I am probably still in shock writing this. Yesterday was a horrific day. There are no words that could sum up the feeling of seeing the election being called ... utter bleak grief mixed with fury and a huge dose of impending doom?
I didn't stay up all night Tuesday, I went to bed after voting closed, hopeful but exhausted from raging at how much in 2024 women still have to fight just for our basic rights to be considered. Furious that although it looked promising, the race was still close between an intelligent well-spoken woman who has held roles in all three areas of government and a convicted felon, rapist, racist, Russian conspirator, regular visitor to Epstein and babbling moron who attacked his own country. And then I woke up, and for a few moments thought I was in the fucking Upside Down.
Perhaps deeply ingrained misogyny is the reason Kamala lost the election, but perhaps there are other things at play. For what it is worth, and I know I will seem to some to be a conspiracy nut, but I believe this election was stolen. I trust the voting booths, but I think something else took place in the transfer of voter information. The enthusiasm for Kamala was at Obama levels, if not more and record numbers of new voters registered. Are we really supposed to believe that following the reversal of Roe vs Wade, what we now know about his links to Russia, the January insurrection, the utterly horrifying details of Project 2025, his increasingly empty rallies, the switched on Gen Zs that could vote this time round, that 15 million fewer people voted in 2024 compared to 2020 during a pandemic?
In North Carolina, a swing state where I am from, a huge number of voters chose Democratic candidates for the rest of the ticket, but Trump for president. Really? Maybe – apparently it the state has a history of ticket splitting. But today I read this happened in FIVE swing states. That's a lot of Republicans voting Democrat for other offices, or a lot of Democrats who just couldn't stomach a woman president? Maybe.
But there are other things that don’t add up for me. Although still the huge majority of black women, but fewer numbers of black women voted for Kamala in 2024 than voted for Biden in 2020? In addition to the disruptions reported: Russian bomb threats at voting stations in swing states, voter intimidation, ballot boxes burned, many people are saying their votes have not been counted or were returned. Plus there's what Trump told us in recent days, and if we've learned anything from that man it's that he always tells us exactly who he is. At a rally last Thursday he said 'my instruction is that you we don't need the votes, we have so many votes.'
He has also said more than once that if they vote for him November, they'd never have to vote for him again. 'Get out and vote just this time. After this time you won't have to do it any more. You won't have to vote any more. In four years you won't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote.' All covered here by Rachel Maddow.
Yesterday I hoped that the Democrats' silence following the very quick election results being called by the media had something to do with them looking into all of this, but then they conceded.
I don't know what's worse to believe, that the election was somehow stolen, or that voters couldn't stomach a woman president – enough to vote him back in with a whopping marjority knowing everything we know now. Whatever actually happened. This is the new reality. Someone described it last time round like a card game, where the Democrats continue to play by the rules, while the Republicans aren’t just cheating, but they’ve set the whole house on fire.
The Democrats aren't going to challenge any aspects of the results. Instead they will politely concede power to a man whose plans for the country were laid out in Project 2025, who will have full reign over all three branches of government, who will put RFJ Jr – an anti-vaxxer who has supported a federal ban on abortion – in charge of healthcare, knowing that this may well be the last democratic election we will see in the US for some time.
This is late stage capitalism. Government by billionaires, and like the destruction of our planet, it is coming faster than we thought it would.
So those are my thoughts. But I woke up this morning determined not to let them pull me to shreds like last time, especially as there is every chance it won’t just be another four years. I’m fucking furious, but conscious as well of a strong need to protect my mental health. Outrage is exhausting. And this time the news will all be so much worse. Children in cages, Muslim bans in airports, the sexist and racist talk will all pale in comparison to Israel’s end game. Anyone who thought a vote against Kamala would help the Palestinian cause is so incredibly wrong. Ukraine will no longer have the support of the US now that it is run by Putin’s minion. The destruction of the environment will go into overdrive.
So what do we do – those of us with empathy and a conscience? This will be the eternal question of the next few years. And I wish I had answers. Like so many yesterday, I found some comfort in Rebecca Solnit's tweets:
'They want you to feel powerless and surrender and let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.
You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is.'
We will do what we can. And we need to fight what I call the Virginia Woolf ‘rocks in pockets’ feeling which hovered inside me all day yesterday. I couldn't get out of bed. I wanted to quit – I wasn’t sure what exactly – just quit. Fuck it. Fuck it all.
But Matt made me endless cups of tea, I spoke to Eliza, other friends and family and customers checked in. My phone started pinging with orders, Resist and Persist necklaces, a This too Shall Pass. And I realised how connected we are, how much comfort we are capable of giving others.
This was what made me start Wear and Resist in early 2017. I wanted to wear jewellery that signalled my resistance, a constant silent protest and to connect with other women. We are not powerless when we are together. We owe it to each other to keep ourselves healthy and strong, to find ways to channel our rage, and do whatever we can in whatever way we can. Next year I am planning to expand W&R to hold workshops and get togethers, parties, discussions. It feels more important than ever to meet up in person, share stories, laugh and plan. And yes, those covens. We need to sort that shit out.
