There was no greater issue facing the planet Earth this year than the defeat of Donald Trump. Everything takes a back-seat to that overriding concern. The pandemic, climate change, and racial and economic injustice are all important topics, but in order to adequately deal with them we first had to get rid of pr*sident Donald Trump.
And we have now accomplished that goal! We have defeated an authoritarian and thwarted his attempt at subverting American (and, perhaps, global) democracy. This magnificent achievement was in no way guaranteed. Trump was an incumbent president whose party has occupied the White House for only one term since the previous president from the opposition party. A fundamentals approach to this election indicated trump as a clear favorite. And, as has been well documented elsewhere, strongmen have succeeded quite well at the polls in other parts of the world - and they have done so in spite of poor economies and incompetent management of the pandemic (see Modi in India).
So we here in America should be rejoicing. And that brings up an important question: why aren't we? Yes, there were people literally out dancing in the streets to celebrate the Biden/Harris victory. And those people did, indeed, catch the true spirit of this great victory. But I'm referring more specifically to writers, columnists, bloggers, and journalists. The professional punditry has been astonishingly gloomy in the face of what should be a moment of entirely justified euphoria. I know that the Dems are unlikely to hold the Senate, and they're disappointed about the House of Rep results. But none of that is as important as the fact that trump was defeated.
Basically, the media, and that includes Dailykos, is blowing the narrative. And Narrative is important. This moment should be remembered as a time when the USA redeemed itself, and I would hasten to add that such moments are basically never unequivocal. Life just doesn't work that way. But in this case we have so much to celebrate and instead we're focusing to an alarming extent on the negative. And, if we continue to mess up the narrative so badly, this moment when America managed to overthrow a would-be dictator could ultimately come to be remembered as something less impressive than it actually is.
Look at these headlines below. They all were published after it was well-known (outside of Fox "news") that Biden was the winner. And they all come from major news outlets (including DailyKos). And yet if a reader did nothing else than just scan these headlines, he or she could quite easily come to the conclusion that trump had won the election:
America Is (Still) a Conservative Country
Liberals Have Some Soul-Searching to Do
Why the 2020 Election Makes It Hard to Be Optimistic About the Future
Is America Becoming a Failed State?
Trump overperformed the polls twice.
How Trump's Lawlessness Speeds the Pandemic
Why Didn’t America’s Worst President Lose in a Landslide?
Progressives Suffered Big Losses on California Ballot Issues
Was Late Shift to GOP About Polling Error or Late Deciders?
Our Trump-Traumatized Brains Need a Break. We Won’t Get One.
There’s No Way to Get Off the Trump Train
What Does the Left Do Now?
How Trump Changed America
Trump Is Winning. Democracy Is Losing.
This Election, Latinos Sent a Warning Sign to Democrats
71 Million People Voted for Trump. They’re Not Going Anywhere.
And here are some additional headlines that manage to acknowledge the victory of Biden/Harris, but put that victory in negative terms:
Will Biden’s Presidency Be a Wasted One?
Biden’s Win Won’t Matter if GA Makes McConnell Co-President
Biden Won — But The Deep Partisan Divide In America Remains
Trump may lose, but Trumpism hasn’t been repudiated
Trump or No Trump, Religious Authoritarianism Is Here to Stay
The Joe Biden I Knew Has Been Humbled
Some of these headlines are flat-out ridiculous. For God's sake, of course Biden's victory is going to matter. The re-election of trump would've been one of the greatest disasters not just in America's history, but in the history of human civilization. Dodging that bullet matters greatly, and that fact should be recognized.
Because narratives have influence. In fact, I strongly suspect that the emerging narrative of Republican strength and Democrat defeat (despite the victory of Biden/Harris!!!) could go a long way towards strengthening Republican obstructionism and limiting President Biden's effectiveness.
So get a grip. At least we here at the DailyKos can take steps to try and help remedy the situation. We should have headlines screaming from the rooftops about the joyous defeat of dictator trump. He has suffered an embarrassing defeat of world-historic import, and all of us should be reveling in that fact. Get to it!