America failed
Zander's Weekend Facts #144 - Sunday, November 10, 2024
It’s the Saturday night after the 2024 presidential election. My playlist consisting of Elton John, Luke Combs, and others is booming in my headphones. Alabama’s domination of LSU is on full display on the television that sits in the corner of my eye. And I have absolutely no idea how I should start writing this newsletter.
By now, you’re aware that Donald Trump has been elected the 47th President of the United States, just the second man in American history to serve as president in non-consecutive terms. And if you watched my election preview released last Sunday, have read or listened to any of the political content Zander’s Facts has produced, or know me even just a little bit on a personal level, you know it’s not the outcome I preferred, or hoped for.
There are many reasons for this, and I’m not about to dissect my entire political belief system here, but these past few elections have felt like there’s more on the line than just typical policy differences. Of course, as someone who’s only been eligible to vote since 2020 due to age restrictions, I haven’t voted in a national election where it feels like this isn’t the case.
There are countless post-mortem op-eds available for your viewing pleasure on the internet right now, many of them claiming to know exactly why Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democrats are not celebrating right now. Oh, of course, trotting Liz Cheney out onto the campaign trail as a hero was a rather ridiculous idea. The Democrats should have known that they never would have won when most Americans feel worse off now than they did four years ago. Hopefully this newsletter is not that, since it’s rather farcical to claim you know why the country voted the way it did when all the votes haven’t even been counted yet.
In the days since the results became known, I’ve been able to chat with people of many differing beliefs. My friends who admitted to me they voted for the president-elect were obviously a little more cheerful. They believe that “Trump will fix it”, whatever needs to be fixed, and seem focused more on issues like the cost of living than the threats to democracy.
Maybe I’m lucky in those I associate myself with, but I don’t think these people are inherently bad because they vote a different way. When I ask about the incredulous things that Trump says or does on a near daily basis (I feel like nine years into this thing I don’t need to provide examples), they either say they hadn’t heard him say that, or they have but overlook it because that’s just “Trump being Trump” and issues like the economy are more important.
I’m just glad they trust me enough to divulge their opinions to me, even when it’s known we’re opposites in an era of hyper-polarization. It’s taught me that a) most people don’t follow politics as closely as I do (probably a good thing for their mental health, tbh) and b) just because someone comes from a different point of view that shapes the way they view the world doesn’t mean they are lesser.
It’s hard to understand how the median voter comes to the decisions they do when you are engulfed in the political world and get dozens of news notifications every day. When I saw the Google trends graphs showing searches for questions like “Did Biden drop out?” and “Who is Kamala Harris?” spiking during the final days of the election, it served as a stark reminder of the fact that so many people just do not follow politics. I mean, yes, those are simple questions that every American should know, but I try not to judge because every circumstance is different. Just like the same Google trends showing searches for “Are tariffs bad?” spiking after the election. Again, *deep breath*, not judging.
And I get it. I understand why people would vote for Donald Trump, even when they aren’t racist, misogynist, or full of complete hatred. I believe these are the ideals that Trump espouses and ultimately enables, but I don’t believe all of his supporters share these sentiments. He is a wild, sometimes out-of-control character, but that can be fun. The man, for all of our sakes, should have taken up comedy instead of politics because he would be making a killing and likely wouldn’t face all the vitriol. He’s genuinely funny, whether he tries to be or not, and his no-frills personality relates to people. I fundamentally disagree and don’t believe we should have that type of personality as the leader of the free world, to add on to all the policy and cultural differences I have with him, but I at least understand why some people would want that.
The Republicans really hit the jackpot, because after eight years of President Barack Obama, they were reeling, and they struck gold. Republican policies aren’t even that popular. Abortion rights keep on winning in the vast majority of states where it’s voted on. Same for raising the minimum wage and even giving taxpayer funds to private schools was rejected by voters in Kentucky and Nebraska last week. Yet, right now, they have the vibes. And in 2024, America is voting based on vibes.
So I’ve learned to understand the opposite point of view.
But I’ve also talked with people who feel some form of let down, distraught, and frankly, scared.
In 2016, a woman finally became a major party’s presidential nominee, got the most votes, and still didn’t win. That’s demoralizing, especially when the right-wing outrage machine took great efforts to disparage that candidate in the run-up to the election. Eight years later and a woman is hoisted to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden shockingly decides it’s time to go on one Sunday morning in July.
