Somehow it's finally election day. We, and so many others, have made the case repeatedly against Trump and the Republican party in this election, reminding everyone how bad it was under Trump, and the even worse future promised by the Republicans with Trump at the helm. Yet, most pollsters predict that Tuesday’s election will be very close, suggesting a divided country split nearly equally between two diametrically opposed visions of the future.
Personally, I (Jacob Kravetz), am predicting that Kamala Harris will win the election on November 5th (barring any chicanery that subverts the vote count). No one is an expert on election results, so it’s just one opinion and shouldn't change any urgency to vote and be vigilant, but a variety of factors, from Harris’ better run campaign, to strong polling among older women, to her larger campaign coffers, to the fact that abortion is on the ballot, and Trump is a convicted felon, who is clearly fascist and undergoing cognitive decline make me feel like Trump doesn’t have the juice, so to speak. I hopefully won’t look like a fool in the coming days, but that’s how I see it.
If I’m right, and we do manage to stave off fascism for another election, where does that leave us as such a divided nation? Are we saved? Doomed? Well, there is a partisan politics sense in which this division is real, but we also know that this partisan divide obscures some deeply held unifying beliefs. Electoral politics in a partisan era boils down complex cross-party issues to a binary, often tribal, choice. This flattening of choices and partisan tribal divide hides the fact that on many key issues, Americans are far more united than the election results will suggest. Americans want action on climate change, they want Better Health Care, they want a higher minimum wage, they want better schools and common-sense gun reform. When divorced from partisan electoral language most Americans can agree on the broad strokes for which direction out country should go, even if they don't share all the details.
As we discuss each week, there are many popular policies from which to form this common agenda, however, our politics and our politicians are constrained by money in politics, meaning many elections deal very little with these substantive issues, and even when politicians do bring up serious policies, the media often ignores such substantive discussion, instead focusing on horse-race politics. The reality is there are a huge number of structural issues to our politics that will persist regardless of how the election goes, but simultaneously, there are also a number of strengths including this underlying unity which won't disappear either, regardless of tomorrow's results.
So even if we are lucky, and the Republicans are routed, on Tuesday, in the days to come we will need to continue to come together to build up the voices of the people and continue to advocate for the popular policies supported by a supermajority of Americans. A Democratic victory simply means the fight for justice and equality will be an easier task, with fewer explicit roadblocks placed in the way. It does not change the need to apply continued political pressure to our representatives, as wealthy donor interests hold sway in both parties.
Forcing important policies like healthcare, climate change, etc. to be front and center of the political agenda of those in power will require the building of citizens’ economic power alongside their political voice. So make sure you vote, make sure everyone you know votes, and let’s fend of this rising tide of fascism this Tuesday, but the next Tuesday it’s time to get active, join a cause you care about, help your neighbors and community around you to build solidarity and power. And of course join us each Tuesday in growing economic solidarity as we fight on the long struggle towards of representative democracy.
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