Votes are still being tabulated this morning as I write this piece, but, to my disappointment, it appears Donald Trump may have won the 2024 election. That is a tragedy for our country and reason to fear for the future.
Some will say the election is behind us and that it is time to accept Trump returning to power. This is a mammoth lift for many of us, given who Trump is, the things he said during the election, and his agenda. I’m not there yet.
Franklin Roosevelt told America in his Inaugural address in 1933, “We have nothing to fear except fear itself.” Sorry America, with another Trump presidency, we have a lot to fear.
Earlier this week, I wrote drafts of two editorials, but neither fit the apparent outcome of the election. The first anticipated a Harris win, my now-embarrassing prediction. It was titled, “Hallelujah! Now Let’s Get to Work.” The piece offered Harris advice on how to reunite America.
The other piece, anticipating a narrow Trump win, was titled, “Tell Me It Isn’t So.” That piece expressed concern about Trump claiming a win despite the final vote, commented that throughout the campaign, Trump “hasn’t been right,” and shared the worry that if Trump won, J.D. Vance likely would be a future U.S. president.
I closed my piece expressing the hope that if Trump won, he would change. I wrote that one thing might prove Trump-doomsayers wrong: “The nasty, racist, misogynistic, lying Trump who has polluted our airways for the last two years could change. I would welcome that change, but don’t expect it. A 78-year-old man with discernible mental deterioration will not want to sit in the White House to oversee implementation of the policy agenda outlined in Project 2025. Deporting millions of “illegals,” many of whom have been in the United States for years, is not easy work. Will Trump want to forego rounds of golf to personally design the “deportation camps” required to implement the plan?”
Trump’s victory speech earlier this morning included a lengthy encomium to Elon Musk, the billionaire who pumped millions into the Trump campaign’s closing months and who has been promised a job in the new administration. Trump’s untethered comments about Musk are reason to worry. It looks like Musk got his money’s worth.
Why did Trump win? With advance apologies to some Trump voters, let me suggest that many Americans were not ready for a Black, South Asian woman president. Other Trump voters bought into the nasty Trump campaign message that Harris was “low IQ,” a communist (remember “Comrade Kamala?”) or believe that Trump kept America out of wars through skillful diplomacy. I could go on, but Trump’s campaign took advantage of naïve and lazy voters and unleashed the weapon of mass destruction of aggressive lying, discrediting the mainstream press and appealing to our fears and prejudices.
Trump is now president-elect, according to Fox News and what I expect will be a growing number of other news outlets. That makes today a sad day for America. We appear to have elected a criminal to the White House who believes “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
In the coming days, we will read about Trump’s plans to dismiss pending criminal actions against him and to vacate his 34 felony convictions. He will also seek to end State criminal prosecutions against him. The “January 6 patriots,” or at least most of them, will soon be released from jail.
I expect outrageous Trump political appointments, including RFK, Jr., Musk, and possibly the Federal Judge who dismissed the indictments brought against Trump for absconding with federal secret documents and handling them recklessly. Will Judge Aileen Cannon be the next Attorney General? Given Trump’s top priorities, she would be a good choice.
I hope Trump does not follow through on his promises of retribution against Judges, prosecutors, the mainstream media, writers, and other political opponents, but expect it. The retribution may be executed subtly, but it will come.
Vladimir Putin is celebrating Trump’s election. The probable president-elect has promised to end the war in Ukraine before Inauguration Day. Yesterday was a sad day for Ukraine and democracy. Trump is likely to hand a victory to Russia.
I will also hope that Trump is not psychologically troubled as he has appeared on the campaign trail. I hope he remains healthy. The only thing worse than Trump in the White House is J.D. Vance.
The Apostle Paul in Galatians 6:7 said, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” I fear that America is about to reap what was sowed in the 2024 election. May God help us.
Let me close on a positive note: Angela Alsobrooks has been elected to the U.S. Senate. Congratulations, Senator-Elect.
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant. He writes on politics, government, and, too infrequently, other subjects.
