(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
My apologies for the long gap from United States Election Day and this post. We’ve been having a lot happening on the health front here and my limited brainpower had to tend to that over blogging. This post will concentrate on the aftermath of the election itself, not dealing with things like Trump’s staffing decisions and policy pronouncements for his impending administration.
If you have been reading this series, you know that I am upset and worried that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz lost the election. I am, however, grateful that my district (New York 19) elected Democrat Josh Riley over incumbent Republican Marc Molinaro and kept in place State Senator Lea Webb and Assemblymember Donna Lupardo, both of whom were instrumental in the passage of the ban on carbon dioxide fracking in our state.
While I am very worried about the impact that Trump and MAGA Republicans will have on the country, I was encouraged by the reaction from organizations with which I am involved, commentators and experts that I read, and from Vice President Harris herself that we would all continue to work to protect democracy, people, and the planet, especially those who are most vulnerable. Because I have a long history working on environmental/climate and social justice issues, I was comforted to receive so many supportive messages from trusted people and organizations. Many are already making plans within their expertise to protect our civil rights, enforce environmental laws, expose corruption, etc.
I have been somewhat puzzled by those who are saying that the Democrats failed in their message and policy ideas. They tend to say that the Democrats should have talked about fighting inflation, increasing affordable housing, health care, labor issues, and affordability in general, but the thing is, they were talking about those things – over and over for months. Somehow, though, these people missed it.
I think the biggest reason for Trump’s victory, narrow as it was in that more people voted against him than for him, is that there was a massive amount of mis- and disinformation in the campaign. Much of it came directly from the Trump campaign itself but there was also a lot coming from our Republican campaigns, PACs and superPACs, and from foreign entities, including Russia, China, and Iran. For example, Russia put out a fake video purporting to show non-citizens voting in the state of Georgia in the days before the election. There was also a flood of mis/disinformation coming through Elon Musk’s X, as well as other online platforms. Besides Musk, other billionaires and rich heads of companies spent heavily on behalf of Trump and Republicans.
Because our NY-19 House of Representatives district was so hotly contested, we saw this sort of misleading information effort in action. We got mail every day for weeks with lies about crime statistics, immigration, economics, reproductive rights, and more, trying to get votes for the Republican incumbent. Everything was designed to invoke fear and grievance.
Enough people in our district saw through these tactics to elect the Democratic challenger, who was also able to tout his hometown roots, but, nationally, the disinformation held enough sway that Harris lost. There also appeared to be a lot of voters, especially non-college-educated, young, male, lower-income ones, who voted for Trump without having much information at all. One of the most popular Internet searches on election day was about if Joe Biden was running, which seems incredible to those of us who follows news consistently, but apparently there were a lot of people heading to the polls without even knowing who the main party candidates were. There have also been reports of many Trump voters being surprised to find out that he actually intends to follow through on his rhetoric regarding tariffs, deportation, cutting government services, etc.
I can understand how some of the Trump voters fell for the lies and felt they needed a strongman to protect them from these perceived, if not actually real, threats. Unfortunately, fearmongering and grievance can work. I am disturbed, however, by those who voted for Trump because the racism, sexism, and/or Christian nationalism appealed to them. There was so much hateful rhetoric during the campaign and there have been increased threats and harassment against women, people of color, non-Christians, and members of the LGBTQ+ community both during the campaign and since the election. Some of this has impacted people that I know personally while others have been large-scale, such as threatening texts and emails sent with racist or homophobic messages.
I am grateful that the Biden-Harris administation is dedicated to the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t have to worry about violence in the streets or in Washington from Harris’s supporters as we saw from Trump’s after his loss in 2020, especially on January 6, 2021.
I’m afraid that Trump will pardon all the people who committed crimes in connection with Jan. 6th, which he has re-cast as a “day of love,” even though we all saw the violence and destruction in the Capitol that day.
Don’t fall for Trump’s lies.
Find knowledgeable, factual sources and stand up for truth.
Millions of others will be standing with you.