And looking back, it’s almost like Kamala Harris was set up to fail. The administration that she had served in as vice president had basically hidden her in the broom closet for three-and-a-half years while Biden drove around in his Corvette, and waited until the last possible moment to let her out and give her the keys. In a year where incumbent parties worldwide were consistently getting trounced. And when the administration had failed to convince Americans that the economy was actually doing pretty well, since the economy was the number one issue in the election.
And say what you will about Kamala Harris, although your opinion quite possibly might have been shaped by that same right-wing outrage machine that has now successfully disparaged the images of two leading female politicians, but the campaign she ran proved that she would have served America well.
In the ~100 days she was given to build a campaign and compete in a presidential election, she rejuvenated the energy on the Democratic side, even if it didn’t manifest in the same amount of votes as Joe Biden received four years ago. But internal polling after the disastrous debate in June was showing Biden himself getting about half the electoral votes Harris ultimately did.
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And while I said I didn’t want to turn this into a confident post-mortem, it’s pretty clear that no matter who the Democrats ran, they would’ve lost unless they were somehow able to convince Americans that they shouldn’t punish the incumbent party for inflation. Yes, I know, inflation was a worldwide phenomenon post-Covid that the U.S. and Joe Biden’s administration actually handled relatively well. It was not entirely Biden’s fault that prices rose as much as they did. Does that matter to the average voter? No, because they saw prices rise under Joe Biden and when Donald Trump was president, a Big Mac was half the cost, so guess who they voted for? (Another takeaway from my political conversations and just living on earth for 22 years: life is incredibly complex, and those who try to simplify it, or follow along to those who attempt to simplify it for them, will end up missing the point in some form or fashion.)
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Anyways, Harris was able to build a campaign that at least gave Democrats the sense that they could win. And that was very different than what they felt under the previous campaign of the 2024 cycle. She thoroughly trounced her opponent at the sole debate between the two, and gave what I believe to be one of the all-time convention speeches at this year’s Democratic National Convention, where she thoroughly nipped any thoughts that she didn’t have the presidential ‘aura’ in the bud.
If she had won on Tuesday night, the below picture of her giving her acceptance speech at the DNC with her grandniece watching on would have become one of the most iconic photos in American history.
For someone who tends to compartmentalize the effects that an outcome has, especially when it so drastically changes the course of American society, this one really really hurts.
Kamala Harris deserves so much better. She doesn’t deserve to have her political career ended by a man who has not just been accused, but been found guilty of rape. By a man who refused to rent to black people in New York in the 1970s, simply because of the color of their skin. By a man who promises to take away rights that women have fought decades, even centuries, to have.
(Another lesson I’ve learned: life is cruel, sometimes for no reason.)
I know many people don’t take time to analyze the effects of historical outcomes like I do, and that’s totally fine, but for those that do, especially women, what does that say? What does this outcome say about America to women? That one of the most qualified individuals (forget just women, you’d be hard-pressed to name a handful of people more qualified to be president than Kamala Harris) doesn’t get to be president largely because of factors out of their immediate control.
It feels like an absolute slap in the face. Women deserve so much better. Black Americans deserve so much better. Asian Americans deserve so much better.
It leads me to another point that deserves attention in the aftermath of this election. Young men, of all races but particularly white, were galvanized by Trump in this election. That’s thanks to the president-elect’s efforts to reach them by going on popular podcasts and shooting the shit with the likes of Theo Von and Joe Rogan that Democrats did not replicate. But it’s also thanks to many young men feeling left behind by recent cultural shifts that have taken place in society.
Now, do Democrats tend to take it too far with slogans such as “the future is female” and have some on the far-left begun to villainize all men in the present day for the horrific actions of our ancestors? Yes, this does happen. But when movements that empower women, minorities, and those that have been systematically held back by institutions in the past turn off white men, those that are veering towards the likes of Trump are missing the point entirely.
Just give people a fucking chance.
So many Americans took the Black Lives Matter movement as Black Americans saying that their lives should matter more than others. But that’s not it at all. At its core, it was and is about equity. Giving Black Americans, who have been systematically oppressed by their own government for much of our nation’s history, an equal chance at succeeding. At improving our country to the point where your race shouldn’t give you a better or worse chance at buying a home, getting into college, or achieving your dream career.
