Our democracy at work

Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it.

— Henry Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience,” 1848

We – the American people – had an election on Nov. 5 and our democracy worked. That is, our system of voting – which started in most states weeks earlier and which in some states the final counts will not be finished for another week or two – brought out over 155 million people to express their opinion.

This year, this election, Donald Trump collected the most votes as well as a smashing victory in the Electoral College.

Trump met the needs of 77-plus million people who decided to vote for him. Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party met the needs of fewer people. The Democrats message and platform did not resonate with millions of people who chose to stay home.

As we have heard, seen and read, people across the nation enthusiastically cast their ballot for the Republican candidate. His message was clear and consistent. Trump speaks authentically, candidly and in plain language. What the public saw and heard they decided they wanted, and 77 million marked their ballots thus.

His words were specific and concrete. Immigrants will be deported. He will go after those he sees as his enemy. Inflation is Joe Biden’s fault and Harris failed to improve the lives of Americans.

Trump hammered away at fears. He played to and shaped people’s beliefs. His rhetoric stoked them as he engaged their feelings. He stroked them and they held their enthusiasm for him.

The threat of immigrants Trump created is more real to tens of millions than the existential actual effects of climate change.

Making the case that Trump’s arguments are not factual and people’s beliefs are not necessarily true is not a winning proposition. People know what they feel. Many do not seek and embrace facts to feel better. They latch onto concepts that worry them.

In contrast, Harris chose not to connect the very real facts of the disaster of Hurricane Helene to championing the need for climate change policies in Georgia and North Carolina to voters devastated by the very real impact climate change had on them.

The election showed that people are more worried about fears made concrete – immigrants and inflation – than the concept fascism and an abstract future of losing democracy. People feel and react to their fears. They are not motivated by the possibility of hope, which Harris did not emphasize.

Donald Trump convinced people that he alone can fix it, whatever “it” is. That is the one abstract concept that 77 million choose to believe. His delivery has always been simple, stark and consistent. Truth is not the issue. Trump makes his presence real, making himself the most concrete being on the planet. He has been aggressively marketing himself for nine years. People have embraced his brand.

Consider this hypothetical: without the COVID 19 pandemic, Trump may have readily won the 2020 election. If Trump had competently managed the pandemic, he almost certainly would have won in 2020, perhaps in a landslide.

This is definitely true: Some 8 million fewer people voted this year than in 2020 when Biden got 82 million votes and Trump 74 million.

Trump increased his vote totals by a miniscule amount, by about 3 million tallies, to 77 million votes at most. Harris will total over 74 million and perhaps pass 75 million votes. The popular vote contest will be close when all the counting is complete.

Some 6 to 8 million people from 2020 chose not to vote and tens of millions more didn’t bother at all. There are 244 million registered voters in 2024.

Voters elected a Black person president in 2008. How likely is it that millions vowed to never make that mistake again and that millions are motivated to prevent that from happening again? How many will not vote for a woman?

If democracy is voting, that is what happened Nov. 5. If democracy is a process, then people have the challenge of Benjamin Franklin’s answer to the question. “Will it be a Republic or a monarchy?” His 1789 response is in front of us this moment: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

This is where the informed, engaged public, the masses of people – you – enter, occupy and hold the public square. Or we don’t.