There is change in the air. You can feel it with the dwindling crowds at Trump’s blathering and boring rallies. You can see it with the dramatic declines in Fox News viewership: down a stunning 27 percent in October over the same month last year. And you can measure it at the ballot box: Nearly 44 million people have already voted early by mail or in person, suggesting record overall turnout likely to outpace 2018, which surpassed the 1914 record rate for a midterm election.
The reasons have been accumulating and increasingly hard to miss, which explains the fury in the country and the growing tumult. Over the last six weeks, I’ve written about four of these reasons:
The growing recognition that this cannot go on for two more years.
Rewind to November 6, 2024. This situation was tragically predictable. How exactly we would get here, what exactly would be the details of the desecrations and destruction, may have been impossible to know. But the dreadful trajectory? That was knowable.
Yes, we’re all carrying the trauma of unreliable polls and sickening outcomes. But I want you to know that I’m writing from a place of optimism right now, based on the expanding prospects for a Democratic takeover of the House and the Senate.
And that portends the return of something we used to have and desperately need again: checks and balances. Our government was designed to have three equal branches, each fulfilling its constitutional duty. That includes a legislature that can contain lawlessness and abuses of power by an executive branch convinced that the Constitution, rule of law and serving the American people are not its concern.
With that in mind, I revisited what I wrote on that terrible day after we learned that over 77 million Americans had voted to return Donald Trump to power. I hope that by sharing it now you will be reminded that we possessed the knowledge then to prepare and combat the coming deluge. And yet: Too many of those in power have treated the last 721 days like every damned outrage was a surprise that they couldn’t have possibly prepared for; or, worse, they proved they lacked the resolve to fight as ruthlessly as required against an enemy this morally rotten, corrupt and cruel.
The essay, entitled “What the Voters Chose, What We Do Now,” began like this:
The American voters made their choice last night. With everything that is known and knowable about Donald Trump, they chose to re-elect him and return him to our White House. They have chosen this precarious path that turns its back on the American democratic experiment and grants him the power to act on his worst instincts and darkest desires. They have told us that questions of character and decency, compassion and honesty do not represent what matters to them in their nation’s leader.
It continued by offering some detail on what we would be facing:
We can expect that women’s reproductive freedom will be just one of many rights and freedoms that Trump and the newly empowered Republicans will take away as they pursue their agenda of change, accelerated by a Senate majority and the backing of a corrupt and radical Supreme Court. This choice by a majority of our fellow Americans will put millions of migrants and many other marginalized and vulnerable populations in danger—not to mention our free press and other critics of Trump. It also puts our planet at further risk as the climate crisis is deemed fake and of no consequence.
This is a bitter pill to swallow. It’s the nightmare I feared and prayed would not come true. It portends a despotic, authoritarian future fueled by anger, grievance, the desire for vengeance and the misbegotten notion that a strongman can easily solve problems that are complex and often global in nature. It puts our democratic alliances in jeopardy as this chosen leader kowtows to Russia and Vladimir Putin, turns toward and is flattered by other dictators, seeks to abandon Ukraine and endangers NATO.
“I was wrong in expecting that a majority of voters would recognize the danger and reject him,” I noted, which led me to this obvious conclusion: “There’s no getting around the fact—clearly asserted last night—that we are living in a country that is not committed to a progressive future. At least for the next four years.”
And here’s where I’m happy to say that I was mistaken. Because while not enough Americans ensured that we would avoid our current nightmare—especially the 89 million who chose not to participate—I was wrong to assume that the pursuit of a progressive future would take four years.
We are on the precipice of a dramatic, possibly historic, shift in the power of Congress. And that shift will likely be led by two groups of Democrats: First, those who have grasped that their business-as-usual approaches to governance have failed to meet this moment. And second, the more progressive candidates who have surged in popularity because of their commitment to confronting Trump, corruption and the oligarchy.
By setting their sights on extreme economic inequality and a broken political system that has failed to provide the most basic rights to ordinary Americans, the progressives (along with awakened old school-types) are positioning themselves to deliver affordable healthcare, housing, food, utilities and more.
This “freedom from want”—which that famous “radical” Franklin Delano Roosevelt described in his “Four Freedoms” speech way back in 1941 as war was raging in Europe—remains a goal our rich society still struggles to achieve.
But FDR was quite clear then what the task included. He succinctly described “the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy,” calling them “simple, basic things.” These included “equality of opportunity, jobs for those who can work, security for those who need it, the ending of special privilege for the few, the preservation of civil liberties for all [and] the enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.”
Simple, right? And yet too many Americans feel further and further away from realizing that basic vision of a healthy and strong democracy for themselves.
But in just a few days, the outcome of the midterm elections will tell us whether there will be a new Democratic majority and new leaders who will pursue positive change to serve the actual needs of Americans. This—including turnout large enough to override efforts to deny the voters’ will—rather than two more wasteful years of Donald Trump’s unchecked stupidity and abuse.
It’s been my deep wish that we would never have fallen this low as a nation. But it’s my optimistic belief that Tuesday November 3 will reveal that Americans have finally gotten the message—and in their fury will not just hope for leaders to take strong, transformative action but demand it.
As we near the midterms, it’s more important than ever to support the survival of democracy. I remain committed to raising my voice as vividly and fiercely as I can. I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber for just $50 a year or $5 a month to show your support and enhance your engagement—to share your thoughts in the comments sections and access all content.
I fervently hope that your optimism is borne out to be true.
So succinct, Steven, thanks. Having voted early, in person, I was pleased to see so many persons turn out for this event. I actually had to wait in line for the next available machine in order to cast my vote. I don’t recall ever having to do this. Nice…. I remain Hopeful this is a sign for positive changes to come. That more Americans are less indifferent. More committed to a better understanding of the Democracy that has been under siege and of which they are a part of. And, further enlightened to better appreciate themselves and how important they are in participating in this “Grand Experiment”.