Archive for November, 2024

A Mostly Unedited List of Thoughts About The 2024 US Election on November 6, 2024

  • I still miss Shakesville.
  • Constantly needling Trump in the public eye about people leaving his rallies may have been satisfying for those doing it, knowing it would be getting under his skin, knowing his ego is so tender and delicate that he’d be bothered by a nothing observation of that kind. But it also looked petty and unkind. Being petty and unkind doesn’t do anything to convince the people who don’t already agree with you that they should. People were going to his rallies (and leaving the house on a weekday evening for a political rally is a pretty strong indicator of engagement). If they left early, it’s because they didn’t need to stay to be convinced. I’m not saying it was morally wrong, but it always seemed to me to be a pretty poor and divisive tactic.
  • There’s an extremely funny joke about Americans being willing to use literally any system of measurement other than metric (“It was the size of a bear!” “It weighed as much as two volkswagon beetles!”). For some reason, that idea in my mind is now connected to the much less funny idea that the majority of americans are also willing to elect literally anyone other than a woman. No data on that, and the misogyny was a little (only a little) more subtle than in the Clinton candidacies, but still.
    • Not that Canadians are any different on that one, even if they’re rarely going to say it out loud. Kim Campbell counts as a woman Prime Minister, of course she does. But not as a woman Prime Minister who was the leader of her party during an election and elected in that fashion (she was elected leader of her party when her party was already in power, in a move very much in line with the way that women are given power at the moment when all is lost ). And there hasn’t even been a chance to put your vote towards the project of electing a woman Prime Minister since the 90s. We’re not better on this point. Which is also sad.
  • There is a human cost to this result. There usually is, because politics, in the end, matters very very much. But big loud politics isn’t the only way to make the world better or worse. Each of us, each day, affects those around us, makes the world around us better or worse. At times like this, it can seem very much not enough. But it’s a lot better than nothing. Look for the helpers, as Mr. Rogers says, but also, look for the quiet sad folks around the edges of the room and be a helper yourself.
  • It’s important to not be pushed by circumstances or politics into being a worse person than you want to be. I try to hold onto that.
  • That’s not to say that certain things don’t feel a bit hopeless and sad. They do.
  • I’m very concerned about my queer and especially trans community south of the border. A scapegoat is a very dangerous thing to be, especially in times of prolonged economic uncertainty.
  • Pregnant and birthing people in the US are not benefited by the results of this election. Reproductive rights will continue to take a beating and more pregnant people will die, murdered by their state. This is not and has never been okay.
  • I’m worried about next year’s Canadian federal election and whether the US election results will turn out to be in any way predictive. I hope not. But the federal liberals seem unlikely to hold the government and with the rightward shift more generally… As usual, a lot will depend upon Ontario and Quebec.
    • Knowing the election was decided before they even start counting your votes in British Columbia is an exciting (?) element of any Canadian federal election.
  • At the same time, I’m cautiously encouraged by at least some of the results of the recent BC provincial election. We are also increasingly polarized, but the gap between Conservative and NDP candidates was surprisingly small in some ridings, and the NDP hung onto a majority. Barely, but still. We lost a green seat, but kept two of them. Not that the NDP are perfect, of course. But of the available options, I’m glad they’re the government.
  • I’m tired.

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