Mickey Terrone says
Hello John. I share your disappointment but I feel more disillusioned with the various elements of the Democratic Party’s Big Tent. For Harris to lose the popular vote by 6 million to a scoundrel out on bail is unforgivable. Fear mongering bigotry seasoned with mysogyny, anti-LBGTQ, massive dark money interests, foreign authoritarian influence and environmental deniers won the day. Americans blithely looked past Trump’s personal, professional and immmoral depravities. At 10:30 AM on Wednesday morning, the Dow was up 1,300+ points (3.2%). Big business knows it is free to control any and all environmental or regulatory pressures and they will pay little or no personal taxes.
My disillusion extends to America’s minorities, who failed adequately to support VP Harris and succumbed to the Trump demagogic rhetoric. Women who may find themselves or their daughters or sisters or cousins in need of an abortion deserted their own kind. Maybe they feel they’ll be able to sneak off for an abortion like in the old days. Spanish speaking males looked the other way from Trump’s “vermin” remarks and the Puerto Rican comment about the island of garbage. Maybe they all feel insulated from the deportation list. My sense is that these people have made their own beds and there will be many dear prices to pay for their votes. Arabs/Muslims in Michigan who showed their teeth to Biden/Harris forgot about Trump’s Muslim ban.
Like you, John, I have expressed my views and the public has spoken otherwise. My respone will be to step away from my traditional community volunteer activities and focus on my family’s needs and priorities. My sense is that America has now entered our post-democratic republic era and is now destined to be far closer to a practical oligarchy. The next four years of sustained demolition of the governmental infrastructure and leadership that has made America great will now accelerate our slide from the American ideal. We sold out to the oligarchs. With the courts already anti-democratic, the opportunity freely to appoint several more right wing fanatics to SCOTUS (and lower courts) will ensure radical conservatism for decades to come. Taking apart the Department of Education will cripple public schools and return private, segregated education by class, the norm in this country again. Say goodbye to the integrity of the State Department, Department of Energy and other public interest edifices that protect America’s traditional standards of excellence. The hundreds of millions in dark money now control our campaigns. Musk’s $100,000,000 will be quickly refunded by his tax breaks and control of the billions in government contracts his businesses will almost certainly gain. His willingness to support his political confidant, Vladimir Putin by cutting off Ukraine’s “Starlink” internet service that protects Ukraine from Russia’s missile attacks, is an horrendous example of this dangerous risk to national security but also of the confluence of oligarchs’ greed, political power and murderous treachery.
From a personal standpoint, I believe America has turned its back on the sacrifices of our “Greatest Generation” and has now accepted the authoritarian and fascistic narrative put forth by Trump and his accomplices. While I acknowledge the work of many neighbors to vote to protect our American traditions, I cannot abide, nor will I accept the involvement of any of my neighbors in this American catastrophy. I’m too old to particpate in organized resistence but frankness and candor are necessary adequately to assess the damage to our country.
I’m sure you will continue to do your part as will I. But today is a dark day in our country’s history.
John Dean says
Mickey: Thanks for this analysis–more worthwhile to read than my piece.
Trump purposefully destroyed Harris’ brand, belittling her at every opportunity and successfully appealing to racist sentiments many voters have. Harris ran a good campaign, but she is a Black South Asian Woman. That is the vulnerability that Trump identified. He targeted that and supplemented his efforts by suggesting, or having his surrogates suggest, that Harris was responsible for everything controversial in the Biden administration, “slept her way to the top,” and was “Comrade Kamala.”
I hope history holds Trump accountable for his overtly racist campaign. Somehow, I think it will.
Linda Cades says
Thank you Mr. Terrone for saying so well what many of us are thinking. I hope once you have had a chance to deal with this election outcome, you will join likeminded others and organize to oppose everything Trump will try to do. We did it after the 2016 election, and we can and will do it again. I’m older now too, and I have less energy than I used to. However, I have to fight to protect the benefits my 46 year old, developmentally disabled son, gets from Medicaid. Medicaid will be one of Musk/Kennedy’s first targets. People who care about health care, the environment, education, or senior citizens must fight for the things that matter to them. There is no alternative.
Sam Willson says
This article perfectly illustrates why Trump won the election. Turns out calling over half your fellow citizens stupid nazi racists for eight years is not a winning strategy.
