Democrats lost, no matter what happens

I woke up the morning after Election Day and did my best to act like
it was simply another day. I baked banana oat bars for my girls’s
breakfasts. I looked at baby photos with my seven year old in the car
as we waited in line at the school drop off.

It seemed like the kind of morning to reminisce about simpler, more
innocent times.

Here in Minnesota, it was an unseasonably warm and sunny November
morning and so I spent a few minutes of it outside getting some sun on
my face before heading back inside to begin the work day.

I found myself clinging to things that felt familiar and routine and
mine, because the reality was that, if I shook myself awake, if I
opened my eyes wide enough and expanded the aperture, I looked out at
a world wholly unrecognizable.

And that’s despite the fact that my candidate won.

After a grueling and divisive and passionate election cycle, my
candidate — Joe Biden — won the presidency and yet I
can’t shake the feeling that, in fact, somehow I’ve lost. And judging
from the texts and calls amongst my close circle of friends, neighbors
and family members, I’m not alone.

Yes, there are reasons to be grateful — historic turnout , incredible
acts of patriotic volunteerism, the Biden win, a few Senate
seats gained here and there — but the truth is that Democrats expected
far, far more. The fact that we fell short of those hopes has us
feeling like strangers in a strange land.

We felt that the last four years warranted a rout and it seemed as if
it just might happen. After four years of truly abhorrent moral
behavior and leadership, President Donald Trump compounded things in a
real, life-or-death manner by displaying egregious incompetence during
a deadly global pandemic. Democrats picked a safe, centrist candidate
who even earned the endorsements of dozens of prominent Republicans.
Influential celebrities and national role-models broke their silence
to speak up and get involved in new and powerful ways. Get out the
vote efforts were comprehensive, powerful and effective.

And yet.

And yet, President Trump — and the Republicans who enabled him — had,
by many estimates, a somewhat un-terrible showing.

And so the feeling I have to sit with is this: If Democrats can’t run
the table in a year like this, if this year wasn’t, in fact, ripe for
a generational victory, then what? What does that say about our party,
our positions and our fellow countrymen?

I should state upfront: This isn’t some anti-Republican screed; in
fact, I acutely understand the allure of conservatism — I used to be
one myself. I was raised by a father who would routinely rail against
Bill Clinton and I would play hooky from school so I could listen to
Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. I have voted for Republicans (Bob Dole)
and Democrats (Obama). I’ve even voted for third party candidates out
of disgust of both parties (Nader). No fan of Hillary Clinton and
possessing a strong anti-establishment bent, I even came close to
pulling the lever for Trump himself four years ago. Although I have
strong, progressive opinions, I recognize that there are legitimate,
philosophical disagreements amongst liberals and conservatives on lots
of issues that are rooted in genuine sincerity.

I know what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to be humbled. I’m
supposed to get to know Trump supporters better. I’m supposed to
branch out and learn more about the opposition so that perhaps we can
find common ground. I’m supposed to leave my bubble and try to find
ways to disagree agreeably.

But who realistically thinks that that’s going to happen? If we’re
being honest, it is a fool’s errand to expect that a gap can be
bridged between people operating with completely different sets of
facts. It is nearly impossible to imagine that one set of people
willing to look the other way with regards to a president credibly
accused of dozens of instances of sexual harassment and assault will
break bread with those who find it eminently disqualifying. One group
of citizens find Muslim bans, science denials, caged migrant children,
inciting violence against journalists, impeachment, voter suppression,
tax dodging, etc. (…surely you know the rundown by now…) repugnant and
abhorrent while another set of citizens is either willing to turn the
other cheek at these offenses or, worse, be completely unswayed by
them despite the indisputable truth that were a Democratic politician
to mimic even one of those behaviors, it would ruffle Republican
feathers like nothing we’d ever seen before. (See: Obama, tan suit.)

The hard truth is that there are no gaps to be bridged here. There is
no olive branch wide enough to lasso these divergent groups together
into something even remotely resembling truce and understanding.

Democrats woke up the morning after Election Day to a likely Democratic president but it’s hard to get excited when it feels like a pyrrhic victory, when it feels like we’ve won a battle but are increasingly losing the war. And
we woke up wondering how to move forward, how to bushwhack a path
ahead when the thorny brush gets increasingly more difficult to push
aside.

Perhaps more than at any other time in modern American history,
Democrats unleashed that machete this year to the messy thorns and
weeds of American politics and, yet, when they finally emerged to
assess both the rubble that was cleared — and then looked forward to
the path ahead — they surveyed their land and felt utterly,
thoroughly lost.

Patrick Gavin is a writer and documentary filmmaker living in Minnesota.