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Joanne Corey 
still standing and working toward the midterms, happy to battle (not physically), and support along the way as needed
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Thank you, Beth! I’d love it if some of the House seats that will open up due to resignations and administration appointments flipped to Dems so that they would get the House majority even sooner than the midterms. The Republicans couldn’t function with the majority they have this term and the margin will be even thinner come January.
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right. and I really hope that Pete b. runs for the governor of my state, michigan, as Gretchen’s term limit will end and I think he would be wonderful.
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That would be great for MIchigan and the country! Mayor/Secretary Pete is such a talented communicator and grounded, thoughtful, intelligent person.
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and it could be a stepping stone to the White House. yes, he’s amazing
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I am very concerned about the next four years. I fear that there will be a great deal of hate-filled rhetoric. At a poetry workshop I attended the day after the election, many people voiced concerns and had good poems about their fears. Self- expression is one of the ways that I have to get through the next few years of misinformation and propaganda.
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I think that artistic expression across all media will be important on both a personal and group level as we navigate these next years. I noticed that several commentators that I read turned to posting poetry right after the election. The arts can often reach our hearts and minds more quickly and deeply.
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Anyone with a brain and a heart can see right through disinformation. We need to stop making excuses for them. People who voted for him know exactly who and what he is — someone who encourages them to be their worst selves, and who ignites the joy they feel in performing acts of cruelty. I do not believe they voted out of fear. They voted out of glee to see the “others” harmed. It’s sickening. We need to stop coddling them and trying to court them. They WANT violence. They WANT pain. They just don’t believe it will be turned on them. But it will, by those for whom they voted.
I am doing my work and living my life and caring for those who also care for me. I am going to navigate through this as best I can. The organizations we believe in have plans in place; let’s hope they can put them into play before the violence against them escalates.
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My experience is somewhat different. I know some people who are so concentrated on abortion that they will overlook all else and actually believe Trump and others when they say that Democrats approve abortion at any time for any reason, even killing babies after they are born. These people don’t realize that what Trump and their pastor or bishop are telling them isn’t true. They are also sometimes told it would be a sin for them to vote for anyone who allows abortion at all. A person who is in that kind of community isn’t as likely to realize that they are being fed disinformation because it is coming from family, friends, and local leaders they trust. Certainly, this doesn’t hold for all Trump voters but I think it does apply to some.
I think that many of us are discerning at this point what it is that we are called to do in caring for one another in these coming years. I do know that organizations are at the ready but it is scary that we are going to be somewhat dependent on entities like police and the military to refuse to follow orders that contradict their oaths. Deep breaths…
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Dear Joanne and Devon,
Hello! I have perused this fascinating post and the comments with great interest, and thus decide to join the conversations here. Being concerned about the widespread impacts of misinformation and disinformation, I naturally pay close attention to the contents of this excellent post. Joanne, what an insightful and significant post you have published!
I cannot agree with you more about your following two paragraphs:
Widespread misinformation and misinformation aside, people’s lack of knowledge in socioeconomic matters has been frequently exploited by the ruling class, if not also by the media, pundits and influencers. It is highly deplorable that none of the media coverage had bothered to educate the viewing public that any economic downturn is often not due to or driven by poor governance and/or economic policies. Moreover, the USA is not only plagued by the spectres of autocracy but also the vectors of plutocracy. Economic polarization has worsened cultural and political polarizations. According to Wikipedia:
The salient issues of democracy versus autocracy (and plutocracy) aside, there are many sobering implications of authoritarianism, which is a very topical area for exploring the many outstanding tensions between (the sociopsychological states of) sanity/stability and insanity/instability, affecting even the very existence and survival of humanity. In recent years, many citizens have willingly aligned themselves with misinformation, disinformation, post-truth politics, demagoguery, plutocracy, oligarchy, ochlocracy, kleptocracy, kakistocracy, narcissistic leadership, neoliberalism, globalization, clerical fascism and Trumpism. We can also agree that the ongoing chaos inflicted by the Trump presidency finally culminated in the infamous riot at the Capitol. You and I can be justified for being cynical, snide, snarky and facetious in characterizing Trump as the symbolic messiah who is going to lead his misguided supporters, sycophants and funders to glory on Earth and the promised land! It is often futile to reason with such misguided folks. Perhaps only when the country truly becomes autocratic or fascist, or when it plunges into a civil war, will such folks wake up, but then it will be too late. Consequently, any reasonable person can conclude that the USA has been plagued by ignorance, dogma, falsity, blind faith, spiritual stagnation and epistemological impasse . . . . .
