New Orleans       Give the devil his due.  Trump swept all the battleground states.  He is the first Republican in 20 years to win the popular vote.  His performance at the polls improved among virtually all voting groups in 2024.  He can complain how the election was rigged, but if it was, it was rigged for him, because this was a beat down for the Democratic Party across the board.  Despite a short timeline, Vice President Kamala Harris put together a remarkable, galvanizing, and exciting campaign, but fell short to Trump by a mile.  Control of the House of Representatives will stay with the Republicans and control of the Senate will move to the Republicans, so for the first time since the early days of the Obama presidency, one party will control all major branches of US government.  Add the Supreme Court to that mix and it’s a Republican sweep across the board.

So, are these the end times for progressives?  Heck, no! I’ve been an organizer pushing forward under Nixon, Reagan, two Bushes, and the early version of Trump, so I take a long view with the Donna Sommers song, “We Will Survive” ringing in my ears.  Our work at the grassroots level is now more important than it ever was.  In many ways, the voters demanded change, and when we’re on our game, we’re all about change.

As hard as it may be to swallow this vote easily, this was not a love match for Trump.  The exit polls seem to indicate that…

Despite his victory, most voters found Trump to be an unappealing candidate. CNN’s exit poll found that just 44 percent of voters had a favorable view of him, compared with 54 percent who had an unfavorable view. A majority of voters, 55 percent, said his views are too extreme. Obviously, there are many aspects of Trump’s appeal that these simple questions do not easily measure. But Trump’s victory may say more about the Democrats and the public’s desire for change than it does about the president-elect himself.

All Monday-morning quarterbacking is a waste of time and energy, so let’s avoid playing on that field.  But we do need to look at the lessons to be learned here, because the majority of Americans are telling us something, not just about Trump, but about themselves and their place in America.  It’s still early with votes still being counted and demographics still being analyzed, but some takeaways seem clear:

• If there’s a culture war, Democrats and progressives have lost it. To prevent further erosion and marginalization, at the least we have to re-frame and position ourselves differently.
• The voters want change, and we didn’t convince them that we could deliver change either in their status or economic well-being, despite the strength of the overall economy. The winners have taken all, and we have to do better on distribution issues.
• Racism, sexism, and authoritarianism are real issues, and we need a better way of dealing with these issues that separates individuals from the extremists and creates stronger guardrails without stigmatizing others.
• We can still win on issues where we have popular support like individual rights, choice, the climate, and income, but the victories will come where we have a deep local and statewide base, not in Washington.

It’s a good time for reflection and strategic examination and repositioning, so I hesitate to lay deep stakes elsewhere.  We got a thrashing, now we need to stand back up, shake ourselves off, and hunker down to do what must be done and what we know how to do for the future.