Darrell Jenkins says
Like so many others that drink the great again grape juice you seem to forget it was the chosen one Vance that came out on TV saying that 45 was Hitler that he Vance was a never again Trump guy and compared him to America is Hitler. So let’s not get it twisted like you all seem to push. Facts over Fiction.
John Dean says
Thank you for reading my piece, but I differ from your analysis. My take is calling Puerto Ricans “Garbage,” calling your opponent “trash,” and “Low IQ” works better to win elections.
Mickey Terrone says
If the shoe fits…….
Sam Willson says
You seriously believe that 70 million of your fellow Americans are stupid racists? Including the growing number of Black and Latino Trump voters?? Might you want to question your news sources?
Mickey Terrone says
The shoe fits Trump as a racist, bigot, msyogynist, fascist and overall malignancy on Americans of good faith. I understand nobody likes to be called out as such, but Trump has been called out as a Hitler by JD Vance. He has been labeled a fascist by his former chief of staff, John Kelly and Americans have been warned by a long list of his former cabinet members and top advisers on the dangers of his degenerate ideas and schemes. There certainly are millions of racists and bigots who fully identify with Trump’s miserable aura, likely because they agree with his hatred of people of color. Maybe they also fear people of color becoming more successful and getting ahead of them in society. Maybe people of color are more likely to be mysogynists opposed to women who become more successful in society than them. Not sayin’ they’re ALL Republicans, but I know few, if any Dems who voted for Trump and none who’d admit it. Most Republicans I’ve spoken with wouldn’t admit they would vote for him or put up yard signs (probablly out of shame).
I’d add that its hard to believe a true American patriot who sacrificed as veteran would vote for a scoundrel who calls veterans suckers. I presume you are not E. Jean Carroll’s relative, but if you were, I don’t think you’d vote for a man who sexually assaulted your relative. Thus, I’m surprised you’d vote for the man who sexually assaulted ANY woman and who publicly brags about assaulting women by their genitals. Its OK with you then, to vote for a sexual predator so long as its not your sister or daughter. That shows real Republican character and morality.
Just as Trump railed at the immigration crisis, he was the one who killed the deal that numerous conservative Republicans had hammered out with the Biden Administration. Then he claimed to his zombies that it was Harris’ fault. And they believed Trump. That ain’t real smart, is it?
Its also OK with people like you for Trump to hand Ukraine over to Putin and confirm American vassalage to the Russian dictator because Trump wants to be be a dictator, too. Some patriot you are! Its tough to be publicly held accountable like this, but you deserve it because you felt compelled to speak out in defense of racists, bigotry, mysogyny and in general, the Trump Plague on America. Buh bye.
Sam Willson says
I’m sorry that your news sources did this to you. If nothing else please do a little research into E. Jean Carroll. I wish you well.
Mickey Terrone says
Perhaps, Mr. Willson, you don’t grasp the significance of Trump calling for a military tribunal for Liz Cheney. This is what fascist dictators do to silence their political opponents. Cheney had the courage to call out his baldfaced attack on the US Constitution on January 6, 2021. Perhaps the ultimate irony of Republican cowardice is JD Vance’s reference to Trump as Hitler and not long thereafter, serving Trump as a monkey serves an organ grinder.
Trump demands allegiance from his supporters in order to have them become accomplices in his crimes. Many convicts are in jail today for their part in carrying out Trump’s will to attack the US Capitol. Now he promises to defy the American criminal justice system and free them once he is sworn in and takes his oath to uphold the US Constitution. If you are deaf and blind, you can almost smell the stench of Trump’s criminality.
His winning 2024 strategy of fear mongering, hate mongering campaign of lies, bigotry, mysogyny and contempt for facts is a new low for our American traditions and an affront to every patriot who gave their life to defend democracy against the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. I hope it wasn’t lost on you that the assassin who shot Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania was a Republican and former passionate supporter of Trump.
I’m sure you know how Hitler ended up. Mussolini wasn’t lucky enough to escape the wrath of his own citizens who finally had enough of his lies and demagogury. I trust you’ve seen the pictures.