An alarming number of people took the me-too movement as women trying to gain an advantage over men in society. But again, that’s not it at all. Me-too and other movements were and are fundamentally aimed at ensuring men and women are placed on equal footing. That men shouldn’t be able to get away with violating women’s bodies. That your gender shouldn’t give a predetermined outcome on whether you’re likely to make more or less money than the opposite gender.
There are so many people living in this country who feel that they have no chance. That the current status of American society and institutions gives them little to no opportunity to succeed. Whether or not this is actually the case can certainly be debated, but the sole fact that a not-insignificant portion of our fellow Americans feel this way is the real problem.
Unfortunately, the messaging around these topics has been extremely flawed, allowing for those on the right with devious intentions to frame them as dangers to the white male hegemony. Many young men, who I believe truly mean well, have now been led to believe incredible falsehoods that can radically alter anyone’s worldview. (And on behalf of young white men, I do apologize.)
Make no mistake, the Democratic Party is certainly at fault here, for failing to capture this new generation of voters before the right-wing spin machine can get their hands on unsuspecting Gen Zers on YouTube. That’s just one of the many faults the Democrats have, and this election result best serve as a reckoning that requires the party take a deep look inward and redesign the entire structure from top to bottom.
This election was defined by two improbables. One succeeded and one didn’t. The one that succeeded was the story of a “successful” businessman whose businesses declared bankruptcy six times, became president, left office in disgrace after launching his supporters into the Capitol by lying to them about a stolen election, was convicted on criminal charges, and survived an assassination attempt. You can say it was improbable for Trump to get back to the point of being president after undergoing those circumstances. But it’s not the improbable I wanted to succeed.
The improbable I wanted was a woman who grew up in California to parents who immigrated to America from Jamaica and India, who was the first woman Attorney General in California’s history, was just the second member of the U.S. Senate to be a black woman, and was the first woman vice president, to become the first woman president in the history of the United States of America. That did not happen, and in my opinion, will haunt this country for generations to come.
I know many people are scared of what is to come. And when the man who has just been elected president has promised to bring harm to nearly every minority community in this country in a variety of ways, that fear is not unjust. That fear is not unjust when boys are already telling girls “your body, my choice” in schools because of what they’ve heard online or at home. That fear is not unjust when Black Americans are receiving text messages telling them they’ve been “selected to pick cotton” at their “nearest plantation.”
And while I’m fortunate enough to not have a sense of fear for myself, I fear for what will happen to those I care about. And that certainly does not translate to being full of hope, either. I’m distraught at the fact that when presented with the options America was presented with, it chose the one it did. Not because of the inherent values of the candidates, the sides, or the campaigns. But because it decided the small chance of bringing down the cost of chicken nuggets outweighs the other misdeeds. (Spoiler alert: prices will not be decreasing under the next presidential administration.) I’m distraught at the fact that the candidacy of Kamala Harris was essentially wasted.
And because of everything I’ve written above, I truly believe that in this election, America failed.
I still hope, though, that the aforementioned image at the DNC lives on in the history books, whatever form they take in the future. Because it shows the fundamental “promise of America.” That promise has not become reality yet, but I believe it will soon. And that’s worth fighting for right now.
As Kamala Harris said in her concession speech, “Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win.”
Zander’s Facts Sporting Club
Here are the latest headlines from the sports world in the Sporting Club:
NFL Week 10: The week 10 NFL slate opened up on Thursday night with one of the games of the year between the Bengals and Ravens. The Ravens pulled out a 35-34 victory after the Bengals failed a two-point conversion attempt in the final minute of the game. Shifting to Sunday, today’s action begins in Germany with the Giants and Panthers facing off in Munich at 9:30 am ET. The 1:00 pm ET window is highlighted by Bills-Colts, Broncos-Chiefs, 49ers-Buccaneers, and Steelers-Commanders. At 4:00 pm ET, the Titans take on the Jaguars, the Jets face the Cardinals, and the Cowboys host the Eagles. Tonight at 8:20 pm ET, the Lions travel to Houston to face the Texans. Week 10 concludes tomorrow night at 8:15 pm ET with the Dolphins taking on the Rams.
