The Sun Rose in the East

The morning after the 2024 general election I went walking on the state park trail at dawn. It was light enough to see the ground, and the sun rose in the east as I entered the main part of the trail. The air was clean and I took deep breaths. I needed that a few hours after reading the general election results.

I was as prepared as I could have been for Trump to win. As a result, I am weathering the aftermath reasonably well. I can’t say that about everyone else to whom I spoke in the last two days. Some were on the verge of tears over the disrespect to women the majority demonstrated by voting for Donald Trump. The country has descended to a very different place than we thought we were.

Something needs to change in my life. The best advice I give myself is to take time to plan effectively.

It has been two months since I tested negative after suffering from COVID-19. While the main symptoms are gone — the constant coughing, particularly — there have been substantial changes in my muscles, blood pressure, and the tests the clinic does for diabetes. Things are not normal so my plan is to evaluate my health today. That’s going to take a while and a better action plan. It is not only me that needs to change.

To return to a majority, Democrats need to change how we live. We must recognize that political campaigning is a subset of everything else we do. We must build relationships more broadly than within our small coterie of like-minded people. We value our relationships, yet to succeed in politics new ones must be in our collective future. My modest proposal is to blow up the current organization of the Democratic Party and start over. We do not understand the electorate and need to. The bonds of affection we developed over years are hard to break, yet we must.

I have gotten good at picking myself up after failing to effect needed change. At some point, our goals for society need calibration. Our methods need to change. It makes little sense to get back on the same horse to keep riding when what we need most is to send the beast to the glue factory. Doing this is harder than we think.

I have a long to-do list today. I expect the sun will rise again in the east. It is time to dust myself off and get back to work building new goals and a new way to achieve them.