How Trump saved the Democratic Party from itself
Whatever happens on Election Day, the political mobilization that we’ve seen in this country in response to the Trump administration was never destined to be. It could easily have gone a different direction, but for the decisions made by millions of people to get involved in politics in a way they hadn’t before. In doing so, they’ve transformed the Democratic Party and, through the explosion of small-dollar giving, the democratic system itself. Here’s my election eve story on how it all came together, with a reporting assist by Dave Dayen.
For Election Day I’ll be in New Holland, Pennsylvania, to check in on the Jess King race there. (She’s the candidate running strong in Amish Country.)
In the evening I’ll be in New York doing election night punditry alternately for Democracy Now and CBSN. Democracy Now partnered with The Intercept for coverage and I’ll be on there from 8-10 pm, and on CBSN the rest of the night. I’m kind of glad I’ll be on air, it’s a nice way to distract myself.
One thing to watch for will be the Rust Belt and beyond, as Democrats are threatening to win gubernatorial races in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma. The implications for workers and for 2020 are profound. Here’s Jon Schwarz on that. And here’s a video I did for TYT on the same theme.
How Donald Trump Saved the Democratic Party From Itself
On the morning of November 9, 2016, millions of Americans woke up in a fog. In New Holland, Pennsylvania, Annie Weaver stopped at the Wawa on her way to the school where she teaches, and she couldn’t look anybody in the eye. Brandi Calvert, a real estate agent in Wichita, Kansas, only got out of bed because she had to take her 11-year-old boy to school. Before heading out, she told him what had happened, but he refused to believe her.
I walked my daughter to school that morning in Washington, D.C. and went inside for her kindergarten class’s biweekly open house. A third-grader had drawn the assignment of reading the day’s news over the PA system, and he began with a brief history of the expansion of voting rights. He then ventured into more recent events: “In 2008, Barack Obama was the first African-American elected president. This year, in 2016, Hillary Clinton was the first female president — nominee. In a surprising election, she was defeated by Donald Trump,” he said. “Stop by room 308 to see our timeline. Have a great day.”
My daughter — who’d very much been “rooting for the girl to win” and found Trump to be a miscreant and an offensive bully — stood unusually silent, as her teacher, clad in black jeans and an olive green hijab, turned her face to hide her tears.
There was nothing to say — nothing that could be said — to make right the raw fact that, after a hate-filled, vitriolic campaign, enough people in the United States had voted for Donald Trump to make him our 45th president.
Back in Wichita, Calvert drove home and called her mother. “I went through the emotions of crying and being angry and disbelief, and surely it was a mistake and will be corrected,” she recalled.
After processing her grief, a two-week-long endeavor, she said, Calvert, like millions of people across the country, became consumed by the need to “do something.” There was nothing to say, but there was something to do. Still, what was that something?