I think American democracy is as shaky as ever, Trump's supporters aren't going to just realize they were wrong and fade away, and after the cooling off period there needs to be a serious effort to introduce more checks and balances to prevent this from happening again .
America is lucky this particular demagogue was not the real deal. If he had been more intelligent and less absolutely focused on himself, he might have been, as the States seemed completely unprepared. People always think "it can't happen, not here (or not now)", but people have always thought that and it has happened anyway, and continues to do so. So when one catches oneself thinking that, maybe it's time to consider the possibility seriously before it catches an entire country unawares.
In that sense, the close shave in this election was a useful wake-up call. If the Dems had gotten their blue wave, the lesson might not have been learned as thoroughly.
Harris being elected is especially meaningful even to me, being Caucasian and having had it relatively easy compared to what many other girls and women go through. Battling systemic discrimination against a disability and past abuse is undoubtedly not nearly as hard as being faced by a wall of racial *and* gender discrimination on all sides, while also being stonewalled by permanent poverty. And being raised in a secure middle-class family until the age of about 10 gave me a sense of who I was...a self that one inevitably returns to, no matter how low life's circumstances take you from time to time. Again, that's something many little girls just don't have. It's much harder to break out of the constraints imposed by your racial, gender and socioeconomic situation when you've never known anything else.
Harris as VP is undoubtedly a new ray of hope in the lives of many girls and women who have never considered their full possibilities before. A lot of females will reach farther than they previously dared because if she can, maybe they can too.
A more pessimistic view from the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/trump-proved-authoritarians-can-get-elected-america/617023/
I think American democracy is as shaky as ever, Trump's supporters aren't going to just realize they were wrong and fade away, and after the cooling off period there needs to be a serious effort to introduce more checks and balances to prevent this from happening again .
America is lucky this particular demagogue was not the real deal. If he had been more intelligent and less absolutely focused on himself, he might have been, as the States seemed completely unprepared. People always think "it can't happen, not here (or not now)", but people have always thought that and it has happened anyway, and continues to do so. So when one catches oneself thinking that, maybe it's time to consider the possibility seriously before it catches an entire country unawares.
In that sense, the close shave in this election was a useful wake-up call. If the Dems had gotten their blue wave, the lesson might not have been learned as thoroughly.
Harris being elected is especially meaningful even to me, being Caucasian and having had it relatively easy compared to what many other girls and women go through. Battling systemic discrimination against a disability and past abuse is undoubtedly not nearly as hard as being faced by a wall of racial *and* gender discrimination on all sides, while also being stonewalled by permanent poverty. And being raised in a secure middle-class family until the age of about 10 gave me a sense of who I was...a self that one inevitably returns to, no matter how low life's circumstances take you from time to time. Again, that's something many little girls just don't have. It's much harder to break out of the constraints imposed by your racial, gender and socioeconomic situation when you've never known anything else.
Harris as VP is undoubtedly a new ray of hope in the lives of many girls and women who have never considered their full possibilities before. A lot of females will reach farther than they previously dared because if she can, maybe they can too.
Lol on Q. Who knew? ;)