Aftermath

A post for November 6th, 2024.

On election day I had a video call with my friend David. When his face popped up on the screen, he said something I didn’t expect: “I don’t know if I like talking to you on this day.”

Like I said, David and I are friends. Had I done something to offend him? But then I remembered. He was referring to something that happened eight years ago.

You see, exactly eight years ago to the day, David and I were on a video call with a few other people talking about planning an event. It was a fairly ordinary day in some ways, except of course it was also the day of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Everyone on the call had been following the news closely, and we all had the same expectation of what would happen. All of us had voted for Hillary Clinton, and the only question was “How many states would she win?”

Then, of course, we were all very wrong. As we talked about other things on the call, from time to time someone would sneak over to look at the election results, then return with a grim update.

Well, here we were, eight years later! And David was worried—not really worried, just superstitiously worried—that he and I were once again talking on the afternoon of a day in which the world would shift one way or another. 

You know what happened next, of course. 

I’ll be honest with you: I did not foresee this outcome. I didn’t foresee 2016 either, but this time I figured, well, a lot has happened since then. I won’t catalog the list of changes, but among other things, millions of new, young voters have registered in the past eight years. So for all sorts of reasons, including the “vibes” of the Harris campaign, not to mention the general rhetoric of the other side, I thought she’d at least squeak through. 

But obviously that’s not what happened. 

Further, it’s clear that “what’s happened” is different than what happened in 2016. Back then, some of us thought it was a glitch, one of those “history moves forwards and backwards” Obama-isms that offered a begrudging measure of hope and insight. 

So this time, I dunno, do we go away and study the lessons of the French resistance? Do we plan to storm the capitol and have our own January 6th?

But of course, we’re not going to do that, because we’re not the ones who claim that elections are stolen when we don’t like the results. We’re just going to be sad, mad, enraged, disappointed, flummoxed, mildly existential, and maybe slightly unhinged.

Or at least that’s how many of us are feeling. I do realize that some people who read this post will feel differently, because that’s the nature of a polarized world. I can’t worry about that too much, though. My commitment is to share openly and honestly, and I’ve been an activist one way or another my whole adult life.

So for those who—like me—are experiencing those feelings of shock, it will take some time to grieve and process. Then, ultimately the question we’ll land on is: what do we do now? That’s the through line. What do we do now. 

And with that in mind, I think the post I wrote before the election might be more helpful than anything else I could say at the moment. A brief excerpt: 

Sitting around feeling depressed and anxious, I know well, tends to make the initial feelings worse. But if I can find a way to move forward and take active action, often I improve.

Following this logic, I learned a simple tactic that’s helped a lot. I still do it often, even when I’m not sad or depressed.  

The two-part solution is: when you’re not sure what to do, make something and help someone. That’s it! 

What happens now? We can make something and help someone. These two things are within our control, even when it feels like not much else is.

Aside from that concept, I don’t have any words of advice. I think what we all need presently is some time, so I’ll end the note for now. I’ll take Friday off and be back on Monday with something new. 

Take care of yourselves, my friends. 💚

P.S. To be safe, David and I have resolved to refrain from all contact on future election days. I don’t think it was our fault, but I’m very sorry if it was.