Yesterday was, as I indicated in my previous blog entry a momentous day. The aftermath of the election the previous day remains raw. And I think emtions are running high, justifibly so as the gravity of the moment bespeaks a high sense of feelings.
To be candid, Facebook is my go-to social media platform and where I spend way too much time arguing, sharing, and so forth. Yesterday it was a place of mixed messages and emotions as I watched and read what was there. Among the things posted, later in the day, was Heather Cox Richardson's daily synopsis. Heather is a History Professor at Boston College (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heather_Cox_Richardson). She styles herself as follows on her substack feed: "I'm a history professor interested in the contrast between image and reality in American politics. I believe in American democracy, despite its frequent failures." Her post yesterday was no less informative than any previous, and as is my habit I often repost her synopsis (here is last night's post: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-6-2024).
My reply prompted a comment by Charlie Davidson, a former student and strongly held libertarian. I think it is definately worthy of consideration as he is not alone in his convictions and thoughts:
"If you were surprised by this loss, you may not be as informed as you think you are. And this also speaks to an inability to understand WORKING CLASS people. Kamala was never working class and its also hilarious how much Hispanics and women shifted to Trump. So keep calling us sexist or racist or whatever, that just proves you don't understand Americans."
In reply I offered the following appending the image that follows):
"Charles Davidson I’m not surprised by the loss for Harris, it’s been a toss up for almost the entire race. The magnitude of the break, that is different, although, it’s not far from a couple models that 538 did adding in the polling error typical from the last two rounds (which I was thinking were better likelihoods than what the spin was going around).
As for demographics, this gets at the reality (so far as we know it, percentage next to the demographic label is the percentage of the overall electoral that falls in that category). I don’t have one that breaks it down along class lines. Your point about working class and how they vote is, again, not surprising to me. I’ve long said there’s a difference between working class and middle class, and that is too often been lumped together. Most of the difference there is attitude and culture, but also economics. This image shows that there’s a number of false narratives about Hispanics going around now, as with women generally, although that demographic (white women) was clearly misunderstood by the prognosticators.
What I don’t understand about Americans, rather clearly, is the depth that the majority are willing to accept the risk to our representative democratic experiment; the republic. I have sworn an oath to defend the constitution, and the republic that it defines, having served in uniform for over two decades. Inherently that makes me a minority, as less than 2% of Americans can or have been willing to do that. I am, admittedly, skewed in my thinking in that regard, as I’ve taken it seriously and know what is really in the constitution and what the republic stands for and what it does not (a great example was how I, one time, revealed to you how, what you thought ought to be forbidden under the constitution, was actually an explicit power granted to the federal government under the constitution). The rather poor civics education in our country is something I’ve spoken/written about, but to me it seems much worse than I’ve thought. And I think it’s not just knowledge, it’s the attitudes that have emerged about the republic that have been foisted and believed, not only thanks to hyper partisanship, but downright lies and misinformation thats been bought in as well (increasingly by hostile foreign powers). It’s really stunning and problematic if you hold to a political center based on the defense of the constitution and how it’s enshrined. It’s also problematic when you consider the true impacts of the losses that come with having the republic falter, which most people take for granted won’t happen or blissfully ignore that it’d happen to them (again based on my experiences, especially having been to other places in the world and having been a longtime student of history). I clearly see the risks as too great to jettison the republic, most Americans do not. I’ve got to get my head around that. Americans aren’t as values based as they purport to be, at least about the democratic governance experiment that came out of our revolution. Clearly there are other motivations and drivers that supersede the republic’s defense which I thought was held more deeply in regard than it is. I’ve got to get my head around that more and I’ll submit it is bothersome even as I am aware it’s not entirely unique to our political history."
I don't have more to add to this post, other than to say this remains tied to my post yesterday and where I am eager, for the sake of the republic, to defend it as I have sworn to do.
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