How I’m processing Nov. 5, 2024 — and what lies ahead

I went to bed ear­li­er than expect­ed on elec­tion night, way before the race’s out­come was known, but far enough into it to see the hand­writ­ing on the wall. Donald Trump would be elect­ed to a sec­ond term as pres­i­dent of the United States — only the sec­ond per­son ever to be elect­ed to serve two non-con­sec­u­tive terms and the first con­vict­ed felon to be chosen.

Upon wak­ing Wednesday morn­ing, I avoid­ed my usu­al rou­tine of look­ing at my phone imme­di­ate­ly after putting on my glass­es. I took sev­er­al min­utes to process in my mind what I was sure would be on the screen of my Pixel 7 — while cling­ing to a tiny hope that the news would be good.

It’s cathar­tic and a lit­tle weird being in that “Schoedinger’s Cat” moment when both sides of a bina­ry ques­tion are both true and false. For a moment, I con­sid­ered that if I threw away the phone, avoid­ed the tele­vi­sion, and stayed indoors and offline, I could live in that world indef­i­nite­ly, safe and secure not know­ing which direc­tion my coun­try would turn. I was cling­ing to the hope that we had cho­sen love over hate, hope over fear, san­i­ty over dys­func­tion, sta­bil­i­ty over chaos.

Alas, I was unable to hold out long. Eventually, the cold, hard truth hit me in the face, and I was forced to con­front it head-on.

I did so by spend­ing a few min­utes tak­ing down yard signs and updat­ing social media images. For the rest of the day, I most­ly avoid­ed the news, for­sak­ing my dai­ly rit­u­als of keep­ing up with cur­rent affairs and social­iz­ing on Facebook. I was in a funk most of the day and found myself unable to com­plete any tasks that required more than a mod­icum of con­cen­tra­tion. Instead, I focused on rou­tine phys­i­cal chores. I com­mis­er­at­ed with friends and fam­i­ly. It was a very dark and depress­ing day.

Thursday morn­ing, I woke up feel­ing some­what refreshed. I’m not sure why the change hap­pened — per­haps I need­ed 24 hours to process and inte­grate the new knowl­edge into my psy­che. Now I feel ener­gized and ready to face what lies ahead. Here’s what we face — those of us who loathe every­thing Donald Trump and most of his sup­port­ers stand for.

We face a Republican-dom­i­nat­ed gov­ern­ment bent on trans­form­ing this coun­try into a Christian Nationalist one. It’s tru­ly a rev­o­lu­tion­ary turn for America. In case you have been asleep, this is not like the mas­sive sea changes brought in by Reagan or the Bushes. Agree or dis­agree on pol­i­cy, those con­ser­v­a­tives believed they were doing the right thing for their coun­try. They could be rea­soned with. They could com­pro­mise. They were decent human beings.

Donald Trump has stat­ed clear­ly his evil inten­tions. He plans to spend the next four years try­ing to tear down the peo­ple and the insti­tu­tions that essen­tial­ly held him in check dur­ing his first term. This time, Trump will stop at noth­ing. The things he has clear­ly stat­ed he will do are scary. The things he has hint­ed at are ter­ri­fy­ing and dead­ly to mil­lions of us.

It’s time for those of us who oppose the Trump/Project 2025/Christian Nationalist move­ment to wake up. Whether Democrat, Independent, tra­di­tion­al Republican, or any oth­er iden­ti­ty, any­one who oppos­es hatred and big­otry must take a stand now. Because the day may soon come when tak­ing a stand could mean putting your­self in harm’s way. Literally. 

I’m ful­ly ener­gized again. We’ve been here before. Love can win over hate.

Someone once said that Nazism was allowed to rise in pre-WWII Germany because one-third of the peo­ple want­ed to destroy anoth­er one-third, while the last one-third stood silent. I believe we are at a sim­i­lar point.

We know who the first group is, and we know who the sec­ond group is. The ques­tion is, when will the last third of Americans start to speak out and act out?

To my friends who are LGBTQ+, who are women, who are non­white, undoc­u­ment­ed, or oth­er­wise mar­gin­al­ized and in fear: you still have allies. To my fel­low straight white men who love these peo­ple, it is imper­a­tive now more than ever that we use our priv­i­lege to pro­tect those who don’t have it.

This is what it means to be a Humanist. We cre­ate safe spaces for any and all who choose love over hate.

The fight is not over — far from it. It has only just begun.

Interested in Humanism or just look­ing for a safe space where you are accept­ed and loved? The Humanists of Winchester meet month­ly at the Clark County Public Library on the sec­ond Wednesday. Our next meet­ing is this Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 6 PM. All are welcome.