What are you? Get loud now.
Polls will be open by the time I post again tomorrow morning. Millions will stand in line to vote, to at least imagine that they are the true sovereigns of this republic. In front and behind them will be neighbors prepared — eager even — to surrender their freedoms to oligarchs, madmen, and theocrats.
America’s anxious, non-cult majority wants the 2024 elections over. Trump to be over. MAGA to be over. To return to a normal we almost can no longer imagine. Never in memory have things felt more like Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 visual tone poem scored by Philip Glass, Koyaanisqatsi, a Hopi word meaning “life out of balance.”
Compounding that sense for survivors of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina is waiting for what comes out of our taps once more to be drinkable. For the mud to wash away. For the roads to be drivable. For the downed trees, logs and branches lining them to disappear. For bridges to be rebuilt. And lives.
Before normal returns we must have elections, including for president. God knows they won’t be anything like normal. Democrats’ slate of candidates here in North Carolina is the best I’ve seen. And Republicans’, the biggest dumpster fire.
Has the felon Donald Trump declared himself the winner yet? We’re a day and a half out. What’s the pathological liar waiting for? Actual election results? Another rendition of “Y.M.C.A.”?
November 5th is not another September 11th or January 6th. There will be no excuse for anyone to swear they did not see Trump’s preemptive victory declaration coming. “No one has an alibi.” Republicans have been broadcasting “Donald Trump Determined To Strike in US” in front of cameras for months as Trump’s mind visibly disintegrates. Gird yourselves. Remind everyone you know, loudly, what’s coming.
James Fallows last night:
The things we do know
1) That Donald Trump is already declaring victory, and will do so more stridently on November 5. The press needs to be prepared.
As I wrote recently about the powerful new movie The Apprentice, among the lessons young Donald Trump absorbed from his mentor, Roy Cohn, was: always claim victory, no matter the score. Never admit defeat, especially when you’ve lost.
Trump has been using that approach nonstop since 2020, with his “stop the steal” mantra now embraced by most of the GOP. For months he has been priming his base to believe that he is “way ahead” in all 2024 polls, so any result except a Trump victory must be a fraud.
Trump is sure to switch from saying “I will win” to “I have won” less than 48 hours from now. On Tuesday as the first exit polls come in, Trump himself will say that they look “better than anyone expected,” so a big win is ahead. The Fox team will back him up. As the first real counts come in after 8pm from Pennsylvania, they will favor Trump, because of the usual GOP-skew of same-day-vote results. Trump will use them to announce he was won the crucial state and thus the election.
We saw this drill in 2020. It is likely to be worse this time. Partly that is because Trump has conditioned his entire party to expect fraud. Partly it is because the Fox News team that made a brave, correct, anti-Trump call of Arizona results four years ago has been fired for that transgression. From top to bottom Fox is now on board.
Fallows expects that “the Harris-Walz campaign team is fully prepared to rebut these false claims.” Ranks of Democratic lawyers will have legal actions ready to file and be suited up for “the inevitable courtroom battles that will follow.”
I’ve inquired with election protection leads here myself how they plan to respond to Trump’s Election Night revival of “The Big Lie.” (No, I didn’t expect an answer.) When Trump again issues orders for his minions to get “wild,” what then? Yes, I know they’ve got harshly worded lawsuits teed up. And then what are they prepared to do? It could take more. And require more of us.
November 5th isn’t the end. More likely, it’s “the end of the beginning.” For now, ignore the last-minute flood of play-by-play disinformation, Will Bunch advises:
The only things that matter between now and 8 p.m. Tuesday are casting a ballot, and talking to family and friends or even knocking on some doors to make sure as many as possible do the same. Vote as if your life depends on it. Because if you finally have health insurance, if you believe in clean drinking water, if you or a loved one plan on having a child or want control over your own body, or if you live in an immigrant community, your life does depend on it.
Normal depends on it.