The looming presidential election is going to be historic. We will have an unprecedented president, regardless of who wins. If one of the third-party candidates wins — there are three running in Maine — that would be something that never happened before. Unprecedented. Of course, that isn’t going to happen. No third-party candidate has the $1 billion necessary to challenge the major parties’ candidates.
Unprecedented levels of funding have been raised by the Harris and the Trump campaigns.
If Democrat Kamala Harris wins, we will have elected a woman for the first time ever. Women have previously competed in their party’s conventions — Republican Margaret Chase Smith (1964) and Democrat Shirley Chisholm (1972) come to mind — but none succeeded until 2016 when Hillary Clinton won the nomination and ran against Donald Trump. If Kamala Harris were to defeat Trump this year, she would be the first woman to win it all. Unprecedented.
On the other hand, should Trump win, different precedents will be established. If elected again, he will be the first impeached president to be elected. The first convicted felon to be elected president. The first to be punished by having to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and judgments for defamation, fraud and other crimes. The first fascist to compete for the presidency of the United States. Unprecedented. [In the first draft of this column I had written “crypto-fascist” but after Sunday’s Madison Square Garden rally, “fascist” seemed more accurate.]
An interesting essay on fascism was published recently by historian Heather Cox Richardson. Her work draws deeply from a talk produced by the U.S. Army in 1945.
So, what will happen when the election is over? That is the question of the hour. It is a question people might ask in any election year but this year the question is ripe with fear and anxiety. I have spoken to a number of people who tell me that they stopped consuming any news about the election weeks ago. They don’t follow the polls and don’t listen to reports of the campaigns or candidates’ stump speeches. People I spoke to, fed up with the spin and manipulation, the hyperbole and fakery that is free-floating everywhere in the last-gasp run-up to the election, are boycotting the news.
People are anxious about the outcome if their preferred candidate loses. They wonder what policy changes the winning side might push through. How the country will be changed? Keeping your eyes, ears and mind closed is an understandable strategy for handling the anxiety numerous people are feeling at this point, but that has to stop after Nov. 5.
I suspect some people may be anxious in a different way if the other side loses. Armageddon is in the air. What mayhem will the losing candidate unleash in the face of their loss? Will there be sustained resistance and continuous civil unrest? Will we be looking at a Second Civil War?
What’s a voter to do? Well first, don’t catastrophize. Outcomes are rarely as bad as (or as good as) people fear (or expect). We are a system of government with checks and balances. We have separate (and presumably independent) executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The American president is not an all-powerful dictator. Anyone who tries to exert omnipotence would be prevented from doing so by the Constitution.
Second, if you don’t like the outcome, work to change the regime in 2028. Connect to your party of choice, get off the sidelines, and get into the political fray. If you are relieved by who won, the same advice holds: get active and stay active ahead of 2028.
Third, be watchful. Get back to the news. Watch how the losing side responds to their loss and be prepared to lobby officials to enforce election laws. “Stop the steal” for real this time.
Fourth, reach out to someone who preferred your opponent. This applies both to those who are happy with the outcome and to those who aren’t; whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, or something else.Regardless of which party you voted for, going forward you must affirm your status as a true believer in the American democracy. Then you must live it.
Ron McAllister is a sociologist and writer who lives in York.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: The Observer: 2024 presidential election set to be unprecedented
