We just won a major election, in a landslide. With each passing day they count more votes, and Biden’s vote count is almost at 80 million. We turned two red states into blue states on the presidential level. We are going to have one of the most diverse and competent administrations we’ve had in a long while. So many Trump policies will finally be rolled back. The damage may not ultimately be undone, but at the very least, DACA recipients can rest easy, migrants will be dealt with more humanely, people who believe COVID is real are in charge, and a vaccine is on the way. Things are going to be awful for a while, but I did not want to suffer 4 more years of Trump. I hate his scowl, I hate his idiotic children, and I hate the fact that thousands of Americans suffered and died needlessly because of his incompetence. We have a good shot at parity in the senate.
But are we acting like it? I don’t see it. Because it wasn’t a blow out on all levels, we are talking like we’ve lost. We’re still talking about “reaching out” to Trump voters and lamenting about how certain states have become red states and Democrats lost a few seats in the house (many of which were flipped in the midterm and are in conservative areas). We want to burn pollsters at the stake and we’re not talking about the exciting ideas we have about energy, the social contract, new relationships between police and citizenry, reaching out internationally, and making necessary reforms. We’re turning on people like AOC who have done great things, and at the same time pretending like people like Elissa Slotkin don’t have a place in the party.
We are NOT going to reach everyone. Not everyone wants to be reached. They LIKE thinking that you and I are socialists. They LIKE thinking that you and I are witless supporters of cannibals and pedophiles. They LIKE conspiracy theories and fear mongering, like a warm blanket. People dying of COVID doesn’t mean anything to them. It’s not economics. There are some mean, hateful, anti-social people out there who LIKE causing harm and do not care if other people suffer.
In our pre-election survey on the strength of Americans’ social networks, we found that nearly one in five Americans (17 percent) reported having no one they were close with, marking a 9 percentage point increase from 2013.1 What’s more, we found that these socially disconnected voters were far more likely to view Trump positively and support his reelection than those with more robust personal networks.
That is sad. That is depressing. Frightening, in a way. Many of these people don’t have close friends because their personality repels people, which in turn destroys any ability they have to have a friend of any kind. But that is not something a progressive agenda necessarily fixes. Talking to these people about bread and butter issues does not make them less anti-social. They LIKE the idea of poor people receiving no assistance and think that no one should be helped at all.
Biden has the support of a majority of Americans. We live in the areas of the country that are economically vibrant, with culture and social connections. We’re the PRODUCTIVE ONES. Let’s start talking up how awesome and competent our side is. How we’re going to right this ship. How we’re going to deal with the rest of the world, to learn from it and grow. If the Trump voters and regressives don’t want to go into the future, that’s their problem. For some of them that want to listen, great, for those that don’t, stop obsessing over them.