To The Hereafter

Deep down I knew this was possible. We were often told that this election was a coin toss and that we could easily be staring once again at an incoming Trump presidency by the end of this election. But I didn’t want to believe it. Like so many, I wanted to believe that after knowing what we know about this man, there’s no way we would send him back, right? That surely the many convictions, the blatant corruption he and his family have engaged in over the years, the violent insurrection at the Capitol in 2020, the horrible racism and sexism that has swirled in this man’s orbit, and frankly almost every other data point that resides in the totality of this man’s professional and political career, that when faced with as stark and clear a choice as that, we wouldn’t choose chaos and cruelty again.

I realize now how naive I was and as I now mull over the results of this election, I am left wondering what happens now. What will a second Trump presidency mean for the United States? There are many potential answers to that question, and it’s impossible to know for sure at this moment. My true hope is that his less “diehard” supporters are right and that while Trump and those around him like to talk a big game, their worst impulses will be tempered by decency or unpopularity or something else entirely, that not every single piece of heinous shit he or the people around him have advocated for will come to pass.

Reading that back, it seems silly to imagine this vengeful vindictive posse that we’ve now elected into power won’t send this country back in a dozen different ways, but we have seen Trump’s laziness get the better of him before. The problem now is that he will be surrounded by sycophants instead of the institutionalist adults who tried to moderate him during his first turn. He will also be enabled by a court system stocked to the brim with conservative cultists and idealogues who are more than willing to ignore facts in service of gross partisanship. The truth is that most people in his orbit will be there for the sole purpose of enabling Trump instead of keeping him on a leash, so if we’re being realistic, this time around it will likely be much worse.

Every noncitizen residing here in the United States, both documented and undocumented, is at risk of deportation. Trump supporters have claimed and will continue to claim that Trump is only targeting undocumented immigrants with his rhetoric, but they are wrong. Do not listen to them. Trump himself, J.D. Vance, and Stephen Miller have all talked about eliminating whole swaths of programs under which immigrants currently legally reside in the US. They have repeatedly talked about how certain types of immigrants who have entered the United States after securing legal status should be deported. The Republican party as a whole has shown a complete unwillingness to adjudicate enough resources to deal with the severe backlog of immigration cases, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be given a broad mandate to tear apart well-meaning, upstanding, hardworking, mixed-status families across the United States.

Every woman in the United States is at risk of death should they become pregnant. There is a high chance that if Republicans can secure the House of Representatives, they will pass a national abortion ban. If they are ultimately unsuccessful, they will instead employ the Comstock Act to de facto ban most abortions. There is also talk of going after IVF and contraception and many other crucial aspects of women’s reproductive health. In many red states across the country, the leadership there will be emboldened to pursue draconian measures such as monitoring women’s pregnancies across the state, criminalizing cross-border travel for the sole purpose of having an abortion, jailing women who have received an abortion, and criminalizing doctors who are suspected of providing an abortion. Ultimately, no matter what measures are eventually passed, the result is that women will die.

Every non-cis person and person of color in the United States is at risk of banishment from society. We have seen this play out all across the country already in the efforts by school boards to ban books that tell these much-needed stories and perspectives of marginalized groups and in the efforts by Ron DeSantis in particular to expunge the experience of being a minority from the classroom and school books in Florida. This trend will become supercharged in a second Trump term. Intellectual honesty about US history will be hidden away. Diversity will be dissolved and papered over by a colorless world that demands conformity with a lie and where differences are demonized and history is ignored.

Everyone who cares about health in the United States is at risk of sickness and disease. Trump has promised to install Robert F. Kennedy JR. in charge of health. Kennedy has pledged to gut the Department of Health and Human Services as well as several other related agencies in favor of vaccine skepticism and pseudoscience. He has promised to remove vaccine requirements as well as remove fluoride from the water supply. These actions could allow for the rise of many diseases that were once extinct in this country to make a comeback and significantly degrade oral health in this country. Additionally, the government will encourage fossil fuel drilling at an unprecedented rate and attempt to gut regulations around pollution. The result will have adverse effects on the water we drink and the air we breathe, leading to higher rates of respiratory disease and bacterial infections.

Everyone who publically disagrees with the incoming Trump Administration is at risk of being punished for it. Trump has repeatedly called journalists and other media outlets enemies of the people and dangerous. He has also railed against prominent Democratic and Republican figures, referring to them as the enemy within. He has talked about deploying the military to quell protests and denigrated anyone who dares to disagree with him, going so far as to publically call for the revoking of a news station’s broadcast license due to a disagreement over what that news station decided to publish about Trump. His supporters have gone much further calling for violent recrimination against prominent Democrats and anyone who supports the Democratic party, sexual assault and rape against women who disagree with him, and enslavement of people of color who disagree with him.

This is all a worst-case scenario of course but one that feels a lot more likely to come to pass than it did a few weeks ago. I will reiterate that it is my great hope that none of this happens in the next four years, but it’s important to be clear-eyed about what’s at stake here. We must hope for the best but prepare for the worst. And in so doing, we must now realize that we have less than a few months until Donald Trump becomes president again. There is little time before we must all hold hands and dive into that abyss once more.

What Can We Count On?

Despite the catastrophic results of this election, there are centers of power in this country that we can rely on to meaningfully push back against the excesses of the incoming administration. It is now incumbent on every single person who stands against the agenda of the Trump administration to support those organizations, strengthen them as best we can, and advocate for them everywhere we can.

