The Day After

Dear Friends,

It is with heavy hearts that this email comes to you this morning. A lot of the things we had hoped for and worked so hard for didn't happen last night. In looking around for words of wisdom, both Robert Hubbell, of Today's Edition Newsletter, and Tom Nichols, writing for The Atlantic, provide some needed perspective and a dash of hope.

Plans are being made for a get-together fairly soon so we can talk and process in community with one another. More on that later.

During this long campaign season we've made new friends, new allies, and maybe new realizations about ourselves. We feel gratitude for those things. Thank you to all who have joined us on this journey, a journey that is not yet over.

In CONTINUED Solidarity,

Indivisible Mandarin Leadership Team

Robert Hubbell, excerpts from Today's Edition Newsletter, 11/6/24

On Wednesday morning, it is clear that Trump has won and that Democrats have lost control of the Senate. Control of the House remains open.

Democrats and people who love America are grieving. That is understandable. Everyone will need time to express feelings of shock, anger, and fear. Respect those who need to talk about what happened and those who don’t want to talk about it. Everyone will need to process the results in their own way.

It will take time to digest what happened and why it happened. Both are necessary inquiries. But there is no rational explanation for America’s election of a felon, adjudicated sexual abuser, incessant liar, narcissist, and aspiring dictator. None. So, think about it as much as you need to, but don’t waste emotional energy seeking answers where there are none.

Trump is an avatar of anger for millions who see their world slipping away. There is additional nuance about racism, misogyny, and white nationalism, but it’s not more complicated than that.

We must invest all our energy in the process of recovery and the continued defense of democracy.

Before the election, many commentators warned about the end of democracy if Trump won. That isn’t going to happen—not on our watch. America is bigger than Trump and his extremism. Democracy will end only if we give up. I am not going to give up. You aren’t going to give up, either. It won’t be easy. It may get worse before it gets better. But it will get better if we refuse to give up the fight.

For those of you who have the ability to do so, providing leadership, comfort, and hope today will be a blessing to those who feel shattered. No false optimism, just genuine determination. The same strength and determination John Lewis felt when he dragged himself from a hospital bed with a cracked skull to complete his march from Selma to Montgomery two weeks after Blood Sunday.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz ran a superb campaign. They deserve our respect and thanks. They spoke for and to millions of Americans who aren’t going back.

Tom Nichols, excerpts from The Atlantic A.M., 11/6/24

So now what?

The first order of business is to redouble every effort to preserve American democracy. If I may invoke Winston Churchill, this is not the end or the beginning of the end; it is the end of the beginning.

For a decade, Trump has been trying to destroy America’s constitutional order. His election in 2016 was something like a prank gone very wrong, and he likely never expected to win. But once in office, he and his administration became a rocket sled of corruption, chaos, and sedition. Trump’s lawlessness finally caught up with him after he was forced from office by the electorate. He knew that his only hope was to return to the presidency and destroy the last instruments of accountability.

Paradoxically, however, Trump’s reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena. America is a federal republic, and the states—at least those in the union that will still care about democracy—have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president. Nothing is inevitable, and democracy will not fall overnight.

The kinds of actions that will stop Trump from destroying America in 2025 are the same ones that stopped many of his plans the first time around. They are not flashy, and they will require sustained attention, because the next battles for democracy will be fought by lawyers and legislators, in Washington and in every state capitol. They will be fought by citizens banding together in associations and movements to rouse others from the sleepwalk that has led America into this moment.

Trump’s victory is a grim day for the United States and for democracies around the world. You have every right to be appalled, saddened, shocked, and frightened. Soon, however, you should dust yourself off, square your shoulders, and take a deep breath. Americans who care about democracy have work to do.