Kamala Harris gave a classy concession speech when it was clear she’d lost the election for president, and managed the traditional congratulatory call to Donald Trump — the opposite of what Trump did when he lost four years ago.
Trump responded graciously after pounding her with racist and sexist insults during the campaign.
While it was nice to see a nod to old norms, missing were the assuring post-election pledges we used to hear about national unity and working together for the country’s betterment.
Instead, the sides returned to their corners for a brief breather before resuming the Wrestlemania-style good vs. evil battles that pass for democratic governance in the 21st century.
Blue-state governors are already planning lawsuits to stop Trump’s policies, just as GOP governors thwarted Joe Biden.
Trump and his political style can no longer be viewed as an aberration. He is us, or at least speaks for a critical mass of Americans — a divided people of diminishing commonality of interest who would rather fight than thrive, shrink from the world rather than lead it.
Trump’s campaign slogan was half right: We’re no longer a great nation. But his America no longer aspires to true greatness or even basic decency. It’s “us against them” in a zero-sum game where there is no win-win, only winners and losers.
Fractured Democrats have no semblance of a cohesive message as they flounder for relevance after a thorough repudiation by voters left them virtually powerless in Washington. Who can say what they stand for anymore?
With the country so divided and positions so hardened, there’s little negotiating to be done across divides and no reconciliation in sight as Americans vote with their feet as well as their ballots.
Forty of the 50 states are under one-party control, with the same party holding the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature.
Majority party lawmakers in safely gerrymandered districts focus on pleasing special interests and their party’s extremes, with little reason to engage the other party or fear voters.
A recent Bloomberg report concluded that “geography determines destiny for 82% of the American population — 41% live under Democratic control in 17 states and 41% under Republicans in 23 states.”
Growing numbers of Americans are actively tying their destiny to geography.
A New York Times analysis of 3.5 million people who moved since 2020 found that Democrats who relocated between states strongly tended to move to states won by Biden and Republicans to states won by Trump, making blue states bluer and red states redder.
It was the same pattern with those who moved between neighborhoods, leaving formerly mixed communities increasingly red or blue.
“The churn of migration … is continuously reshaping American life at the neighborhood level and contributing to a sense that Americans are siloed in echo chambers, online and in their daily lives,” the report said.
“Political scientists say the more partisan a district or state becomes, the less a candidate needs to woo voters from the other party — or, after winning, govern on their behalf.”
As warnings grow of outright civil war, I can’t confidently predict what happens next. But I doubt it’ll be civil.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
