Much will be studied, analyzed and written about in the years to come. because Americans voted to return an openly authoritarian leader to power by seemingly larger margins than eight years ago. What is clearer and more important right now is what millions of our fellow Americans did by returning Donald Trump to the White House.
Today we must reckon with the harsh reality that authoritarianism has come to the United States, that it is widely popular, and that millions of our fellow citizens have given it their votes. We are entering a dark and dangerous time. But while this is a moment of reckoning that we must recognize, we must also refuse to give in to despair and continue to affirm and trust in our rights and protections as Americans.
For the next four years, the most powerful office in the world will be occupied by a twice-indicted convicted felon with a history of flouting laws and regulations—a narcissist who fomented the violent Jan. 6 insurrection and has vowed to make decisions based on retaliation. and prejudice instead of what is best for the country. Americans are right to feel frightened and disillusioned by the resurgence of a man who was built on racism and sexism. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, spent the final days and weeks of their campaign spewing racist vitriol and calling Vice President Kamala Harris a “b*tch.”
Although large parts of the country, including California, rejected Trump's scaremongering, it was not enough to overcome his appeal in much of the country. Large segments of American voters, some concerned about immigration and the rising cost of living, preferred Trump, with all his obvious flaws and demonstrated incompetence, to a more qualified woman of color. His victory makes us debate the question of how two such markedly different visions of the United States coexist.
Trump's agenda is about to further erode many of our rights, especially those of women, LGBTQ+ Americans, and immigrants. We can expect him to use the position in a blatantly transactional manner and to be easily manipulated by opportunistic actors, domestic and foreign. He has vowed to abandon US allies, including Ukraine, and give free rein to Israel, as he told Benjamin Netanyahu last month: “do what you have to do.“
We can also expect basic government services to be weaponized, including aid for disasters like wildfires, which Trump has said he could withhold from California. He has always been eager to undo environmental and climate protections. There will be more attacks on science, as evidenced by his willingness to give Robert F. Kennedy Jr. control of health policy. And he has threatened to lock millions of immigrants in deportation camps.
Thanks to a deferential Supreme Court, a subordinate Republican Party that won the Senate majority, and a determination to form a more docile administration, there will be fewer checks on his power.
Many of Trump's former staffers who have worked most closely with him have warned that he is unfit for office and poses a serious threat to our democracy. Your election doesn't change any of that. History has shown that dictators often come to power through democratic means.
Moments like these test the famous words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” even modified by former President Obama, who added that “progress is hilly. “It always has been.”
But we still enjoy safeguards in state and federal constitutions, the courts, the rule of law, freedom of the press, and democracy, even if they are tested like never before. We still have legions of elected officials, public servants, advocates and journalists who will use their positions to resist the excesses of the next administration.
California will once again play an indispensable role in defending individual freedoms and protecting vulnerable communities, as well as defending environmental protection. We endured Trump's tumultuous first term and we will get through the next.