College Football Week 11: #11 Alabama dominated rival #15 LSU in college football’s top game of the weekend, with the Crimson Tide winning 42-13. Also in the SEC, #16 Ole Miss pulled off a massive victory over #3 Georgia 28-10, and #5 Texas took care of Florida 49-17. Elsewhere, Georgia Tech took down previously undefeated #4 Miami 28-23, #8 Indiana held on against Michigan 20-15, #9 BYU came back to beat Utah 22-21, and #20 Colorado took down Texas Tech 41-27. Plus, #23 Clemson beat Virginia Tech 24-14, Virginia upset #18 Pittsburgh on the road 24-19, and Kansas took down #17 Iowa State 45-36.
UEFA Champions League: Matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League’s league phase took place last week, with Liverpool retaining sole position at the top of the table after a 4-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen. Other notable results included a 3-1 AC Milan win on the road over Real Madrid, Sporting CP taking down Manchester City 4-1, Arsenal falling to Inter Milan 1-0, and Atletico Madrid topping Paris Saint-German 2-1. The league phase continues with Matchday 5 taking place on November 26 and 27.
College Basketball: The college basketball season tipped off on Monday, with Kansas taking the top spot in the preseason AP Top 25 poll. The Jayhawks proved their #1 ranking was valid with a 92-89 win over #9 North Carolina on Friday. Defending champions UConn, who are seeking to become the first team to win three consecutive men’s national championships since UCLA in the early 1970s, are ranked #3 to open the year. On the women’s side, defending champions South Carolina top the preseason AP Top 25 poll, with #2 UConn and #3 USC following close behind. The Gamecocks host #9 NC State today at 3:00 pm ET on ESPN in one of the top matchups of the early season.
NBA Cup: The NBA’s in-season tournament, newly dubbed the ‘Emirates NBA Cup’, is set to make its second season debut on Tuesday. On designated days of the regular season, teams will play in games that will also count as Group Play games. At the end of Group Play on December 3, the winners of each of the six groups, along with two wild card teams, will advance to the Knockout Rounds. Tuesday kicks off Group Play as 16 teams are in action, including a doubleheader on TNT with Knicks-76ers at 7:30 pm ET and Mavericks-Warriors at 10:00 pm ET.
Rapid-fire Facts
Here’s a recap of the top news headlines from the past week:
POTUS Transition: President-elect Donald Trump is expected to meet with current President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday. Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signaled last week that they would aid in the transition that will take place before Trump takes office on January 20. Trump infamously refused to invite Biden to the White House after Biden’s election victory in 2020. Also last week, Trump made the first major personnel move for his new administration, tapping campaign manager Susie Wiles as the White House chief of staff. Wiles will become the first woman to serve in the role.
Congress Elections: Republicans have captured control of the Senate after Tuesday’s elections, flipping at least four seats. Republican candidates were declared the winners in Senate elections in Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with all four seats previously being held by Democrats. One race has yet to be called, with Democrat Rep. Ruben Gallego currently leading in Arizona’s Senate race, which is currently controlled by Democrats. Control of the House of Representatives is still uncertain, with 23 races still to be called. Republicans currently have 212 seats compared to 200 won by Democrats, with 218 needed for a majority.
Abortion Referendums: 10 states had abortion on the ballot on Tuesday, with abortion rights groups claiming victory in a majority of the races. Efforts to expand abortion access in Arizona and Missouri succeeded, while Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, and New York enshrined abortion rights in their state constitutions. Abortion referendums failed in Florida and South Dakota, while Nebraska rejected a referendum that would have allowed abortion access until viability but approved a referendum preserving the state’s 12-week abortion ban.
Trump Court Cases: In the aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, the Department of Justice is determining how it will proceed in two federal court cases against him. Special counsel Jack Smith is reportedly working to wind down the cases against Trump before January’s inauguration. According to long-standing DOJ policy, sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted for crimes. Trump was previously indicted for seeking to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, along with holding onto classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence and obstructing federal law enforcement attempts to retrieve them.
Interest Rates: Despite a bustling week in Washington, the Federal Reserve moved to lower interest rates for the second straight time on Wednesday. The Federal Open Market Committee announced it would be lowering the benchmark borrowing rate by a quarter point to 4.50%-4.75%. The Fed had previously lowered rates by half a point at their last meeting in September. Last week also saw the stock market closing at record highs on the backs of an election-fueled rally. The Dow Jones Industrial Average topped 44,000 points for the first time on Friday, while the S&P 500 closed at a record high of 5,995.54 and the Nasdaq Composite finished just below 20,000 points.
Wrapping up the Facts
That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, November 17, 2024.