Hello Everyone,

You are welcome to delete and/or ignore this letter. You are all likely very glad the election is over and want to move on with your lives.

For my own memory and process I wanted to add one more post-election letter to this Election 2024 blog.

Conversations while canvassing (my words are in green):

In 2016 after Trump won my wife could not stop crying for 3 days.
If Trump wins again we may all need extended therapy.

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I’m undecided. I may vote for Trump. I’m a Libertarian.
But he’s a liar, a rapist, a fraudster, and an insurrectionist.
Yes, that’s all true. But would he make a good president?

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I’m with the Kamala Harris campaign.
That lying fucking racist fraudster better not get back in. He’s a goddamn fucking felon! Excuse my language.
Well said, sir.

—

To me the alternative is unthinkable.
It’s unconscionable.
Unimaginable.
We’re running out of UNadjectives.
How about unfuckingbelievable?

Signs I saw:

A clever sign (not placed by the Harris campaign) in the same format and colors as the Trump yard signs:

This sign was originally designed for the 2016 election:

Kamala Harris for the People

The People Have Spoken

I felt numb and baffled (still do) at how it could have happened. That a majority (electoral but also the popular vote) of our fellow Americans has put a lying insurrectionist back in power. But that is, indeed, what happened. I trust that the election was well run and fair.

Lots of apocalyptic talk. Lots of blaming. There will be endless analysis of this election.

At first I thought … let’s wait and see what they DO. Wait and see if they have the competence to actually implement their Project 2025 agenda. Wait and see how it affects our lives and the lives of those we care about.

It didn’t take long… The cabinet appointments (Matt Gaetz for Attorney General?! 😜) are bizarre and disturbing. The most important attribute for the appointees is loyalty to Trump. My cousin, Anne, explained that the term fealty is more accurate:

“There’s a big difference between loyalty and fealty:

Loyalty is the most perfect form of mutual respect. It is a bond that goes two ways, and that is why it endures. Fealty, on the other hand, must be endured. It is based on power, and ends the moment the one who commands it no longer has a grip on the one who is shackled by it.”

With the GOP MAGA trifecta (President, House, Senate) what guardrails are there? What will stop them? ACLU? Democrats in Congress? The Senate filibuster? The People? The Press? Actually, with SCOTUS it is a “quadfecta” 😱. And if Alito and Thomas retire in the next 4 years Trump will have appointed 5 of the 9 justices.

It is time to leave the country? I am now 75. Do I want to spent my “twilight” years in a fascist regime? Instead, I could become a nomad and travel from country to country returning home periodically. I am a citizen of the world, yes, but fully an American. Or stay home and create a world within? Luckily Governor Newsom in California is being quite proactive as are other governors. Perhaps California could secede from the union? Joined by other Democratic states? Better than a second civil war. I pray that this current very real cold civil war not turn hot. If Harris had won it may have.

Excellent Legal Podcasts: Jack and Prosecuting Donald Trump.
I sent them both a question about what would happen to the multiple Trump criminal cases in case Trump won the election. Andrew and Allison of the Jack podcast answered my question. Here is a 5 minute audio clip of their answer. Very disappointing. Trump, the scofflaw, fraudster, and insurrectionist, will simply dismiss his own cases.

Heather Cox Richardson - Letters from an American - a daily letter (Substack, Facebook, or email) - a continuing voice of sanity, reason, informed history and hope.

Making Sense (podcast with Sam Harris) - The Reckoning - Sam analyzed the election in his characteristically deep style.

The Ezra Klein Show (podcast) - What’s Wrong with Donald Trump? - He argues that Trump is quite uninhibited unlike most politicians and that this makes him charismatic and popular when campaigning. But disinhibition is not a good quality for governing.

I may attend the protests at Trump’s re-inauguration. I did so in 2005 for George W. Bush’s re-inauguration and that eventful story is here.

Finally, I recommend the post election shows of John Oliver and Saturday Night Live for a humorous and insightful take on a very unhumorous time.

All of these Election 2024 letters are archived on the web here.

Jon