November 6, 2024 ❧ Election results special! 

Trump has won, but all is not lost. 

Can we offer you some news in these trying times?

OOPS, ALL SICKOS! The Election Special

❧ Well, Trump won. 

By now, you’ve almost certainly seen the election results—and if you haven’t, we’re sorry to be the ones breaking this news. But it’s happened: barring a McDonald’s-induced heart attack between now and January, Donald J. Trump is going to be president again, becoming the only person since Grover Cleveland to serve two non-consecutive terms. If he keeps his awful campaign promises, he’ll usher in a reign of right-wing terror across the country, deporting millions of immigrants, letting cops off the leash to be even more violent, destroying any climate regulation he can get his hands on, crashing the economy with his ridiculous tariff plan, persecuting LGBTQ people, and enacting the Heritage Foundation’s scheme to crush Palestine activism. There’s a disturbingly high chance he’ll also start a war with Iran somewhere along the way. His White House will be a parade of killer clowns, from Elon Musk to Betsy Devos to Stephen Miller. There’s no way to sugarcoat it; it’s going to be a bad time. 

But it takes two to usher in far-right rule: one to run on a platform that’s basically just fascism, and one to mount such a pathetic opposition that the authoritarian cruises to victory. We didn’t think it was possible, but Kamala Harris and her team actually did worse than Hillary Clinton in 2016. At the time of writing, Trump has a lead of almost 5 million in the popular vote, which a Republican has not won since 2004, as well as winning the electoral college. By all rights, the race should never have been close. Trump was convicted of 34 felonies during his campaign, was found liable in a rape lawsuit, picked the least popular running mate in recent memory, and spent a lot of his time hawking commemorative sneakers and babbling about Hannibal Lecter. He didn’t win because he ran a good campaign; he won because Harris and the Democratic Party fell flat on their collective face. 

This is not the narrative the liberal press will try to sell you. In an already-infamous clip, MSNBC’s Joy Reid claimed Harris had run a “flawless” campaign, and that her downfall came simply because America is racist and sexist. There’s a grain of truth in that; America is pretty racist and sexist, and that probably caused a drag on Harris’s numbers. But her tepid, centrist campaign was anything but flawless, and at Current Affairs, we’ve been trying to warn Democrats about it for months now. Just take a look through the archives: 

• “Democrats, Contempt Will Not Win You the Election” — Stephen Prager, May 16
• “Moving Right on Immigration is Both Cruel and Politically Reckless” — Stephen Prager, June 14
• “It’s a Bad Idea for Harris to Abandon Progressive Policies” — Alex Skopic and Nathan J. Robinson, August 6
• “An Endorsement from Dick Cheney is Nothing to be Proud Of” — Alex Skopic, September 10
• “Is Kamala Blowing it?” — Nathan J. Robinson, October 23

The answer to that last question, clearly, was a big fat YES. On her blog, Current Affairs editor-at-large Yasmin Nair even predicted this outcome, writing on August 23—the height of the nauseating “politics of joy” period—that “Kamala Harris Will Lose”:

The Harris campaign is taking American voters for granted.  The DNC, described perfectly by my friend S. as a “fuzzy, woke Triumph of the Will,” saw the reappearance of dinosaurs like Hillary Clinton, and an overall smug and arrogant attitude that voters should vote for Harris because they have no choice. But that’s exactly what brought down Clinton in 2016: “I’m the last thing standing between you and the Apocalypse.” Voters told Clinton where to go then, and Harris shows an even greater arrogance[…]

This should be a lesson for everyone: listen to intelligent leftist writers like Nair, and ignore liberals like Joy Reid. For people who are not partisan Democratic hacks, the weaknesses of the Harris campaign were obvious from the start, and they all fell under the banner of “tacking to the right.” For some godforsaken reason, the Democratic leadership believed there was a constituency of moderate Republicans—Nikki Haley voters, perhaps—that would push them over the edge to victory, if they just made it clear that Harris had no intention of doing anything leftist or “woke” in office. And so Harris abandoned her past commitments to Medicare for All and a federal jobs guarantee, both of which remain enormously popular with voters. She aligned herself with billionaire donors like Mark Cuban, who praised her for swearing off “progressive and liberal principles,” and refused to say whether she’d bow to their pressure to fire antitrust crusader Lina Khan. She promised to put a Republican in her cabinet, and hit the campaign trail with Liz Cheney—a consistent opponent of abortion rights, which should have been Harris’s strongest issue.

On Gaza—the most important moral crisis of our time, in which children are being blown to bits daily—Harris was a complete disgrace. She openly said that weapons shipments for Israel to “defend itself” were “not going to change,” refused to meet with members of the Uncommitted movement (or even let a Palestinian American speak at the DNC!), sent Ritchie Torres to Michigan to proclaim how firmly Zionist she is, and scolded anti-genocide protesters with a smug “I’m speaking.” 