HR Worthington says
Sam, many of the frequent posters in this forum are condemned to a hell of their own making. They claim to decry hatred yet hate with an invective that blinds them to any introspection whatsoever. Thus, they march headlong down a path to eventual irrelevance whilst the puppeteers on cable news line their pockets. There is nothing you can do. Don’t waste your time with them. If they find peace in the belief that half their fellow countrymen are irredeemable bigots, then let them have it. They deserve sympathy not engagement. It is not their fault; they have been conditioned so. For those who are rationally concerned with a Trump presidency and what it might bring, our duty to them is to find common cause in holding the admiration accountable for its policies when necessary. Either way, the people of this Great Nation have spoken. -HR
Jill Por says
Ha Ha
Danna Murden says
President Trump won the popular vote and the electoral college both. So the majority of the country disagrees with you. Stating that I don’t think a black, Asian woman had one thing to do with it. I believe that is going to be one of the Democrats slogans because they can not except the fact that the majority of the population is totally feed up with the way the present administration has almost ruined this country. Thank goodness we will have a Republican House and Senate so hopefully we can get this country in great condition again!
John Dean says
Thanks for reading my piece. Very few voters tell pollsters that they are voting for or against a candidate because they are Black or female. Trump skillfully destroyed the image of Harris, calling her “Camrade Kamala,” “low IQ,” and other insults. At his New York City rally, Harris was called a prostitute by one of the speakers. J.D. Vance called her “trash” just before Election Day. Who do you think this sort of “campaigning” appeals to. Race and gender had a lot to do with Trump winning. His gutter-style of campaigning had more to do with his winning.
Yes, some Trump voters were driven by the naive belief that electing Trump will lower grocery prices–don’t hold your breath. Some Trump voters want to see all aid cut off to Ukraine–I will consider it a day of shame when (if) Trump hands Vladimir Putin a victory and Ukraine is defeated.
Wilson Dean says
Among the many factors involved in deciding this election, the economy unsurprisingly played a large role, particularly with regard to inflation. Unfortunately, this election continues something of a recurring loop we have found ourselves in during the 21st century. Republican Presidents land us in a horrible economic mess which leads to the election of a Democrat who must then spend the next 4 years bailing the country out.
President Bush left us the horrific 2008 financial crisis which consumed much of the 2 terms of the Obama years. Many observers credit Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton with concerns that the Obama recovery was “too slow” (although slowed considerably by Republican opposition to the needed magnitude of stimulus funding). Trump’s final year in office gave us the COVID crisis—not that the virus was Trump’s fault—but it is well documented his resistance to masking and vaccines prolonged and worsened the US economy. That helped lead to Biden’s election, but again much of his Presidency was consumed by fighting inflation caused by the global supply chain disruption as well as labor shortages in the US exacerbated by Trump’s policies.
So now Trump has been elected in large part by the economic disaster he left President Biden. My question is—what horrendous economic problem will Trump leave us with by 2028 that will require the full attention of the next President for his or her 4 years?
John Dean says
I agree with your analysis–economics always plays a large role in elections. I also agree that Trump’s ham-fisted, anti-science actions of his first administration contributed to the economic impact of the pandemic.
John Fischer says
You and your friends just go on pretending the seventy-one million Americans who just gave your candidate and party a thorough drubbing are “naive and lazy,” Mr. Dean.
John Dean says
Thanks for reading the piece, but let me disagree with your statement. Here’s what I wrote: “Trump’s campaign took advantage of naïve and lazy voters and unleashed the weapon of mass destruction of aggressive lying, discrediting the mainstream press and appealing to our fears and prejudices.” Nowhere did I say that all Trump voters were lazy and naive.
Some Trump voters, and in this case, I would say most, naively believe Trump is fit to be president. In voting for him, they ignored the statements of dozens of former Trump officials, including military leaders, Secretaries of State and Defense, and his chief-of-staff. The Trump voters also ignored clear signs of progressive mental deterioration. If you haven’t listened to Trump’s full victory speech, listen closely to the five minutes praising Elon Musk. Trump voters were too lazy to read the comments of economists who analyzed his tariff proposal and concluded that it effectively caused a large sales tax on American consumers.
As I said in the editorial, you reap what you sow. America’s future is likely to be difficult.
HR Worthington says
John, thankfully for you and some of the commenters here this will likely be my last post in the Spy. I waded into this morass when I came across your piece comparing 9/11 to J6. As a New Yorker who lived and worked downtown for many years, I knew many who perished on that fateful day. So, when people make casual comparisons to 9/11, I can’t help myself. That said, I have probably overstayed my welcome and it is time for me to leave your echo chamber.
