It was a wave, but it was not a mandate, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Perhaps the most shocking part of the election is that the polls were basically right, we are in a 50/50 place. It doesn’t make the outcome substantially different, but know that you are not alone; about half the country is in shock right now.

I’m sure that the lawfare response will begin soon, but it will only be nibbling around the edges.

I’m sure we will have more to say later, but first coffee.

UPDATE 1: From the HuffPo(!) –

They want us to cower. They want us to capitulate. They want us to turn on each other and live in fear. But even if this election shows that the original sins and wounds of this country have never been properly dealt with or healed, even if it shows there are people who would rather destroy this country than share in its vision — we cannot stop. We cannot afford to give up or give in to anything. Now is the time to find a strength within us, a strength given to us by those who came before us to fight back. This is not new. We have faced these kinds of people before. We have witnessed these kinds of horrors before. And we have beat them.

And we will beat them again.

Not because I know we have it within us to fight, but because you can’t put the formerly oppressed back in “their place” anymore than you can cram the toothpaste back in the tube. What was accomplished in the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s might be relitigated and knocked down by a conservative-leaning, Trump-supporting, activist Supreme Court, but you can’t take away the last six decades of progress and people striving for that more perfect union. You can’t erase our memories. You can’t legislate us to the back of the bus and expect us to sit there. We can either learn how to live together as a people, respect each other and the rule of law, or you can fight us. All of us.

UPDATE 2: Hell done froze over — I’m agreeing with something Tom Nichols wrote:

“Paradoxically, however, Trump’s reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena. America is a federal republic, and the states—at least those in the union that will still care about democracy—have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president. Nothing is inevitable, and democracy will not fall overnight.”

It’s like asian martial arts: use them against themselves.

UPDATE 3: From the Pod Saves Whatevs email thingie

The question is: How far will he be able to go? And what kind of resistance will he face? What forces, if any, will keep him in check?

• Standing in the way of Trump’s most destructive impulses will be congressional Democrats, much of the media, and (to an extent) the courts. And there’s another crucial factor in what happens next: Everyday citizens. That means you, dear What A Day reader.

• A lot will depend on what voters are willing to put up with — and what they’ll make a ruckus about, what they’ll march for, what they’ll speak out about, and what they’ll tell their congressional representatives and state leaders. Congress remains a key check on presidential power. Governors and state legislatures can counterbalance a corrupt or bumbling White House, as they did during the pandemic.

Whether Trump succeeds in fundamentally transforming American society, or fails, will largely depend on the reaction he gets — including from everyday, average folks like you. Buckle up. It’s time to get involved.

Don’t self-censor is the message.

Republished with permission from Mock Paper Scissors.