Many of us are dealing with last week’s Election Day results in different ways, from celebrations to tears. How will Donald Trump and the GOP’s victory affect our lives this time?
Leah Charles, left, and Tianna Adams, North Carolina A&T students, gathers with other students for an election night watch party, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
By Teresa A. Emerson
I’m tired.
And while I’m relieved the avalanche of Trump/Harris ads is done and the phone calls have stopped, I have to now prepare for living in a saturated “red country” of extreme conservatism, and I’m being kind, because I feel Donald Trump is a fascist who has been voted — once again — to the U.S. presidency to finish his scourge of destroying any semblance of democracy left, but this time around, following a devastating manifesto, Project 2025, written by his equally mad MAGA minions.
What happened? In only a fraction of the time normally given for a presidential candidate to prepare, Vice President Kamala Harris had to construct a campaign, as ordered by the Dems after their panic and dismay at President Joe Biden’s underperformance during the debate between him and Trump. She appeared to have run a hard-hitting campaign, raised millions of dollars, and spoke of the concerns of voters: abortion, women’s rights, shrinking middle-class. But most of all, she outlined the threat of the hate-filled, divisiveness Trump brings, once again, and lack of democracy our government was founded on.
But for many, namely white men, Hispanic men, and another group the Democrats seemed to have taken for granted –- Gen Zers (zoomers) — Harris wasn’t enough. A recent Slate article reported that “Gen Z, particularly Gen Z men, is a whole lot more right-leaning than a lot of us thought. A Tufts University analysis of voter surveys found that 56 percent of men between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for Trump.”
Their big bone of contention was the economy. Those groups hadn’t seen improvements in that area over the years. Prices kept rising and going higher — rent, groceries, taxes — but at the end of the day, these groups felt Trump was better equipped to make improvements according to his campaign promises, so much so, that Latino voters were willing to overlook the racist remarks about Puerto Rico being garbage and criminal immigrants flowing into the country eating people’s pets.
The return of “free, white and 21”
You could choose several reasons why Democrats failed to reach the majority demographic this time. For many of us, it seemed so clear — how could a racist, misogynistic, 34-times convicted felon who supported the unprecedented attack on the U.S. capital by sycophants like himself be reelected president? But it happened. My own slant? This time, the “good” guys finished last. Promises of money from their newly elected president spoke louder than his lack of good character.
White people want to keep their “stuff” and continue to enjoy the lifestyle they’ve been accustomed to. And neither you nor I can tell them differently. The growing non-white population is a “threat” to their existence.
According to the U.S. Census, The US population is becoming more diverse. The nation’s non-white population has almost doubled over the past four decades, growing from about 24% of the population in 1990 to over 40% in 2023.
This has been a worry to whites since slavery, keeping what was theirs: money, land, and businesses. Over the years, the sense of “white entitlement” grew, never wanting to share the spoils of hard work, feeling as though only they “deserved” everything this country has to offer.
In the late 1860s, the term “free, white, and 21” was coined, only to reach popularity in the 1930s and 40s. It was used by whites, especially white women, implying that one can do what they want, whenever they want here in America. This certainly was not the experience of African Americans at the time, facing the specter of Jim Crow laws.
Fast forward to today, the “free, white, and 21” attitude still prevails today, buoyed by an equally wealthy, arrogant, narcissistic, and racist leader in Donald Trump. We see proof of it on the internet all the time — crazy ‘Karens’ who pick fights with their Black neighbors, using ugly racist taunts, making false accusations against people of color, and weaponizing the police against them. They also believe they have the right to harass others who they don’t want here.
Many whites just don’t want to be around Blacks — they don’t like us, they don’t want to live around us or work around us, and all the civil rights laws in the world cannot change those racist attitudes.
Now what?
As Trump gleefully assembles his new cabinet of doom, a question arises: what else can be done to survive the next four years? One suggestion is the Democrats need to go back to the drawing board and find out why they lost Zoomers and the working-class voters. And they need to practice loyalty, unlike what was done to President Joe Biden. The finger-pointing has begun, and they still are blaming Biden. It’s sickening.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi needs to take a dozen seats and shut up already. Go home and take care of your husband, play with your grands, and stop dumping on Biden.
We also need to pay closer attention to our local and state elections. I’m guilty of this too. It starts there with choosing the candidates you want. And while local races may not seem as important, they are — particularly judicial races. At least once in your adult life, you may face a judge for one reason or another. Don’t you want to face a fair and non-biased one? But there’s no guarantee — there are hundreds of judges out there, and they all ain’t good.
I don’t know of any hard-and-fast solutions to surviving another Trump presidency except paying closer attention to what is taken away and protesting, protesting, protesting. Those voters who believed in Trump’s campaign promises: see if they ring true. Keep track of his broken promises, and then during the next election period, make your anger known with your vote. Don’t stop voting, despite what happened.
Final thought, though it may seem not to matter — a person’s character is important. Morals are not out of style. Gross, unseemly behavior, even in politics, is not sustainable. The bad guys won this time, but the good guys will rise again, with tenacity, hard work, lots of prayer, and more preparation. And a new acceptance of some harsh realities.
Teresa A. Emerson is the SUN’s managing editor.
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, The Philadelphia Sunday SUN, the author’s organization, committee, or other group or individual.
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