Regarding the election, I am as surprised as you are. I did not predict this outcome. You may be tempted to conclude that this is due to racism or bigotry. While racism and bigotry obviously exist, it would be the wrong conclusion here. All you need to do is look at the underlying election data in the New York Times to see that. That same data might also cause you to conclude that “uneducated white women” are the “problem” as The View’s Sunny Hostin just posited (predictably) yesterday. Apart from the clearly racist, elitist and disunifying implications of that statement, it would also be the wrong conclusion.
She lost because the policies foisted on Americans by the Sanders-Left and Cheney-right don’t work for the electorate and they made that known. It is really that simple. She also lost because Americans saw through the Regime’s propaganda. This will no doubt trigger some of the sensitive souls in this forum, but the idea that Trump, a man whose grandchildren are Jewish, was the second coming of Hitler is and was farcical. It did nothing other than to further damage the credibility of the media and those who control it. Like you, I do not want to see retribution. However, especially now that the House and Senate are also firmly in Republican hands, recriminations will and should be made. They are richly deserved given the incessant and excessive priggishness by which the electorate has been lectured. Elections do have consequences.
From our interactions here, I hold you out to be an intelligent, patriotic and considerate man who cares for his Countrymen. I don’t consider you to be stupid, racist, or evil. I imagine we share similar values in fact. Where we differ is in our conclusions, and we differ in those primarily because we do not hold the same premises. To that end, Donald Trump did not call neo-Nazis and white supremacists “fine people” as he clarified his remarks clearly stating, “they should be condemned totally.” It is, and was, a hoax recently and irresponsibly repeated by President Obama. It has backfired, as I have been warning, spectacularly. To the extent we find peace and unity, it is only through the honest examination of our respective priors. Labeling others we disagree with as your moral inferiors or hapless rubes will convince no one and achieve nothing. I believe St. Paul would have agreed with me on that. Warm regards and best of luck. -Harvey
Reed Fawell 3 says
Sorry to see you leave, Harvey. You were a gust of fresh air in a very stuffy room.
John Dean says
Reed: Let me surprise you by agreeing with you. I welcomed Harvey’s responses–and I say that as part of the air that made the room stuffy.
John Dean says
Harvey: Thank you for your kind words and civility. I hope you do not stop responding to pieces in the Spy. The foundation of an educated citizenry is the ability of people to exchange ideas civilly. You do that.
I hope you will continue to let me know when I’m wrong. I benefitted from it, and many Spy readers welcome reading your responses.
John Dean says
Harvey: I hope you will reconsider responding to opinion pieces. Your responses have been civil and are welcomed by many readers, including me. Civil dialog is essential for a democracy to work—it helps make all of us better citizens. You have always been civil, even pointing out where I am wrong.
Kent Robertson says
I respect your right to express your opinion, Mr Dean. But I am very weary of your bashing over half the country as “naive, lazy voters who “were not ready for a Black, South Asian woman president”. I believe that those in power for the last 4 years will be accountable for their abuse of power…without finding obscure laws to prosecute, judicial venues stacked with juries likely to convict, or kangaroo courts with hanging judges.
I suggest that you have likely listened only to the “legacy media” as your sources of information, and are dealing with a different set of “facts” than we conservatives.
Your arguments ring hollow to us. No, we aren’t lazy or naive.
I am certain that on many issues we have the same concerns, but different solutions.
Please, consider waiting and watching now. Try to get at least half of your “information” from conservative sources. I suspect that if you have an open mind you will at least come to understand why Trump won. I am certain that he will follow the Constitution to the letter.
John Dean says
Thank you for reading my piece. For the record, I have said that some Trump voters were lazy and naive, not all of them.
How can you be certain that Trump will follow the Constitution “to the letter.” Trump did not win the 2020 election and tried to remain in office by fomenting a coup at the U.S. Capitol.
I am watching what Trump does now that he won this election. I read this morning he is exploring using the U.S. military to execute his mass deportation scheme.
In any case, thanks for commenting despite your disagreement with me. I appreciate your civil tone.