Well, she’s done speaking now. Predictably, all of the above alienated Muslim and Arab American voters, along with young people and anyone with a conscience generally. And the painstaking effort to cater to conservatives resulted in exactly nothing: zip, zero, zilch. In fact, it’s actually worse than nothing, as Harris lost Republican supporters compared to Joe Biden: 

(Image: Stats for Lefties, from CNN data)

This shouldn’t be surprising. Logically, it makes no sense that Republicans who care about things like border enforcement or pro-Israel foreign policy would switch to Harris en masse. They already get those things from the GOP, so they don’t need or want Republican Lite. What’s more, changing to a more right-wing position in an effort to win conservative voters just makes you look cynical and untrustworthy. Donald Trump is successful in part because, although he lies constantly, he’s actually consistent about many of his core ideas: always anti-immigrant, always pro-police, always anti-China, always promising to “bring the jobs back.” Harris can’t say the same. 

Oh, and before anyone tries: no, you can’t blame third-party voters for any of this. Jill Stein got a whopping 0.4 percent of the national vote, and only did slightly better in Michigan—her strongest state—with 0.8 percent. Even if you added every single Stein voter to Harris’s total, and all of Cornel West and Claudia de la Cruz’s, they wouldn’t make up her deficit. So the “blame the left” narrative is a complete non-starter. 

As we say, the coming years are going to be rough. If there is going to be an effective resistance to Donald Trump and his worst right-wing policies, it will not come from liberal pundits on MSNBC, and it will not come from the Democratic Party leadership. They have failed. We have to build a fighting left-wing movement in this country, one that’s capable not only of defeating Trump and his billionaire allies, but making life better for millions of Americans, so demagogues like him have no more fear and desperation to prey on. Now is the moment to find a socialist, anarchist, green or anti-war group near you, or to start one. They will be badly needed. Now is the time to unionize your workplace, so you and your fellow workers will have the power to say no to exploitation and abuse. Now is the time to reach out to your friend, classmate, or relative who was deceived into voting for Trump, and help them see through his lies. Now is the moment to think about what you can do in your neighborhood to prevent Trump’s policies from being carried out. As the old song goes: Don’t mourn. Organize. 

Part of the fight will be building independent left-wing media outlets, ones that will tell you the truth and counter the flood of bile pouring from Fox News and Elon Musk’s X (the Everything App)—along with the self-flattering pablum about how “flawless” Democrats are from CNN and MSNBC. Here at Current Affairs, we’ve been trying to do exactly that. But at the risk of sounding cliché, we can’t do it without your support. If you’d like to help us expose lies, push for change, and generally make Donald Trump’s life hell, a subscription or donation goes a long way, and the links are below. 

SILVER LININGS

It’s not all bad—just, you know, mostly bad. There are a few positive developments from around the country that show how unpopular right-wing ideas really are, and that offer good foundations to build on. For instance…

• Ten states held referendums to protect abortion rights, and in seven, they passed! A few of the states, like New York, Colorado, and Maryland, already have strong abortion protections. But voters also approved pro-choice amendments in Montana, Missouri, Arizona, and Nevada, where the law is much more restrictive. In Florida, South Dakota, and Nebraska, voters rejected amendments to protect abortion, making them the first states to do so since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. However, abortion rights in Florida actually received 57 percent support, a clear majority; it’s only the anti-democratic requirement that ballot measures get 60 percent support that made this one fail, preserving the state’s six-week ban. (NBC)
  
  
• Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib both won re-election by commanding margins: 75.2 percent of the vote for Omar in Minnesota, and 69.7 percent for Tlaib in Michigan, both states where Harris failed to win. For Omar, that’s a gain of almost a full point over her 2022 result, and as Matthew Sledge points out for the Intercept, Tlaib did nearly twice as well as Harris in Dearborn. 

Oh look, real leadership. (Image: Maktoob Media)

• In Kentucky, voters overwhelmingly rejected Constitutional Amendment 2, which would have legalized spending tax money on vouchers for private, religious, and charter schools. It turns out people like universal, free public services, and don’t like having them chipped away for profit! (Lexington Herald-Leader)
  
  
• Sarah McBride became the country’s first openly transgender member of Congress, defeating a former cop named John Whalen III with 57.9 percent of the vote in Delaware. As a former Obama staffer she’s a little centrist for our liking, but having a trans person in government to fight back against Republicans’ anti-LGBTQ nonsense is a big step forward. (NPR)
  
  
• North Carolina will fortunately not be led by a self-described “black NAZI,” as Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson lost his race to Democrat Mark Stein. So while you can use the rhetoric of a Nazi and still win, calling yourself one is still a bridge too far. (New York Times)

THE SENATE

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

❧ Unfortunately, we only have so many silver linings to offer. Along with Trump’s victory, Republicans also over-performed expectations in the Senate and, as of Wednesday afternoon, have locked up at least a 52-seat majority, with potentially more on the way. 