To make matter worse, even those who are supposed to know better, who are in the most privileged position or at the highest echelon, have displayed objectionable conducts, caused much disunity, and/or generated unwisdom. We have been witnessing so clearly the insidious nature of Trumpism, Machiavellian conservatism and inimical illiberalism perverting democracy for nefarious purposes and for justifying, obfuscating or muddying the waters of systemic sexism, racism, historical negationism, discrimination, marginalization and curtailment of civil rights. In a similar vein, one of my latest posts highlights not just the various traps awaiting us from the fallouts of the main event regarding the SCOTUS’ decisions on abortion and its striking down Roe v. Wade, but also how the capacity of laws and legislation to be legally valid, binding and enforceable in different contexts is both contingent (acceptable only if certain circumstances are the case) and circumscribed (restricted to certain roles or situations), given that the content, relevance and quality of laws and legislation are fundamentally filtered and moulded by class structures, social stratifications, cultural reproductions and communication frameworks as well as by the interaction between legal cultures, and the social construction of legal issues, as discussed in my post entitled “🏛️⚖️ The Facile and Labile Nature of Law: Beyond the Supreme Court and Its Ruling on Controversial Matters 🗽🗳️🔫🤰🧑🤝🧑💉“, published at
Happy December to both of you!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle🦅
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Thank you, SoundEagle, for your thoughtful and significant contribution to the conversation.
As you rightly point out, the huge income/wealth disparities in the US now are pertinent to the political climate and election results. President Biden got blamed for the pandemic inflation, even though he handled it better than many other countries’ leaders. Biden’s policies got the supply chains re-established but couldn’t combat the price gouging that persisted, even when the supply chains had been fixed.
Biden also had much better policies for labor through the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and more. His appointees also managed to stop some mergers that would have reduced corporate competition even more and won some anti-trust suits in court. Somehow, though, the Democrats were still portrayed as being elitist and the Republicans for the “little guy.”
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Dear Joanne,
You are very welcome! I am delighted by your reply, and concur with you that Biden has not been given his due for his immense contributions, especially by his oppositions. You mentioned that “Russia put out a fake video purporting to show non-citizens voting in the state of Georgia in the days before the election.” Also, in Georgia, 91% of the (Evangelical) Christians support Trump, as far as I know.
By the way, I would like to mention that it is preferrable to use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my blog, as the limitations of iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices frequently result in very dissatisfactory and highly problematic handling of the complexities of my blog contents, severely curtailing their readability and distorting their formats.
I am grateful to you for composing such a thorough examination of some of the most salient issues that have led the USA to this moment in time. Needless to say, due to misinformation and disinformation as well as the pandemic and other global issues, 2020 to 2024 have been very difficult and trying, not to mention having to deal with the pandemic. It was all quite surreal, perhaps in some ways more bizarre than ghosts and the paranormal (not that I believe in such things). One could indeed say that we live in interesting times, but often for the wrong reasons. It is all quite a big mess in danger of getting bigger still. Even a global pandemic and an insurrection at the citadel of democracy still cannot unite folks in the USA and wake them up. Perhaps it will take an even bigger crisis to do so, such as a series of shocking events or climate change disasters.
Truth, decency and morality have become martyred in the post-truth era and the age of misinformation. In any case, the best and most dedicated amongst the likes of us are also inveterate teachers of everlasting, transcendental wisdom to save humans from themselves, their self-interests and their destructive ways. I often even have to coin new words to do so. The latest examples are my three neologisms “Misquotation Pandemic“, “Disinformation Polemic” and “Viral Falsity“, as discussed in my very extensive and analytical post entitled “💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠“, which is published at
The said post itself may serve well as a valuable text for a critical thinking class. It also offers an extensive “Quotation and Information Checklist” that can greatly benefit all and sundry.
