and mentally, and a proven fucking loser. A large part of this was her blatant disregard and even contempt for Pro-Palestinian voices and the unwillingness of the party as a whole to give a singular inch regarding the genocide of the Palestinian people. Even without that in play, she refused to talk about the failures of the last four years of Biden, of which there were many, and instead said that she would change nothing after a very unpopular presidency. She backed many people, who were already disillusioned with the current administration, into a corner by promising to do fuck all about the systems in place that people overwhelmingly didn't like in the first place.
There is so much to learn for the Democratic Party following this election but if we let them say "oh it was because she was a person of color", "it's because she was a woman", and we refuse to acknowledge that this election was not only winnable, but more so than the previous two elections, we are fucking doomed.
There will be more to learn as exit polls continue to update and we hear from more people post election season, but for now...
Organize. Organize. Organize. If you can, unionize. Keep pushing local activism and bolster your local organizations. Don't let this break your resolve for change. There is a better America, there is hope for a brighter future for our young people and the queer community, but at this point we have to admit that nothing will change unless we can come together in a great enough number to force it. I know you're tired and disheartened and scared and angry. Be those things and fight anyways. Do it scared, do it angry, and remember that there are millions of people doing it with you.