We got a few big results last night, all of which were good for Republicans:

• OHIO: Sherrod Brown’s luck finally ran out last night, and so goes one of the more progressive members of the U.S. Senate. While not quite Bernie Sanders, Brown did have a progressive and strongly pro-labor record (famously driving a union-made car and wearing union-made suits).  He was defeated by Bernie Moreno, a Trumpy car dealership owner flush with cash from the cryptocurrency industry, which he has promised to totally de-regulate. (GOP Pickup)

• MONTANA: Running one of the worst campaigns in recent memory was not enough to sink Republican Tim Sheehy. Despite making racist remarks about the state’s large Native American population, calling people who care about abortion “indoctrinated,” making up a story about being shot in Afghanistan (when, in fact, he shot himself accidentally in a national park), and allegedly stealing millions from his former employees, Sheehy was still able to comfortably defeat Democratic incumbent John Tester. (GOP Pickup)

• WEST VIRGINIA: Former Governor Jim Justice decisively locked up Joe Manchin’s old seat, replacing one corrupt coal baron with an even richer and somehow more corrupt coal baron. At least this means Babydog will get to go to Washington, which is probably very exciting for her.  (GOP Pickup)

(Image: Babydog Justice via Twitter)

• TEXAS: It seemingly doesn’t matter what Ted Cruz does. Even flying to Cancun while his constituents suffered from a devastating blizzard in 2021 was not enough. Voting against capping insulin prices, trying to cut Social Security, and pushing to raise the retirement age was not enough either. He won re-election over challenger Colin Allred by about 10 points. (GOP Hold)

• NEBRASKA: The hype around labor leader Dan Osborn—an independent who focused almost totally on economic populism and took a “libertarian” approach to social issues—turns out to have been overblown, as incumbent Deb Fischer is on track to beat him comfortably. (GOP Hold)

Apparently, voters are just not ready for a candidate who wields a blowtorch in his campaign ads. (Image: WOWT via YouTube)

• WISCONSIN: Tammy Baldwin, who has quietly been one of the most progressive Democratic senators, beat out her mustachioed MAGA challenger Eric Hovde by just under a point. The Associated Press has called this race, but Hovde has thus far refused to concede defeat. (Dem Hold)

A few big Senate races are yet to be decided:

• NEVADA: Republican challenger and Afghanistan vet Sam Brown leads by an eyelash over the largely bland and inoffensive Democratic incumbent Jacky Rosen, who some polls expected to win by double digits. Brown’s constant flip-flopping on abortion has been a defining aspect of his run, but it was not enough to hurt him. 
  
  
• MICHIGAN: Democratic incumbent and former CIA officer Elissa Slotkin, meanwhile, holds a narrow lead over her opponent Mike Rogers, a one-time Trump critic who has since kissed the ring. 
  
  
• PENNSYLVANIA: Longtime Democratic Senator Bob Casey is narrowly trailing Dave McCormick, who formerly ran a hedge fund rife with sexual harassment.
  
  
• ARIZONA: Kari Lake is still too weird to win a statewide race. She is currently losing by three points to Democrat Ruben Gallego, who would be a massive improvement over the seat’s previous occupant Kyrsten Sinema. Knowing Lake, there is essentially a 100 percent chance she will claim that her loss was due to a vast conspiracy and not due to her being one of the most off-putting individuals in all of politics. 

THE HOUSE

❧ With the Senate in firm Republican control, the only potential buffer against Trump being able to do essentially whatever he wants would be a Democratic House. Right now, that is still a possibility, but a distant one. So far, Republicans have flipped at least three seats to their side, but will likely be dealing with a similarly slim majority should they pull out a victory. If Democrats have any hope to take the chamber, they will need to flip some currently red-leading seats—likely in California and Pennsylvania. 

REFERENDA

• On the question of slavery, opinion was divided. Nevada and California were both given popular sovereignty to decide on whether to abolish slavery for prisoners—which, as we discussed at length in a previous briefing, is still somehow a thing. Nevada voters chose to abolish slavery, while California voted to maintain it. 
  
  
• California voters—egged on by a coalition of real-estate lobbyists and YIMBY activists— also rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed municipalities to put caps on rent prices. Isn’t California supposed to be full of radical communists or something? What is going on in this state? (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• A bunch of states—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Montana and South Dakota—held votes on whether to institute ranked-choice voting, and all of them failed. Meanwhile, Missouri passed a referendum banning ranked-choice voting and Alaska may pass one too. (Washington Post)

DONKEY and ELEPHANT FACT OF THE WEEK

In honor of Election Day, we’re bringing you two animal facts, both for creatures far greater than the parties they represent.

First off: Donkeys. There is such a thing as a “zonkey” (or “zedonk”), which is a mix between a donkey and a zebra. These animals are closely related enough that they can breed with one another, but zonkeys are extraordinarily rare. 

As for elephants, they can hear with their feet! In addition to the high-frequency trumpeting, you’re probably familiar with, elephants emit a low-frequency growl that travels for miles across the grounds of the savanna. Using receptors in their feet which transmit signals to the brain and ears other elephants are able to hear it and tell who might be nearby. This can be extremely useful for detecting danger—if an elephant hears a sound with its ears, then it knows trouble is nearby. But by sensing it through their feet, they can detect it from as many as five or six miles off. (Unlike their ears, though, elephant feet do not have a delightful pastry named after them.)

"Hello, Botswana. I'm listening." (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Writing and research by Stephen Prager and Alex Skopic. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.

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