Peter M Howard ::

On Getting Here

12Nov2024 [myth]

In which an election surprised us, again

I’ll admit to being surprised at the US election results last week. I’d expected it to be stolen, but not quite so quickly!

But so much of the response and analysis of it since has been aggravating. There’s obviously a tendency to attribute the results to whatever one’s favourite cause might be, and I’m arguably guilty of it myself right here. But the pet issue for me is one I don’t see many people talking about: America is not a democracy.

It seems like American pundits especially, but also liberal-thinkers from around the world, cling so tightly to the idea that American democracy is a beacon, that they’re left unable to comprehend the idea that an election can be stolen, even entirely legally. So such discussion is left to the realm of conspiracy-theory rabbit-holes.

But it’s important to consider seriously. American democracy has always been flawed, has always disenfranchised huge parts of its population, and the Republican party have been quite open about their plans to suppress votes across the country for at least a couple years! Add billionaires’ easy confidence about the result, and Trump out telling rally crowds they wouldn’t have to vote again, and it’s clear the stitch was in. And this isn’t about any vast conspiracy to stuff ballot boxes and/or steal votes — it’s just more of the same suppression they’ve been doing for decades, on a nationwide scale. Voters were being stricken from rolls mere weeks before the election; early-voting routinely failed, postal systems disrupted and delayed; and the long queues we saw on election day were evidence of the lack of polling places, not of any increase in turnout. A complicit mainstream media and captured social media obviously didn’t help with any ability to carry a national alternative message.

The turnout is the most obvious measure, and also an important one. There isn’t actually any evidence that the US “swung” to Trump or to fascism — his total vote didn’t really shift! Rather the Dems vote completely collapsed. And some of that can be attributed to a pretty unnappealing campaign, but the majority of it is classic voter suppression.

Importantly, we really need to push back on the idea that the populace has embraced Trump, or his policies! I see so many liberal-minded folks just accepting this narrative — whether they’re insisting we should accept a democratic outcome, implying the majority of people are just stupid (I really hate this one!), or falling for conspiracy theories about Russian or other foreign state influence. But all of these accept some amount of defeat, assume there’s nothing we can do in response. And that’s the narrative I’m most scared about leaking into Australia and other countries outside the US.

Here in Aus we have a federal election due next year, and there are good odds the Labor party will swing even further right in the belief that the population actually wants fascist/-adjacent policies. But as always, it’s clear people vote based on a ground game — so many great Dem reps who stood up for Palestine and for trans rights and for their local communities were re-elected even amidst this supposed “swing”, and anyone who can reproduce that energy in Australia has the real chance of winning.

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