As discussed in the post, without proper education, the overall situation and trajectory of democracy and humanity seem to be rather bleak, and even science and politics can provide little comfort in reducing the severity and frequency of some of those outstanding issues, for there are two major Achilles’ heels: Viral Falsity and Paleolithic Emotions. In addition, my own multidisciplinary perspective proposes in the post that four of the most insidious and corrosive conditions have exacerbated these issues dramatically:
(1) The prevailing anti-intellectualism
(2) The cult of anti-expertise sentiment
(3) The politicization of science
(4) The prevalent manifestation of populism
Gathering all the diverse and important strands together in the grand finale of the said post, I have attempted to sum up and reflect deeply the state of affairs with hard truths, especially in the twelfth and last section named “Denouement: Democracy, Education, Legislation & Sustainability”, which even gives a very dire warning of what humanity is heading towards if there is still no concerted, meaningful and large-scale change for the better.
Thank you once again, Joanne, for your pertinent and cogently written essay.
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle🦅
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Thank you for linking to your comprehensive post. I can’t begin to respond adequately to such rich content, although, at this time, I was most drawn to the discussion of media bias and mis/disinformation. I also appreciated the discussion of the role of emotion.
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Dear Joanne,
Thank you for replying and perusing my post entitled “💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠“. I appreciate your feedback. Both of us can agree that we are facing many (unprecedented) predicaments and challenges, and I would like to add that one of the most insidious issues and provocateurs is indeed the prevailing anti-intellectualism and the cult of anti-expertise sentiment (fuelled by information democratization, intellectual egalitarianism and anti-intellectualism) manifesting as misguided distrust, dismissal and denigration of experts and established knowledge by those in the public and in office, plus the politicization of science for manipulating public policy and pushing ideological agendas.
Although the post is very long, the navigational menus available at both the top and the bottom of the post can help you to jump to any section of the post instantly so that you can resume reading at any point of the post over multiple sessions in your own time.
I would be very delighted if you could kindly leave your comment in my said post as a token of your visit. You could simply copy and paste your previous reply to my earlier comment as part of your forthcoming comment to be submitted to the comment section of the post, to which your said reply clearly pertains and also belongs. Please feel free to expand on your comment if you have additional matters to convey about the post and any salient aspects of its contents. Thank you in anticipation. Of course, I shall welcome further or subsequent comment(s) when you have more time to peruse the post in detail.
May you and your family have a great weekend!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle🦅
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Hi, SoundEagle! I’ve posted a comment on your post with some new content which I am copying here, too.
“I agree that anti-intellectualism is a huge problem. I rely on experts to inform my own views and choices in life. Of course, one has to be careful to know who is worthy of trust. When I was working on the anti-fracking fight in New York State, I learned to look at who was funding academic research and whether the research was peer-reviewed and published. I needed to make sure that there was sound, expert environmental and medical science being presented, not industry propaganda masquerading as science.
“I highly value the life of the mind and am sad that so many denigrate intellectual pursuits and expertise.”
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Dear Joanne,
I have attempted to submit a very long comment here, and the comment seems to have disappeared. The first two paragraphs of the comment are quoted here as follows:
The comment contains about a dozen paragraphs. It also includes a weblink for you to visit one of my special posts that resonates with the spirit of your current post. It seems that the said comment might have been mistakenly identified as spam. Please kindly retrieve and approve it from your WordPress spam folder.
To access your WordPress spam folder, go to the following URL:
[insert your blog url here]/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=spam
After unspamming the comment, you will need to approve it by going to the following URL:
[insert your blog url here]/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?comment_status=all
This will allow you to read the very long comment and visit the said post. Please enjoy!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle🦅
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Thanks, SoundEagle! I’ve been able to retrieve your post and it is now published. I have a meeting shortly so can’t read and respond right now but, at least, it is posted.
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Thank you for this intelligent and balanced response. I know someone, a trans woman, who was a Trump supporter for years, until she finally did some research and learned how full of hate he really is. Hopefully more people will see the truth in time.
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Thank you for reading and commenting, JoAnna. I think that many people who supported Trump are having or will have second thoughts when they see what he is really doing or trying to do.
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