I have a lot of emotions today — but mostly what I feel is shock. None of this makes sense. None of the polling or projections gave us even a hint this was possible. I mean, we knew it was possible — but it just doesn’t seem real.
This may be a little all over the place, sorry for that.
I wrote many times that the “issues” that Trump was running on — Immigration, Inflation, the Economy, Crime, Energy Production — are all already solved. There isn’t anything for him to do if he was serious about correcting and “fixing it.” The mission is already accomplished.
I argued that this was the strongest point to make in favor of Harris. But even here, that message didn’t gain any traction. That argument wasn’t made by the campaign. No one in the media made that point.
And now we are, where we are. We have a very bleak future staring back at us — on Justice Reform, on Climate Change, on Democracy and Fascism.
Donald Trump is still a convict. Donald Trump is still a Fraud. Donald Trump is still guilty of defamation and sexual assault. And Donald Trump is still a Fascist.
Despite the whining demands of sycophants like Scott Jennings — we have no reason to apologize for saying so, because we were right.
"I believe Donald Trump is a fascist!" Sellers said. "I believe that democracy is at risk but I also believe that American voters came out and chose that! That's how this thing works!"
The accusations of fascism against Trump originally came from former members of his own administration, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, former chief of staff John Kelly, and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, all of whom have said he poses a threat to America's constitutional order.
Panelist Karen Finney also chimed in to note Trump's long history of dehumanizing his political opponents and never backtracking, such as when he said immigrants were "poisoning the blood" of the nation.
Nonetheless, Finney said that Harris should concede the election to Trump because those are the rules of democracy, despite the fact that Trump broke those rules four years earlier by trying to illegally remain in power after losing to President Joe Biden.
"Good luck to the fascist?!" Jennings exclaimed. "Do you understand how crazy that sounds?!"
He then chided Harris for calling Trump a fascist and said that she should tell her voters that she really didn't mean what she said about him being a danger to the republic.
She did mean it, because he is exactly that danger to the republic and the world.
In this segment Shermichael Williams makes the counter-argument that it has been the Right who have been frightened of Joe Biden because we “don’t understand them”, we attacked “their way of life”, “what they believe (allegedly)”, “who they are as people” because people in DC, the Left Coast and a “lot of progressives don’t understand them” and that “instead of making the effort to understand you’ve called them Racists, and Bigots and Uneducated. and they cling to their guns and the Bibles etc...”
I get that idea. I understand that many people who voted yesterday were motivated by fear. “Terror” even that they were losing their way of life.
That’s the chief motivation for those on the Right. Fear. Panic. Paranoia. That’s why they attacked the Capitol on January 6 — Fear.
Look at how they reacted when they thought Biden had called them “garbage” (which he didn’t) —
Rubio: Moments ago Joe Biden stated that our supporter are “garbage.”
[Boos]
He’s talking about the Border Patrol. He’s talking about Nurses, he's talking about Teachers, he’s talking about every day Americans who love their country and want to dream big again for you Mr. President. And I hope their campaign is about to apologize for what Joe Biden just said. We are not garbage, we are Patriots who love America and thank you for running Mr. President.
Yeah, but Trump can call us “absolute garbage”, “vermin”, “scum”, “insane”, and “sick.” They can attack migrants and falsely claim their “eating the cats and eating the dogs” they criticize Jews, they’ve called Black people “criminals” and “not that bright”, they’ve attacked Latinos calling them “Rapists and Murderers”, they’ve threatened Gen. Milley with treason and Liz Cheney with a Military Tribunal and firing squad, they’ve put LGBTQ people at extreme risk and sent bomb threats to children’s hospitals.
Don't think we don’t understand them, we understand them perfectly.
They willfully believe a pack of lies. They are truly afraid. Fear won last night. Hate won. Paranoia won. Lies won.
And that fear is fueled by Entitlement. They think they are the “chosen ones" who by natural right deserve to control the country. If they can suppress enough of the vote and confuse women and minorities they can get away with it. That’s the reality.
But this country was built by immigrants and the disenfranchised. The blood and sweat of the enslaved. Chinese migrants on the railroads. Italian and Irish migrants in the coal mines. Black Cavalry (Buffalo Soldiers) in the Indian Wars. The Tuskegee Airmen. The Code-Talkers of World War II. Japanese Citizens who were interned.
We aren’t the ones who went over the line of civil society, repeatedly, incessantly. We aren’t any kind of “existential threat” to them. Not unless they are Racists, Not unless they are Bigots, not unless they are Fascists.
Scott went on to say this:
May I just humbly recommnd that when Kamala Harris, she tells her people the truth. That the country is not going to come to and end. The Constitution is not going to come to and end. We’ll have an election in two years, we’ll have an election in four years. [That remains to be seen with this SCOTUS.] Oprah warned us the other night that we may never have another vote again. [Trump said that too.]
All of this was complete baloney, [yes, but most of that is not what we said — we said Trump is a “Fascist” becaus he is.] chalk it up to heated campaign rhetoric. But it is very important that what she said and how she ran her campaign is not the way it is going to be. [It’s not what she said, it’s what HE SAID.]
We had an election, I totaly agree with you. She needs to do that today, I really hope she does.
We aren’t the ones who should be apologizing to any of them. We aren’t the ones who need to make assurances to them. it’s the other way around.
Sure, we can concede this contest. We can do it gracefully. We can hope to move forward and hope that all of our worst concerns won’t come to pass with Trump in power again.
We can do that optimistically at least until Trump proves those hopes are fruitless. If we manage to capture the House we can blunt the worst of his tendencies. We’ll see.
We are now the Opposition. We are the Resistance.
But even Congress can’t stop him on Immigration, Mass Deportation and Detention. Congress can’t stop him if he decides to send the Active Duty Military into the streets to violently punt down peaceful protests.
The question is — can they and Trump rise above their worst impulses to seek “retribution” and do what’s right for the nation and the world? Can they be better than we think they are? Can they prove us wrong because the ball is truly in their court now?
I can hope that they’ll rise above, but I’m not going to apologize for raising legitimate concerns instead of falling for their paranoid fantasies.
Fuck that.
Sadly, I long had a feeling in the back of my mind that they will never believe the Truth about Donald and his oligarch ilk until it’s right in their face and undeniable. They won’t believe us, they won’t believe the media — they have to see it for themselves. They have to live through it.
I think we’ll be proven right in the end, but I can also hope that doesn’t happen — because it will truly be terrible and horrible.
They better HOPE that we were wrong — but I don't think we were. As soon as he shows us who he really is — and that won’t take long — the Opposition is Born.
Heaven Help Us All.
