44 Comments

Thank you. I'm feeling better and stronger after reading your post.

Expand full comment

And this will take years of devotion to correct .. we lost more than an election .. the majority voted in favor of a compromised, horrible man

Expand full comment

Something about love and devotion until we can regroup

https://youtu.be/ON_aQB986oc?si=9bTjMYivNc0VNmrz

Expand full comment

Failure, pure and simple. I don't see where I matter anymore. I don't see where any of us matter anymore. It's a shame that I've wasted time caring.

Expand full comment

Listen to Kamala's full concession speech, Charles- she made very clear that we are not done here and nothing we did was wasted. I think you'll find it energizing even in the midst of our sadness. Please take care of yourself! 🙏

Expand full comment

Your words ring true! The combination of racism and misogyny blossomed into a powerful movement! Disinformation, misinformation and propaganda created a monster! But, we’ve got to do more than wring our hands! That’s what they want us to do! Thank you, Ruth! I keep my copy of Strongmen close by to remind me that we must be vigilant and maintain our focus and faith in democracy!

Expand full comment

Today, the title of Ruth's post includes "Fighting Fascism by Building On..." The "building on" phrase catches my attention as it relates to "organizing around." The organizing around matter has troubled me for several years, the first time being my nine-month stint with Indivisible TX Lege in 2021. During that time, I became dumbfounded by the number of allied groups that shared values and exercised influence to varying degrees but were not individually politically powerful. In short, they were and are not movements. As the drift to authoritarianism progressed, I began to become more concerned that fighting authoritarianism demands building movements, not more silos, if we are to aggregate political power sufficient to save our democracy. Build movements, not silos. Movements have to be reckoned with.

Expand full comment

While the next days will be spent dissecting the election I want to call your attention to 3 important factors (1 described by Ruth, 2 mostly unacknowledged) that set the stage and fueled this tragedy. These are the deep undercurrents that MAGA exploited and the election proved these factors to be very real:

(1) USA is not ready for woman or another colored president. We now have proof that massive misogyny and racism percolate through America. (2). WEALTH INEQUALITY In the 1950's the CIA popularized the Gini Index (named after an Italian economist to describe the distribution of something among a population, where "0" means everyone has an equal amount and "1" indicates it it all concentrated in one person/unit's/country's hands) as a measure of a country's stability. The CIA determined an index over 40 portended civic unrest. For years the USA hovered over 35 (close to Mexico) and far above the Scandinavian countries (e.g. Sweden is at 30 in 2024). Obama with his tax on stock transactions and the ACA was the only President since the 1960's to lower our Gini. Since then especially with the Republican minimization of estate (“death”) taxes and the Trump tax cut, the USA Gini Index is now 42. Three Americans have more wealth than the bottom 50% of the population. Both American families and American government are being starved and the very rich have unprecedented raw power. The rich own the Supreme Court. Wealthy billionaires threw unprecedented gobs of money at Trump. As for Dems - under “neoliberalism” Clinton with NAFTA and Obama with failure to protect homes in the 2008-9 recession (itself the result of Republican and neoliberal deregulation) destroyed, alienated and ripped the heart out of middle America and the less wealthy. For the last 10 years, and on an accelerating basis, we have been watching massive wealth inequality playing out in real time - producing civic dysfunction and disorder whose engine is wealth inequality. OUCH! More than anything else this explains the panoramic dynamics of the MAGA movement. Watch Elon Musk, Betsy DeVos and Peter Thiel take over the country and the relatively peaceful domestic and world order will collapse. (3) POST PANDEMIC TRAUMA DISORDER - COVID-19, like most major pandemics in history, produced more individual, family and systemic insecurity, demoralization, fear and anger most of which was individualized and sub-rosa than was publicly dealt with or admitted (although Biden gave an incredibly wise and great shot at relief.) This malaise percolates on.

VOILA the USA - a failed democracy and fascist country by a huge popular vote!

Expand full comment

I sincerely believe we can regain our democracy, although it won’t be easy & will take time & hard work. During this campaign, a vast network of resistance workers was organized and can be activated in our continued fight against Fascism to restore the soul of our nation!

Expand full comment

The resistance begins. We are Americans and we will prevail.

