We Understood the Assignment

It will take some time to sort out exactly what happened in the election, and there are probably a bunch of reasons why Kamala Harris lost. She got millions fewer votes than Biden did so part of the problem appears to be that not enough Democrats showed up.

I’m not a political analyst or pundit but a few things did jump out to me in the aftermath. Three blocs voted for Harris in very high percentages: Black voters at 86% (94% of older Black voters), Jewish voters at 78%, and LGBTQ voters at 86% (including 82% of white LGBTQ voters and 92% of queer women). I don’t want to make assumptions about voting blocs I don’t belong to, but I wonder if we all voted for Harris because we know who gets the shaft when the right wing gets into power. We know our history and we’ve all been subjected to either state-sponsored violence or being deprived of our civil rights by the state. We understood the assignment.

 

I can’t speak for other voting blocs, but I do have insight into what LGBTQ voters are thinking. We see an America in which our hard-won civil rights and human rights will be stripped from us, and with the Republicans in control of all three branches of government, we will have no legal recourse.

 

For myself, I fully expect—through a combination of laws, executive orders, court decisions, and a lack of federal protection—to become a second-class citizen in certain respects. I can’t imagine marriage equality surviving. The right wing has never seen my family fit into America, and I’ve always been clear-eyed about that. I expect the president to invoke the Insurrection Act and send in the troops to crush any dissent toward these losses of rights. The man said he'd do it throughout the campaign. He said it several times: Democrats in general are part of “the enemy within.” How many people were listening and really understood? It’s state power turned against our own citizens, and it’s going to be bloody.

 

I fear that trans people, already vulnerable, will suffer the most. They may not be able to get the healthcare they need, may suffer the indignity of having the gender on their birth certificates or ID changed, and may be forced to detransition and become different people against their will—people they never were. Again, the right wing told us all this would happen. They promised it. It’s all laid out in Project 2025. I skimmed a little of it and the language about trans people is chilling. It sounds like powerful men standing in rooms and musing on “what to do about the transgender problem.” It sounds like they could have sketched it out on cocktail napkins at the Kit Kat Club.

 

And people voted for this. A lot of voters saw those “boys playing in girls’ sports” commercials that demonized trans people—that put a target on the backs of people who are already at risk—and lapped it up like the bottom-feeders they are. People chuckled at that “Kamala is for they/them” but how many people realized that people who go by they/them are Americans, too? This was a catharsis of hate.

 

If anybody else in our LGBTQ acronym thinks they’re safe, don’t. That commercial endorsed a heterosexual nuclear family as an unsubtle signal that this is the only family the right wing will accept. They laid all that out in Project 2025, too—the architects of this second administration want to “maintain a biblically based, social-science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.” That means, my fellow cisgender gays, they’re coming for us, too. Was anybody paying attention?

 

So some of us understood the assignment in the voting booth, but white people—we fucked up. Only 41% of white men voted for Harris and 45% of white women did the same. I wonder if this is because, unless we’re in another marginalized voting bloc, white people have no history of the power of the state turned against them in the form of violence or a denial of rights. I’ve never in my life been in fear of being beaten in the streets for who I am as a white person. We just don’t have a collective history of that; those are consequences for other people. Consequences are still coming that will affect plenty of white people. Abortion is going to be de facto illegal in the United States and the administration doesn’t need Congress to do that. I guess not enough white people gave a shit about it, or figured those were consequences they wouldn’t have to face. Best of luck if you have pregnancy complications in the Republic of Gilead.

 

I’ve heard some variation this past week of “democracy doesn’t matter when you can’t pay your bills.” This is the idea that goods and services are more expensive (inflation is back to normal but that doesn’t mean companies will drop their prices) so people had to vote with their wallets no matter whose rights were at stake.

 

You know what, I have money problems like anyone else, but I saw my choice another way: when your rights are at stake, you vote to preserve them and you find a way to deal with the higher cost of a dozen eggs. I’ll manage with higher food costs; I won’t manage so well with my family no longer legally intact.

 

But right wingers are never, ever expected to empathize with people on my side of things. Instead we will have four more years of sympathetic interviews of people in diners who pretend like they had no other choice but to fuck over their fellow Americans, and they want grace for that. But they won’t extend it to us. Maybe we can share some magically affordable omelettes before the black van comes for me.

 

Apparently there were Democrats who stayed home on election day. There always are. This pisses me off. I canvassed for my candidates for four weekends in a row. I phone banked. I donated. I wrote 600 postcards to voters across the country. I worked with the PRIDE Caucus to get our candidates elected in Delaware (we were mostly successful). I was a poll worker on election day, helping my district to vote. I literally walked the walk and talked to talk, and I still wish I could have done more.

 

So forgive me if I’m a little pissy that some people couldn’t be arsed to do the bare minimum at a time when so many people and rights are under threat and instead sat home and moued that “She didn’t earn my vote.” It’s a convenient way to accomplish two things: (1) not having to get off your ass, and (2) having a smug smirk ready when things go bad and saying, “Don’t blame me. I didn’t do a goddamn thing.” Their inaction still means they have a little piece of responsibility for the world of hurt ahead for people who—conveniently—probably aren’t them.

 

When Republicans win, it’s because their people turn out. They treat election day like church: when the holy day comes, they go. Every four years, there seem to be Democrats who get precious about their moods and sit home in a snit, and then end up fucking over a lot of us, including themselves. Well, when so much is at stake, you get yourself in the mood. The candidate may not have been left enough for you, and that’s a valid debate to have, but how does it make a lick of sense not to choose the candidate who would only get you part of the way to your goals and instead let the candidate win who would not only get you zero percent of what you want, but would in fact actively destroy what you already have? If you stayed home for Gaza, how did you think the Palestinians would fare under the tender ministrations of President Muslim Ban? They’re fucked now. But hey, your progressive halo shines undimmed. Congratulations.  

 

I was on the fence about whether I would write something this acidic in case any of my four readers would be offended, but I couldn’t give a fuck at this point. I’m determined for these people not to steal my joy but I’m incandescently angry about the state of America so don’t expect me to sing “Kumbaya.” It’s easy to call for “unity” when you get everything you want—what the right wing really means by “unity” is “We won so shut up and take the shit we’re making you eat.”

 

The hell I will. I’m not stupid or self-loathing enough to unite with people who hate me. I’ll stand and fight for marginalized and vulnerable people whose country is turning on them. I’ll be loud about it. I’m not scared of any of these motherfuckers and I won’t obey any of them in advance. I’m not going down quietly.