Blue States

There are still many states in this country like California, New York, Massachusetts, and others where Democrats have either a majority or at least significant sway. Even now, many of the governors and attorneys general of these states have come out with forceful statements pledging to both “Trump-proof” the hard-fought progressive gains that exist in these states but also push back against Trump where necessary. The legal system like before will be an important avenue for curbing this administration. The unfortunate reality is that the same system is now much friendlier to Trump than it was before. Nevertheless, there are still many avenues that exist both in state law and within various legal efforts for pushing back.

Civil Society

Numerous organizations outside the sphere of government are poised to push back against the cruelty of the incoming administration. Places like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), various universities, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), Planned Parenthood, and others should be supported and encouraged to push back against dangerous policies should they be implemented. It is my fervent hope that universities in particular, especially those in blue states, grow a spine and learn ways to push back against Republicans in a forceful way. How many college presidents do Republicans have to vilify for universities to get the message? There is nothing to be done that will please them. It is time to look for new avenues of support.

Media

It is also crucially important to support independent media and not only big national outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post but also state, region-specific, and local outlets. They are essential to holding power accountable, and they will be under attack more so than ever this time around.

Finally, it is vitally important that progressives and left-leaning folks actively seek out, build, and support blatantly progressive outlets and media enterprises. I plan on doing a whole post on this at a later date, but one of the main reasons that I feel Democrats get destroyed nationally is that we are constantly losing the battle when it comes to online information. The right has a massive network of propagandists at its disposal. We desperately need folks out there who can counter it.

What Should We Advocate For?

A better Democratic party.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, the current incarnation of the Democratic party isn’t working. It shouldn’t come as a surprise for most people. It’s a fact that has been simmering on the back burner for a few years. And now, it’s finally come into stark focus. What we have now just isn’t working. So another task over the next four years is to figure out why and reemerge as something new. Because in the world we live in now, where the swing states are getting redder and redder and we continue to see losses when it comes to not just non-college-educated, working-class white men but non-college-educated, working-class men of color as well if we don’t correct course in a significant way we are at high risk of being locked out of ever regaining control of the Senate or the Presidency for a long time.

Now, there are a lot of thoughts flying around about what the next Democratic party should look like and I would caution against listening to anyone who says they have it all figured out just yet. Some have called for better economic messaging, especially in red states. Others are calling for a “left-wing version of Joe Rogan.” Many hurl blame at Joe Biden. Some are quick to criticize Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and others for being out of touch. Some or all of this may be true, but what is also true is that there are still many weeks before all the data from this election will be available to analyze.

And don’t get me wrong. There are parts of the Democratic party that I believe still work great. There are individual good-faith passionate elected officials who are putting in the work, getting elected, and deserve support and encouragement. Also, many of the policy proposals of the party are quite popular as well. We’ve seen this consistently where Democrats get destroyed in red states only to have ballot measures concerning abortion, minimum wage, family leave, recreational marijuana, and other progressive proposals pass with a pretty healthy margin.

But it is now clearer than ever that there have to be changes.

That said, one change I do not want to see, and it is based on a take that I’ve heard echoed a few times in recent days is that since sexism and racism played a role in Kamala Harris’ loss, the Democrats shouldn’t consider running a woman or person of color again for a long time. I want to categorically reject that notion right now. That is the absolute wrong lesson to take from all of this and one that runs roughshod over what should be one of the core tenets of any incarnation of our party.

Diversity is still our strength. This is still a messy big tent. It has to be no matter what comes next.

The truth is that sometimes what’s right isn’t as popular as you might hope it to be, and when that’s the case, often the correct strategy isn’t changing or moderating what you believe is right but going out there and showing others why they should believe in what you know is right.

If in the pursuit of a perfect economic message that we can sell to working-class folks of all stripes, we lose or toss away our willingness to advocate for various marginalized groups of all stripes, to me that is just providing all the proof needed to so many that politics and those in power are as cynical and craven as those on the right claim. I’m an advocate of not doing the right’s work for them.

Ultimately, while some of the critiques on the way Democrats message themselves on the economy, I fully believe that there will be a woman president someday. And that someday there will be a black woman president too, and eventually, our leaders will start to look more and more like the diversity that already exists in our nation.

We can both advocate for a better economy and encourage inclusivity and respect at every level.

That is a goal worthy of a fight.

So What Should I Do?

Breathe.

Take the necessary time.

And then prepare. We are lucky in the sense that we have been here before. We have some muscle memory of what was necessary to prevent complete disaster the first time around. The unfortunate reality, though, is that this time around could be a lot worse for a lot more people. It is important to be ready, whatever your situation is especially if you fall into one of the categories of folks that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

That could look like any combination of the following or something else entirely depending on your situation:

• Making sure all legal documents are in order should the worst happen, whether it is arrest or deportation.
• Boosting up what steps you take to ensure that your digital information remains private. This is something that I think will become vitally important in the years ahead, especially as red states call for things like tracking women’s health data and monitoring social media. More on this in a later post.
• Planning a move, whether to a different state or another country entirely, is a perfectly valid idea, especially for those in particularly precarious situations.
• Determining what level of support you can offer various organizations doing important work on the ground.
• Figuring out how you or your organization can best keep people informed of what’s happening in this country.

There are many other factors to consider beyond this list, and I’ll work to put together a list of resources that covers the gamut. In the end, though, what I want everyone to think about over the next few months is a pair of questions.

How far am I willing to go when it comes to resisting the worst aspects of the Trump administration?

What am I willing to sacrifice when it comes to resisting the worst aspects of a Trump administration?

The answers to these questions will be different for everyone, but we all must answer them honestly.