Once upon a time, a majority of U.S. voters rejected a capable, competent, and intelligent daughter of Black and Indian immigrants in favor of a diminished, ignorant, racist son of a multimillionaire, proving that the United States remained a great country for old, white men.
Vice President Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, lost to Donald Trump, a convicted criminal. A twice-impeached vulgarian returned to the Oval Office by promising “concepts of a plan” that included a stream of neo-Nazi talking points, tariffs, mass deportations, and vengeance against his enormous list of enemies.
During the final stretch of his embarrassing and pathetic—yet ultimately victorious—campaign, Trump stayed true to form as a misogynist, vowing to “protect” women, “whether they like it or not.” He took credit for the compromised, extremist conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. He imagined violent fantasies against Republican former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, who was excommunicated from the GOP cult because she thought a violent insurrection against our free and fair elections was a step too far. He referred to Harris as a “low-IQ individual” and refused to apologize for numerous inflammatory comments made by his guest speakers at a Madison Square Garden rally in New York City, saying it was his “honor” to be involved in it. To top it off, he simulated fellatio with a microphone at a public rally with children present.
Still, he prevailed.
A majority of American voters, including white women, Latinx men, and many young people, saw this hateful chaos and decided Trump would be the best leader for the country. Trump shocked the world by winning both the popular vote and the Electoral College, thanks in part to the amnesia and indifference of so many marginalized communities which he routinely mocked, ridiculed, villainized, and targeted to fuel his political career. Millions of Harris voters had hoped the country would naturally move forward to some sense of normalcy. Unfortunately, they had too much faith in their compatriots. The glass ceiling remained a brick wall for qualified women who sought to lead the United States.
Even though the Biden-Harris Administration reduced inflation, improved the economy, and lowered crime, most Trump voters “felt” otherwise and incorrectly assumed the opposite. Facts didn’t matter, only perceptions manufactured and mainstreamed by rightwing media, especially influential podcasters and YouTube hosts.
Corporate media decided to warn voters about Trump’s disastrous tariffs and economic policies after he had won, and spent most of their “both sides” coverage leading up to the election “sane-washing” Trump’s numerous outrages.
Reflecting a trend across the globe, the election was a referendum on the incumbent party, but in no other democratic country did a convicted criminal, unabashed racist, and misogynist return to power. But this was America—born, bred, and bled in white supremacy and patriarchy.
As such, millions of Americans had to contend with those who live in the Upside Down universe, whose entire skewed understanding of the world had been poisoned by rightwing media. They still trusted Trump, a serial liar, more than their clergy, family members, and favorite conservative commentators. There was no bottom that Trump could sink to that would make them abandon their cultural warrior. All that remained was for him to shoot an immigrant on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
The structural inequities of government remained intact, greatly favoring white, conservative voters in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Senate. Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., still lacked statehood, and California, the most populous state in the country, still had the same number of Senators as Wyoming, the least populous state in the Union.
The Supreme Court remained dominated by Justices who were cosplaying villains from The Handmaid’s Tale. Conservative activist Leonard Leo was busy spending the $1.6 billion donation he received from entrepreneur Barry Seid to ensure authoritarian minority rule and to groom the rightwing judicial brownshirts of the future.
Meanwhile, conservative activists, with the backing of a Republican-controlled presidency, Supreme Court, and both chambers of Congress were emboldened to keep fanning the flames of their war against LGBTQ+ communities, women, public education, teachers, safety regulations, immigrants, vaccines, and the climate.
After a week of sorrow, tears, and disappointment, some Americans, especially Black women, decided to protect their communities instead of doing the labor for a country that refused to protect them. There were divisions within multiracial and multifaith organizations as communities of color started fraying, with respective leaders pointing blame at Latinx, Arabs, and Muslims who had abandoned solidarity and progress due to patriarchy, homophobia, and other selfish interests. Others vowed to tap out of the fight and instead watch the country burn as bystanders—overwhelmed, exhausted, and daunted by the challenges that lay ahead.
But a curious plot twist happened along the way. Trump’s failed policies, such as his inflationary tariffs, immediately caused buyer’s remorse. His administration’s chaos and dysfunction reminded forgetful Americans of the numerous failures during his first presidential term. As such, leaders from the grassroots started to reemerge across the country, refusing to bend the knee to an aspiring authoritarian or go back to the failed establishment policies that continued to reward the billionaire class and their buddies in both political parties.
Instead, they vowed to remain constantly vigilant and informed. They would not concede an inch, a word, or a single space to aspiring fascists and bullies. They would have to defeat MAGA at the polls in every local, state, and national election for the next decade. They would have to put aside petty differences and rebuild multicultural alliances, which had to work harder to reach the working class and young men. They would have to play hardball against the establishment, including politicians, the mainstream media, and billionaires, who yearned to return to a romanticized past where the wealthy and powerful could shout empty slogans of change without indulging in massive reform or experiencing discomfort.
They would have to continue to apply pressure on Democrats to promote progressive economic policies, end Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, and embrace Black women, immigrants of color, liberal religious communities, and union leaders, instead of bear-hugging Liz Cheney and billionaire Mark Cuban.
The majority realized that they had just taken the first major step in what would be a long, exhausting, uphill, but ultimately victorious walk to defeating rightwing fascism and finally pushing the United States toward freedom, justice, and a truly representative democracy.