To move forward from a traumatic election, it’s time to say goodbye to some worn-out beliefs

When I was a kid, I was enthralled by stories of desperate or restless families in the 1800s packing up everything they owned and moving from the East Coast to the West via covered wagon. Inevitably, in these often grim adventure narratives, there would come a moment, right before a treacherous mountain passage, in which the families would have to abandon many of their most precious possessions in order to go forward — the hope chest that had been in the family for generations, Grandma’s wedding dress, Dad’s cedar rocking chair. 

When Donald Trump was swept into the presidency for the second time in last week’s election, I thought of those families, and how painful it must have been to say goodbye to such heirlooms. For the millions of Americans who voted against Trump, the four years ahead look as dark and foreboding as the wintry Rocky Mountains must have looked to those intrepid but vulnerable travelers. And to make it through to the other side intact, this might be the moment to take stock of our own precious little packages, and bid farewell to many of them. 

In my many years as a politically aware American, in my travels through the Reagan Range, the Gingrich Gap, the Obama Valley and beyond, there are a few cherished notions I’ve kept close to my heart. These are the ideas and ideals that have sustained me to this point. But today, maybe it’s time to pull each of them out of the wagon and hurl them into the grass. To borrow from Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” I can’t use ’em anymore:

— The Democratic Party has broad mainstream support. Uh, yeah, about that. The Harris campaign’s slogan “When We Vote, We Win” has a devastating flip side. When millions of registered Dems stay home and millions of Latino voters bail on you, you might have a message and a messenger problem. When Harris said in her concession speech, “When we lose an election, we accept the result,” that wasn’t the mic drop she thought it was. 

— At least in the long view, Martin Luther King Jr. got it right. This one hurts, but it turns out MLK had it backwards when he said “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Ever since his death, it sure looks like, at least from here in the cheap seats, that arc has consistently bent towards fear, delusion and self-interest. The good news is the arc is still bendable. It’s just going to take a lot more effort and energy to get it to point where it doesn’t naturally want to go.

— The overturning of Roe v. Wade will have a seismic effect on the electorate and outraged women will make the GOP pay dearly. In the great lurch rightward, I always assumed there would come a point when the broad American middle would stand up and say “Enough!,” and I thought Roe was that flash point. Where is that point now? Finding it might be as frustrating as the search for the Northwest Passage.

— The biggest sin in American political culture is sticking around too long. People from all parts of the political spectrum are sick and tired of Trump’s act and are ready to move on. This might be true to a certain degree, but clearly Americans are just as sick of the Dems’ act, too. I mean, if you can’t bring down this particularly aimless, crippled, bloated antelope, maybe you’re not the killer jungle cat you think you are. Maybe you’re just tired, toothless and declawed. 

— Younger generations will save us. There’s been a certain demographic complacency that has taken hold with liberals/progressives in recent years, that once these deranged and addled boomers are out of the way, younger Americans will wise up and set things straight again. Turns out, zoomers are an independent voting bloc after all, and don’t seem to be too interested in throwing the rest of us a life preserver. 

— The U.S. is ready for a female president. For the second time in eight years, a capable woman was beaten in the general election by a guy who could be a cartoon character for phony performative masculinity. Trump was clearly comfortable making the election about gender. Harris was not.

— “The fever will break.” This is, of course, a famous Obama-ism in reference to right-wing agitation dating way back in 2012. How’s that sound right about now? Who could have guessed that referring to people’s political rage as a momentary fever would come off as condescending? Actually, I think I threw this one out quite a ways back down the road.

— Campaigns matter. The losing candidate was focused and disciplined. She sat for hostile interviews. She won the sole debate. She snagged endorsements across the board, from legacy media to influential celebs. She colored inside the lines and checked all the boxes. The winning candidate was sloppy, vulgar and incoherent, broke every previously established rule of a successful campaign, improvised most of his campaign, avoided confrontation, behaved more like a stand-up comic than a presidential candidate and didn’t even bother with policy questions. None of it mattered. How any campaign consultant can apply for a job again with a straight face is beyond me. 

— Thoughtful, historically informed journalism moves the needle. Well, there’s a knee-slapper. Yes, I’ve been a sucker for the sober essays from the big thinkers and literati from the most lofty perches of journalism. I dutifully heeded The Atlantic’s “If Trump Wins” special issue and the dramatic type-face graphics of the New York Times Opinion page. But that just makes me a ponderous old dinosaur. Whatever megaphone such legacy media outlets once possessed has long been drowned out by the noise of the new media environment. This is Joe Rogan’s world now. 

— The U.S. Constitutional system is just too strong and durable to cave to authoritarianism. Until the Supreme Court decides otherwise, which it has now done. 

— Americans understand the basics of supply/demand economics. Trump succeeded in tying inflation neatly around the Biden/Harris administration’s neck, though the inflationary spiral was global and clearly a result of the pandemic supply-chain crisis and would have happened similarly under any administration. Still, people are hurting and they simply don’t want to hear from libs and know-it-all experts, “Actually, it’s a bit more nuanced than that.” Sometimes simplicity and directness is more effective than the messy, complicated truth. The Dems could have tried to tie the whole pandemic trauma around Trump’s neck. There are times to play fair, and there are times to pick up a broken beer bottle in a bar fight. Dems don’t do bar fights. Americans clearly prefer someone who does.

— Certainly having experienced Trump’s first term, most Americans would never choose to endure that again. Maybe there’s a critical mass of Americans who just want to sit back and watch the whole shebang collapse, just for entertainment’s sake. But I doubt it. I think people have largely forgotten the details of Trump’s first term. It was on the Democrats to make us relive the trauma and chaos of 2017-21 again, and they simply failed to do it. 

— “This is not who we are.” It’s the mantra that Democrats have repeated again and again since the left/right culture wars of the Clinton years. For me, this one is the toughest one to throw away. The notion that Americans are inherently good people is at the core of my orientation as a U.S. citizen. How do I function in the world unmoored from that basic idea? Still, the numbers of the 2024 election are a cold, bracing reality check. Through all the lies, the felonies, the rape convictions, the dog whistles and threats of violence, the slurs against everyone from American soldiers to transgender people, for most Americans, none of those things were a deal-breaker. That is who we are. 

— America will survive this. OK, on second thought, I think I’ll hold onto this one, and try not to think about the Donner Party.

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