Never forget those who gave their lives for us to be free

Expand full comment

D.O. Thank you! As a veteran and Army officer during Vietnam I swore an oath to the Constitution! I will never swear a loyalty oath to Mr Bone Spurs. I will resist everything about this coming Trumpian regime until my dying breath!

Expand full comment

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: All true, but one thing is for sure.

Kamala Harris more than fulfilled her role for us.

In a mere 107 days, she booted up a campaign from scratch and non-stop carried a battle of the Joyful Warrior with a charisma that matches everything that JFK and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy brought in 1960, when I was 12 years old, and is a living, strong memory to this 76-year old.

The greatest statesman in my life, Eleanor Roosevelt (also a vivid memory to me), coupled with JFK, and the great Civil Rights Leaders -- the unforgettable leaders in the 1950s and 1960s (MLK, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, John Lewis to name but a few) should have made the race-baiting tired and discarded, which Donald Trump sneers with echoes of Ross Barnett, Lester Maddox and George Wallace (all, again, vivid memories to me).

The Republicans have doubled down on Ross Barnett, Lester Maddox, and George Wallace, and they imagine themselves having invented a new coalition.

Well, we have seen this fight before, and Kamala Harris knows how to lead us over the next four years in the good fight.

I am very good at opposition, and I look forward to vigorous fighting for human dignity and equality for all.

Expand full comment

Ruth, somehow you became the voice in my life .. it was around Father’s Day .. and I sensed our misunderstanding about younger men and fatherhood and how they see the world is falling apart.. and I had to take a step back .. the electorate, by a very slim margin, could give an F that they are voting for a strongman ..

G

Expand full comment

one step at a time - once I get up

Expand full comment

Hell yeah, Ruth! To tell the truth, I was very despondent until I watched Kamal’s concession speech, which was the best concession speech I’ve ever seen. After Biden was sworn in, I told a lot of people who thought the nation was in the clear that “Trump isn’t going anywhere.” No one would believe me. Well, today, I thought to myself, ‘Kamala isn’t going anywhere.” That was the point in her speech where I began to heal and to steel myself for the dark journey ahead. Your essay today has also made me feel that hope and recovery of the national soul are not lost. Thank you for everything that you have done and all that you’re going to do for this wonderful country.

-John

Expand full comment

John….her concession speech made me steel my resolve to never, ever quit. RESISTANCE!

Expand full comment

Ruth - Thank you for validating what I was thinking. What are the best Resistance Movements to study?

Expand full comment

Ruth- you have been a godsend in my life as has been the Lucidite community. Thank you.

I have been immersed in all things Pro Democracy since 2000. More recently, nearly everyday since June. Yesterday I was a Pollworker in NC from 5:30 am until 9:30 pm. I looked at my phone as we prepared ballots and supplies. What I saw was shocking.

Like millions of Americans my phone has been blowing up all day. Strong, smart accomplished people are terrified. Me too.

Please Ruth help us make sense of what happened. Trump is a serial liar. He projects. Kamala filled stadiums. Trump told us in his last days who his deep sociopathic self was. So did JD and Elon and Mikey, Ivanka. They used the tool/strategy described as confusion.

Am I crazy to ask, how in God’s name he won the popular vote and blew out the electoral college?? Is this a case of lazy journalism? Why do we believe this happened? In 2020 MAGA loyalists overtly tried to overturn the election. They’ve learned. Was there manipulation in rural counties by MAGA loyalists across the country?

As time passes and no one answers, I can only conclude that this theory is preposterous.

All day today the blame game was ‘black, rural’ and Latino voters- of course without context. Steve Kornacki on MSNBC spoke of ‘shrinking’ suburban support without mentioning (offending)? white voter, especially white women. (52 % voted for MAGA).

Expand full comment

I am truly on the fence on how to cope with this tragedy. For those of us who are not very fluent socially, we have a challenge connecting with the community we will need in the times to come. Our public resources may be monitored and unsafe. I can only hope Trump is inept in his goals. but I fear those around him will be driving the outcomes. Not so afraid for myself, but millions of young and older women, immigrants and AA's are at risk. Will Trump try to close the borders so we can't leave?

Expand full comment

Thank you for your comment. I understand exactly what you’re describing. Further, bullying in schools is officially ‘licensed’. Who will protect children?

Expand full comment

Yes, children will be targeted, I have no doubt. Horrific.

Expand full comment