The American left — or at least those comfortable voting for and identifying with members of the Democratic Party — is in the throes of their predictable mortification, self-flagellating atop their hair shirts.
Why wasn’t the massive turnout an obvious and immediate repudiation of the deeply racist and misogynist Trump? Why weren’t the numbers evidence of a blue tsunami in spite of the massive push for increased voter participation?
~eye roll~
We do this. It’s a standing joke. I don’t how many variations of this I’ve seen in Twitter today. Here’s a couple examples:
[trump squeaks out electoral college win while losing the popular vote]
GOP: our mandate is immense and total
[Biden rebuilds Blue Wall, flips Arizona, NE-2 and maybe Georgia & wins largest popular vote in history]
DEMS: oh no
— Jake Maccoby (@jdmaccoby) November 4, 2020
Joe Biden is probably going to be the next president and Dems are walking around like we took an L because of FUCKING POLLSTERS and the fact that REPUBLICANS try to make states not even COUNT Black people voting
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) November 4, 2020
We need to snap the fuck out of it. We didn’t get our heads on straight going into the count last night, and we weren’t ready for Trump’s fascist bullshit lie claiming victory.
We are winning the White House. We are going to take back the entire executive branch, including new cabinet members who aren’t wholly corrupt motherfuckers (Jesus, Wilbur Ross is still serving on the board of a Chinese bank even though he’s been called out in the media about it).
We’re going to have a new attorney general and a civil rights division which will do more than sit on its thumbs and spin.
Investigations which have been corruptly shuttered or squelched before they could launch will begin.
We might stand a chance at making traction against climate change; we might even rejoin the Paris Agreement from which the U.S. formally withdrew yesterday.
We won’t immediately regain the trust of allies and trading partners, let alone the rest of the world, but a new competent and ethical secretary of state will make letters like this one sent out yesterday look less like a fucking joke.
U.S. Embassy Statement on Côte d’Ivoire’s Presidential Election pic.twitter.com/21UWgg1oTR
— U.S. Embassy Abidjan (@USEmbAbidjan) November 4, 2020
We know we are about to win once the votes have been counted. We’re just waiting for the pretty red bow on top.
Act like it.
~ ~ ~
The Senate doesn’t look good. This I have to admit. It will make the next two years hell especially while trying to stem a pandemic.
But there are some very bright spots, achievements worth celebrating.
Justice Democrats kept all their incumbents including The Squad. They also picked up three more seats for their organization:
Raúl Grijalva AZ-03
Ro Khanna CA-17
Ayanna Pressley MA-07
Rashida Tlaib MI-13
Ilhan Omar MN-05
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez NY-14
Pramila Jayapal WA-07
Cori Bush MO-01 (replaces Democrat William Lacy Clay Jr.)
Jamaal Bowman NY-16 (replaces Democrat Elliot Engel)
Marie Newman IL-03 (replaces Democrat Dan Lipinski)
Bush is the first woman of color to serve in Congress from her state.
Except for Newman, these Justice Democrats are all persons of color from a broad range of ethnic backgrounds. This is the future of the Democratic Party.
They are literally the future as they phased out more traditional, centrist Democrats.
Celebrate the arrival of more fresh faces, more new blood to the House of Representatives, bringing a more progressive perspective.
Also worth celebrating:
— Six indigenous Americans are now representatives elect;
— New Mexico’s congressional caucus is entirely women of color;
— 115 women of color ran for Congress this election, 82 of which were Democrats;
— Four Indian Americans won seats in Congress.
Change is coming. It’s not as fast as we’d like but some of that’s on us.
We should still celebrate it loudly, joyously. We should make it clear the changes are exactly what our government of, by, and for the people needs — it should represent us, it should look like us.
~ ~ ~
Lastly, drugs. All the drugs. Drugs won big last night.
At least we’ve won this:
Arizona- recreational MJ
Montana- recreational MJ
New Jersey- recreational MJ
South Dakota- recreational MJ
South Dakota- medical MJ
Mississippi- medical MJ
Oregon- psilocybin therapy
Oregon- decriminalize all drugs
D.C.- decriminalize psychedelic plants— Lauren Pespisa (@SplendidSpoon) November 4, 2020
I’ll admit I’m a bit hesitant to embrace decriminalizing every drug, but I haven’t read Oregon’s ballot initiative which does so. I’m good with the rest; we need to end the carceral state which in a large part is built upon drug-related convictions. We need to end the War on Drugs which has cost us a fortune we could spend on other public services while it both creates conflict in other nations and bolsters militarization of law enforcement.
Once again, change is coming.
~ ~ ~
What other good news do you have? Feel free to share it in comments.
~ ~ ~
UPDATE-1 — 8:30 PM ET —
NBC and several other outlets called the Michigan Senate race for incumbent Democrat Gary Peters. The margin of votes flipped back and forth through the day and ended somewhere around 47,000 votes. In no small part was this a win for Black Michiganders who cast votes for Peters and then worked diligently to count the mail-in ballots yielding Peters’ win.
We’re not deterred.
The Black vote in Detroit was higher than it’s ever been.
Black people – from Milwaukee to Detroit to Philly – we will determine the outcome of this election. We've gone from picking cotton to picking presidents.”#Election2020 pic.twitter.com/SyDsyZRbdi
— Devita Davison (@DevitaDavison) November 4, 2020
Change is coming.