Trump wins; Harris concedes. It turns out you can go back.

Detroit Free Press Editorial Team
| Detroit Free Press

Well, let's go back.

Donald Trump is America's next president and wins the popular vote And the Electoral College, a feat no Republican president has achieved in more than 20 years. He increased his share of the vote among almost all demographic groups and his voters elected the Republican majority to the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.

While Trump won every battleground state, Vice President Kamala Harris officially conceded Wednesday afternoon around 1:30 p.m

It is clearer than ever that Trump's 2016 victory was no fluke.

Twice now, American voters have chosen to put aside the president-elect's various rhetorical agitations and bellicose incitements and instead find comfort in the caution-tossing-to-the-wind approach to governing. The “drill, baby, drill” ethos.

But we've been here before. The country withstood a Donald Trump presidency, with the added catastrophe of a world-changing pandemic.

Now we prepare to endure another four years of an extremist agenda obscured by daily bouts of headline-grabbing moments, outrageous international gaffes and absurd falsehoods from the White House.

We should also prepare to better understand our neighbors, even if that's not what you want to hear. For most of us, it remains a mystery why the words that come out of Trump's mouth offend so many Americans but mean little to almost as many.

A solid majority of this country simply likes what Trump has to offer, or is at least willing to look past his not-so-subtle bigotry and xenophobic rhetoric, for reasons that people on the other side of this ever-widening divide don't understand can .

Time to mourn

As we fall backwards, we can't help but mourn the future we've lost.

We will not have our first female president, a woman of color and the child of immigrants. We will receive no relief from the tide of political vitriol marked by bigotry that is turning so many Americans against one another. We will not be spared another four years of self-inflicted instability.

The support of the Black women who had been waiting for this moment, who were breaking fundraising records, knocking on doors, rallying and working to transform our cities, the young Americans who saw opportunity in a President Harris, the voters who Harris' trust, even when their policies didn't fit together perfectly – couldn't carry her into the Oval Office.

What we are afraid of

Like many Americans, we worry about what lies ahead. We pored over Trump's many public statements and sought a blueprint for the changes ahead.

It's a near impossible task. His political promises are bold, grandiose – and improbable until they aren't. Trump is a master of contradictory statements, revising himself just often enough to outdo every declarative statement he has said The or The must be qualified.

But these are the things that Trump and his closest advisers have been consistent on:

Some mass deportation efforts — which Trump adviser Stephen Miller laid out in shocking detail for The New York Times last year — and the spate of civil rights violations that followed.

Drilling in the Arctic Circle, a policy Trump introduced in his first term and which he has promised to resume.

Repeal clean energy regulations and further withdraw from the Paris Agreement, ignoring the devastation already caused by climate change and how much worse it will be for our children and grandchildren.

A political agenda that punishes the most vulnerable Americans, such as disabled people and transgender children.

The continued erosion of women's rights and LGBTQ+ rights – the conservative majority of the US Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade repealed has signaled that her focus may shift to marriage equality.

A regressive tax system that gives more to those who have and takes away from those who need it, and would inevitably strain the federal budget.

Tariffs in a senseless trade war that would drive up the prices of goods for already struggling Americans.

Change

In 2016, we hoped that the gravity of the presidency would change Trump. Instead, he changed the presidency.

In 2020, we hoped that a return to traditional leadership would bring a comfortable calm that would return Americans to level-headed, civil political discourse.

In 2024, we hope that the consequences of another four years of Donald Trump leading the free world will change the nation—specifically, what it expects from a president.

And we hope we can change the way we see each other. We can't afford to wait for it.

Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we can publish it online and in print.

Time to mourn

What we are afraid of

Change

Leave a Reply Cancel reply