If you’re reading this, congratulations: you made it to the conclusion of the 2024 election. Even if you’re understandably upset about Donald Trump’s victory, just arriving at this point with your cognition intact is a genuine achievement that you should be proud of.
Your eyes are probably burning and your brain is foggy, but don’t fret: that’s natural after forced Clockwork Orange–style exposure to television ads, mailers, texts, emails, phone calls, tweets, door knocks, and other assorted nags from friends, family, and celebrity influencers — all selling you on the idea that this phantasmagoria was about the survival of democracy.
For those who still sense that it may have been a scammy sales pitch from both parties, that’s because some part of your brain withstood the agitprop and noticed that the 2024 campaign torched much of what was still left of the actual democracy.
Even as all of your screens told you otherwise, your remaining synapses detected that the parties, candidates, and donors used a mushroom cloud of money to convert an election into an auction, with almost nobody in the press or electorate asking what exactly was being sold. And when that happens — when one side’s billionaires outbid the other side’s billionaires in a clearance sale of a political contest — that’s not a defense of democracy. That’s burning the democracy village down while pretending you’re trying to save it.
This campaign certainly involved very real stakes. The Democrats offered voters vague promises to shield our few remaining rights and democratic institutions from the flames, plus an agenda of mildly progressive economic reforms. The Republicans offered an opportunity to ignite a new blaze of deregulation and…
Auteur: David Sirota
