Where We're Heading

An Election Reflection and Beyond

Donald Trump has won the 2024 Presidential Election in the United States. While in so many ways this is anything but surprising, it still sent shock waves around the world.

First, how we got here. For way too long, the American people have been forced into a binary choice between 2 parties that don’t have their back or interest. 

The Democrats - The Democrats are an elitist institution that have nothing to be elitist about. As a political party, they are completely toothless and rudderless. They have little direction, policy or principles other than “we’re not the other guys.” They brand this as being a “wide tent”, which is more platitude nonsense. There is a reason there is nothing quite like them in the rest of the industrialized world. What few ideas they do have are rooted in lazy, half-baked neoliberal thought, that anyone with even the most basic understanding of human history can knock over with a feather. The main reason they have nothing to be elitist about though: They lose to Republicans half the time.

The Republicans - A ghoulish band of shysters, in more recent times adopting a faux populist persona that has not only been successful domestically, but the infection is spreading around the world. In reality, they are what they always have been: Theocratic fascists, bowing at the altars of capitalism and big business (same as Democrats), but they throw in some fringe religious dogma, racism, and eugenics for good measure.

Side note: Both of these institutions love war, but occasionally get a few lone voices who say otherwise. 

These are the choices the American people are expected to choose between. 

Because we are and always have been, as Gore Vidal put it, “the United States of Amnesia,” people take a chance on the other team when the current one in power does nothing to make their lives better.

Bush didn’t deliver so people took a chance on Obama.

Obama didn’t deliver so they took a chance on Trump.

Trump didn’t deliver so they took a chance on Biden.

Biden didn’t deliver, so, hey, let’s give this Trump guy another chance.

Rinse and repeat. 

Kamala Harris ran a near policy-free campaign which was not only accepted but given a full stamp of approval by a corporate media as out of touch as the Democratic Party itself. She refused to distance herself from the horrific foreign policy of Joe Biden, nor did she offer any solutions to domestic short comings.

Meanwhile, Trump was assembling a team of contrarian lackeys that would make any authoritarian giggle, and horrify anybody whose heart is capable of even the smallest amount of empathy.

When a status quo is broken, it can be made better, or it can be made worse.

The American people chose to make it worse. For the record, better wasn’t on the menu. At least, not within the duopoly. It was more of the same, or make it worse.

As of the writing of this, the appointments so far have been nothing short of terrifying. Matt Gaetz, Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, RFK Jr., and let’s not forget Elon Musk. By the way, the irony doesn’t escape me that the party of supposed “small government” plans to make a new governmental institution before even taking office.

Our public health institutions, education, climate efforts, and world relations will be decimated beyond recognition. While all of these entities are already, to put it very gently, not great, what will replace them will be even worse.

At the end of the day, we are, and have been, heading towards the same cliff. The American people were given a choice to head towards the edge slower, or faster. They chose faster.

I seldom bring up exactly how bad I think it’s going to get here. Mainly because it’s not the most uplifting subject in the world. I’ve been called everything from a doomer to a prepper to a Nihilist and none of those terms are even remotely applicable to me.

I am, however, a realist. 

I’m also somebody who doesn’t sugarcoat things. 

I’m also somebody who has never been terribly fond of the country I was born in, and at this point in my life have completed the stages of grief and landed on acceptance.

So, this is my unfiltered prediction of what’s to come. This was my prediction long before November, and after November the only thing that has changed is the possible timeline.

I predict that within the next 5 - 10 years (probably closer to 5 now) a very significant amount of people in this country will become food insecure.

Side note: At times I have been criticized for my use of the phrase “food insecure”. Critics say it’s just a polite way of saying “hungry”. While in principle I understand the intention behind said criticism, I don’t think it applies here.

While those terms are often used interchangeably, they are in fact two different things. Hunger or going hungry refers to being in a constant state of not having enough food, be it due to access or poverty or whatever else. Food insecurity does not necessarily mean no food at all or no access, it means that all too often one must decide between buying groceries or paying rent, because both isn’t an option. Said person may or may not be going hungry. Even if they can’t buy food they may still be able to obtain it. So, when I say ‘food insecurity’ in this case, it’s because that is, quite literally, what I mean.

Anyway, a significant number of people in this country will be food insecure, at which point there will be uprisings. The military, the police, extremist and right-wing militia groups are all on the same side - the authoritarians, and they’ve got everyone else out armed. So, I see said uprising being crushed. Immediately.

Meanwhile, our institutions will continue to crumble until the gap between the rich and the poor will widen beyond magnitude, which it nearly already is.

The United States will continue to be a playground for nazi-adjacent sociopathic plutocrats, and it will increase in severity. 

To end on a bit of a higher note: I could be COMPLETELY wrong about all of this. This forecast is not set in stone. An event, movement, catastrophe, whatever, could change the course of everything.

The next 4 years could bring about a labor movement unlike anything we’ve seen in generations, we could have a General Strike, there could be a real populist movement replacing the fake one, all of these things are possible. Would I bet on any of them?

Hell no.

Could I end up being wrong about how bad it’s going to get? Definitely. Honestly, I hope I am. I hope someday this piece goes down as a heeded warning and not an “I Told You So.”

In the meantime, hold your loved ones close, enjoy your life the best you can, look around in your community and if you have support, you’re better off than most, if you don’t, try to change your situation if you can, though I know many people lack the funds or resources to move. 

Pour your energy into where you feel you’ll be the most useful.

For me, local efforts, labor, strikes, protests and mutual aid are king. Policy battles are always worth the time. With electoral politics, I keep it barely within arm’s length.

Also, don’t give in to hate or bigotry. Your problem is not the immigrant, it’s not the Trans person, it’s not pronouns, it’s not political correctness, it’s not the woke mob.

It’s the ruling class, the oligarchs, the banks, the war machine, Wall Street. Summed up: The problem is Capitalism. The sooner we all realize that the better.