“It’s bitter in the mouth, the racial and gender dimension of this.” This was Van Jones, the CNN political analyst and a Black American, talking at 3.10am EST the evening of the US election. To his proper, David Axelrod, the previous senior adviser to Barack Obama, maintained what within the circumstances regarded like a supernatural composure, as if by means of sheer civility he may put this proper. The CNN anchors, 14 hours into their marathon shift, had been deep into that adrenalised territory the place no human sentiment survives. Jones regarded as if he was going cry.
I had woken at 4.30am GMT, glanced on the blizzard of messages stacked up on my cellphone, and had the thought that for so long as I didn’t know what had occurred, nothing had occurred in any respect. Isn’t this a primary philosophical precept? The evening earlier than, issues had regarded good. Up to now two weeks of the election Trump had appeared, even by his requirements, to have gone utterly off the beam. The shock ballot in Iowa had augured a well-liked swing from the correct in the direction of Harris. Males, who help Trump in bigger numbers than girls, can typically be relied upon to skip voting.
In New York, a metropolis I left this summer season after 17 years, the one Trump enclave of Staten Island had proven indicators of a shift when the borough’s native newspaper, the Staten Island Advance, endorsed Harris. All of which pointed in a single completely satisfied course. At 5am, I checked out my cellphone and noticed the highest message, despatched 5 hours earlier from a pal in Lengthy Island. “We are going to lose. Fucking insane.” And so it started.
Information of Trump’s victory was not possible to soak up, notably in entrance of kids. As they bought up and blamelessly ate their breakfast, Trump was making his victory speech in Florida. He mentioned of Elon Musk “a star is born”. He flapped on concerning the border. He beamed. It took each shred of self-restraint to not say out loud the bitter profanity flying forwards and backwards on our telephones, and merely to spit “go to hell” on the TV.
Additionally: “God, I hate men.” This was the start of a blame spiral that can take a very long time to play out. A pal on layover at San Francisco airport despatched pictures of a bunch of males, and a single lady, high-fiving one another on the gate. It was noticeable on the information panels how keen the white male company had been to explain Trump’s success purely in financial phrases. Individuals had extra money throughout his time in workplace and whether or not or not Trump had something to do with it, People had voted for him on the power of the affiliation.
This was high quality and true, up to a degree. But it surely additionally denied a primary actuality: that American males couldn’t convey themselves to vote for a lady. Latino males flocked to Trump at a higher charge than in earlier elections – based on NBC exit polls, Trump led Harris in that demographic 54%-44%. In the meantime, 59% of white males voted for Trump, and 52% of white girls. A whopping 92% of black girls voted for Harris, in comparison with about 80% of black males.
On CNN, a GOP speaking head made the purpose that Trump’s win was an indication of how essential it was to take heed to marginalised communities, by which he appeared to imply poor white people. Guess who else, traditionally, haven’t been listened to? “Black women,” mentioned Van Jones, a demographic no one gave two shits about earlier than – I’m offended, paraphrasing – and hey-ho, nobody’s listening to them now.
The explanation this felt a lot worse than 2016 was as a result of it was not possible to say People didn’t know what they had been voting for. After the preliminary shock had subsided, that first Trump victory had been straightforward to excuse and rationalise. Hillary Clinton had an excessive amount of baggage. Trump was absurd, however in novel ways in which turned the heads of people that thought actuality TV was actual. After 6 January, after his indictments and convictions, after the eye given to Mission 2025, none of those excuses wash. And, after all, this time, lining up behind Trump comes a caravan of the worst individuals on this planet. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley each returned to the Senate; Lauren Boebert profitable a seat within the Home. On X, Elon Musk took a victory lap. The New York Put up revealed a photograph of Trump grinning.
For a small demographic – Americans outdoors the US – there was a ping of tiny, consoling aid. An American pal messaged from Norfolk, the place she moved together with her household final yr. “We got out in time. Fucker says he’s got a mandate from God.” For everybody else, it was horrible. A pal working in a single day as a medic at one of many information networks had, at 7pm the earlier evening, been joking that her greatest drawback was the make-up artists on straight 24-hour shifts kicking down her door for arduous medicine. Now she texted, “this doesn’t feel real”.
It didn’t. Not the end result, or the volley of intestine punches. The one factor that got here near the sensation of unreality on Wednesday morning was how the world felt within the hours after 9/11. “Trump storms back,” screamed the New York Instances headline that People woke as much as, and the phrase “storm” was aptly chosen. On the finish of his victory speech, Trump mentioned that this second may develop into one in every of nice historic significance, a bit of flattery thrown within the course of his supporters, however that is still deeply – and terrifyingly – true for us all.
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Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
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