I don't know what to do today. I'm not a political scientist, economist, analyst, or even that experienced with political activism or community building.
And in the midst of the litany of emotions that are cascading over my mind, one in particular stands clear above the rest as the most insidious, destructive, seductive, and nice option:
Apathy.
Why bother. Why fight. It won't be that bad. It can't happen here.
Who cares.
Who cares.
Who cares.
Donald Trump didn't just win the 2024 US election. He won the popular vote. A Republican candidate hasn't won the popular vote since 2004. Trump winning in 2016 was a symbol of the flaws in the archaic electoral college of America. It was a reflection of issues with a First-Past-the-Post system that is still debated as part of the issue of election reform here in Canada. It was a fluke, mired by interference from Russia and believed to be a sign that America had to change.
Trump winning now is a horror. I don't just mean it because a vocal minority managed to get the right swing states to rob the American public of their choice, it is because he was America's choice, by approximately 4.5-5.0 million votes (at time of writing).
So what do we do? I don't think now is the time to blame anyone but the apathetic and the fascist. Those who didn't vote and those who voted for Trump. It's all too easy to try and characterize those non-voters any way you like to try and avoid the flaws in how the Harris campaign was run, but ultimately just by comparing 2020 to 2024, apathy is the greatest takeaway.
According to CNN, Joe Biden won the 2020 popular vote with 81 million votes against Trump's 74 million. In 2024 (at time of writing), Trump won the popular vote with 71 million votes against Harris's 66 million.
18 million voters who made their choice in 2020 did not in 2024. It's a number that becomes even more troubling when compared with 2016, when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote with 65 million against Trump's 62 million.
Eight years of the threat of a second-Trump term ultimately only led to 1 million votes for Democrats and 9 million for Trump.
Fascism isn't the only thing that has risen in popularity in America, apathy has as well. Whatever galvanizing efforts were made to get those 18 million to vote wasn't enough to keep them active. And this is where the apathy creeps in. Because apathy isn't some nebulous trait that only the political opposition has. It is in you, just as the fascist is. There is a part of you that wants to surrender and simply let the countries of the world fall to fascism because would it truly be so hard?
Yes. That voice that tries to let you worship the boot is the same that tells you to not bother with tearing the boot down.
I don't know what to do today.
But I know what to do tomorrow.
I will try. Remember this. Try.
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