The polls were right. I was wrong. In fact, everything I thought I knew about politics is wrong.
I expected the better run campaign with a strong ground game and positive message would win. I was wrong.
I knew there were millions of stupid assholes in our country, but I counted on the decency of the rest of the populace. It’s a mistake I’ll never make again.
This feels worse than 2016. Trump’s term in office was a rolling disaster. It was a corrosive festival of corruption and criminality. Trump voters knew who and what he is and voted for the crook anyway.
I’ve run the gamut of emotions from rage to sadness and back again. The first thing Dr. A said to me this morning was GUTTED. Yeah you right, babe.
I refuse to blame Kamala Harris and her team. I meant everything I said about her in my election day post. She’s a fine person who would have been a good president. Instead, the voters chose the divider, not the uniter.
I do, however, blame the legacy media for treating an Insult Comedian with a dead nutria pelt atop his head as a normal candidate.
Above all, I blame the Senate GOP leader who hates Trump but mistakenly thought he’d fade away. As I said in Blame It On Mitch:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If Mitch McConnell’s backbone wasn’t as weak as his chin, Donald Trump would be barred from running for office. He hates Trump, blamed him for the Dipshit Insurrection, but refused to vote to convict at Trump’s second impeachment trial. That vote would have led other Senate Republicans who hated Trump to vote against him. Instead, they put party over country and voted to acquit.”
The country has been in a bad mood ever since the pandemic. I thought it was easing, another thing I was wrong about.
I don’t regret having chosen optimism before the election. At least I wasn’t miserable for months. I’m obviously miserable today.
The featured image is of Ray Milland in Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend. It was the first major Hollywood film about alcoholism. My hangover is strictly political: I’ve essentially been on the wagon since my illness. I feel better physically but I’m an emotional wreck after last night. I will, however, bounce back. It’s who I am. It’s who we are or should be as a people.
It’s a good day for fascism and a bad day for American democracy. In the immortal words of my former First Draft colleague, Jude: Thanks, you stupid motherfuckers.
In her excellent post this morning Cassandra closed with the David Bowie song I’m Afraid Of Americans. That inspired me to post a song with this line: “Some Americans scare me.”
The last word goes to Squeeze:
