As I mentioned in my last post, I’m more interested in how we can change some of the dynamics of our civic life than I am in obsessing over the results of the 2024 election. It’s time to get to work.
I think America needs to make lying wrong again. America needs to learn again how to distinguish fact from agenda and spin. America needs to make putting effort into democracy right again. We Americans need to be able to envision a destination and campaign for paths to get there. We need to be able to see the forest for the trees.
Our country is so awash in misinformation, so forgetful of our founding principles, of religious and moral guidance, that we brought back to the presidency a fraudster, a sexual assaulter, a retrograde divider, a documented liar of epic proportions, rather than elect an experienced prosecutor, a product of the working class, a public servant who preached unity, caring, and fairness.
I remind you, I’m an unaffiliated voter. For me, this is not about left or right or party.
It’s about right in the other sense: what’s right and best for our society, and for the future.
Early voting analysis shows us that many voters who selected Donald Trump for president also voted for Democrats down-ballot and for ballot referendums more progressive than conservative. That’s a fact. It also appears that many Black voters and other traditionally Democratic voters sat out the election, dismayed by both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates or perceived policies. I spoke with several non-voters while canvassing in person and on the phone. Sexism and racism also appear to have been in play, when you look at the results.
By the numbers, Donald Trump didn’t really win a mandate. He won by a smaller proportion of votes than Joe Biden did in 2020. He won in part because a large number of people who voted for Biden in 2020 didn’t participate in 2024. His margin keeps looking smaller as more results come in. But the arithmetic I predicted held up. Staying home, or voting for a third-party candidate, was not a protest. It was a vote for Trump, and he won.
As I canvassed before the election, I was also monitoring social media and corresponding with numerous friends, acquaintances, and some people I didn’t know. I found that many of them were voting — or deciding not to vote — on just one or two issues. Some did not seem aware of factual information that might have helped them decide to participate, or make better voting decisions for themselves.
This reminded me that unless we work at it, it’s easy for us for us to miss the forest for the trees. We can forgo weighing in on many issues outside our immediate personal priorities, and leave the United States and the world poorer for it.
I believe one of the best things we can do as individuals, starting now, is to take a little more time to stay well informed. That includes directing our attention to reliable, thoughtful reporting and analysis. It also includes knowing the difference between reported news, news with analysis, and opinion. Check out BBC Sounds. Reuters. Associated Press. A variety of newspapers, some of them even mainstream. They offer great in-depth reporting, much of it extraordinarily good. Read magazines including The Atlantic, Mother Jones. Don’t get stuck in a narrow rut. Move outside your comfort zone on the political spectrum. Be aware of what is fact and what is opinion. It’s in the language, usually easy to find. But you have to look. More on that later.
I know, you’re probably really busy. But maybe five minutes here, five minutes there, a day, rather than scrolling social media. Ten to fifteen minutes out of a day.
The need to do this puts me in mind of the Ben Franklin quote (possibly fictitious, we should note) found in a journal by James McHenry, who attended the 1787 Constitutional Convention:
“On the page where McHenry records the events of the last day of the convention, September 18, 1787, he wrote: ‘A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.’”
Franklin was saying that participatory democracy is work. We have to put in a little work to govern by the people, for the people.
Donald Trump has promised to turn away from the single most important issue affecting every human being on the planet: the health of our environment. He intends to once again pull us out of the Paris climate accords, and double down on fossil fuels. He’s been clear about it. We elected him anyway.
Trump is nominating a vaccine denier to head Health & Human Services. Robert F. Kennedy is woefully under-equipped for this job.
He is nominating a radical right-wing former congressman for Attorney General, as he tries to remake our Department of Justice into a tool for his own use rather than an agency that protects us all.
Remember, the nominee Matt Gaetz is a former congressman because he resigned immediately after being nominated for AG. That allowed a Congressional ethics investigation into him to be dropped. House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to prevent its being leaked. Why?
These are just two examples of the president-elect’s cabinet nominees. They’re not shocking, really, if you’ve paid any attention to Donald Trump for the past ten years. He’s been quite open about the type of government he wants and the people he wants around him. You can find out more if you look around just a bit.
Oh yes, and after speech upon speech vilifying electric car technology, the president-elect is cozying up to Tesla’s Elon Musk. Can you make this stuff up? Was Musk just useful to help Trump get elected? We don’t know, yet.
The only shocking thing here is that so many of us could not see the big picture outside of our personal priorities. We have done the Palestinians, the environment, and our justice system no favors with the way we’ve voted. I believe we can do better.
I’ll write more soon about how to consume news reporting efficiently and effectively, and about some of the big issues that get covered up by immediate stories.
But meanwhile, if we can all take just a little quiet alone time with world affairs and local affairs each day, we have a start at a better and more civil society.
A walk, a visit with friends, going dancing, reading a book, some music will help us along the way.
Peek-A-Boo waltz played by Paul Brown.
Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
And for the banjo solo!
Paul, as always thank you for your wisdom and willingness and ability to provide clarity on issues vital to our planet and people.