#MNR: I WAS WRONG

#MNR: I WAS WRONG
 
“You get what you ask for. So, get it cuz you asked for it.”
Jadakiss & Styles P.
 
“Players fuck up too.”
Powder
 
Last Monday night, I jumped on our platform and proudly proclaimed/predicted, after all my analysis for the past three months or so, that Vice President Kamala Harris would easily defeat former President Donald J. Trump and become the 47th president of the United States of America. Kamala offered positivity, hope, and initiatives which would energize the middle class. The polls said she was up. The experts said she was the frontrunner. I awoke early on Election Day and cast my vote, set to be a part of history. I saw and felt the energy. It was time.
 
Boy was I wrong. And much like in 2016, I felt the vibe by 10:00 pm.
 
Election night proved to be a slaughterhouse for Democrats at the federal level. Kamala and Waltz were the choice cuts. Americans overwhelmingly (relatively) rejected her plans in favor of Trump’s dark, xenophobic “America First” agenda. Trump received 312 electoral votes compared to Harris’ 226, claiming every swing state along the way. Did y’all hear me? Clean sweep. Nevada? Check. Arizona? Check. Wisconsin? Check. Michigan? Check. Pennsylvania? Check. The blue wall crumbled. The polling said Harris had slim leads in the three blue wall states, but all were within the margins of error. What happened? How did we get here?
 
The answer to the questions is diverse and nuanced, though I’ve focused on the predominant four factors: improvement on 2020 numbers in key states/counties, Democrats lost the Black and Hispanic young, working-class male vote, white women voted for Trump (again), and woke is a no-go for much of America, especially in terms of sexuality and gender affirmation.
 
If you are a Steve Kornacki disciple like me, you take heed to his words. The smart board further illuminates his talking points, showing raw data in every state, county, and city. From the close of the first states’ polling and throughout the night, he spoke on key areas in swing states where Kamala needed to match or better Biden’s 2020 numbers and where Trump needed to take back 2016 gains he lost in 2020. Damn it, he did just that. Most notably were Wisconsin’s “BOW WOW” counties, which Kornacki said would prove to be a litmus test in the 2024 election. The BOW counties of Brown, Outagamie, and Winnebago are population centers in and around Green Bay, including Appleton and Oshkosh. Trump won the BOW counties in 2016, but with slim margins. The WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington were all won by Trump in 2016 with strong margins. A strong night in Wisconsin for Harris would have signaled a strong night for her nationally. She lost all six counties. Checkmate.
 
Every four years, it seems that the Black male vote is a hot button topic for Democrats. I damn near went to war with some of my own on Twitter in the summer of 2020. Many of my younger brothers failed to see any difference between the two old white men, claiming them to be two of the same. I tried to explain how Trump’s brand was far worse than Bidens, citing the racism, xenophobia, and lies that are still the cornerstones of his political existence. They countered with the crime bill of the mid ‘90s, which Biden’s signature seemed to be larger and in a bolder color than the other 95 or so senators on both sides of the aisle who voted along with her. When all the smoke cleared, I couldn’t even get mad at my brothers. They felt how they felt, and that was that.
 
The exit polls told us in bold letters that Hispanic men, both young and old, prefer Trump’s brand of fuckery. We learned in 2016 (as if we didn’t know better) that Latinos aren’t a monolith. South Florida Cubans don’t view their non-American countrymen the same way an El Paso Mexican may view theirs. Trump did an amazing job of telling them something to this effect – hey, you came here legally to escape them. Do you want them here, knowing they stole their way into this very nation you risked everything to come to...legally? Hispanic men view Trump as a celebrity hero of sorts. They love his brand.
 
What do both Black (some) and Hispanic men (especially young men of both races) have in common? They both feel that they had no voice in Harris’ political agenda. Few of her initiatives, aimed at the educated middle class, resonated with both voting blocs. Trump went on the Joe Rogan podcast and amassed over 35M views before the election. Harris declined the invitation. Rogan’s podcast appeals to the “everyday” man, many of whom have grown increasingly disenchanted with the Democratic party and its policies. Many viewed Harris’ snub of the Rogan podcast a mistake. It quite possibly may have been. My take from it all is that most heterosexual men, irrespective of color, hold similar everyday views of America and the world. Now, you could take my word for it, but I came with receipts. About 3 in 10 Black men under age 45 voted for Trump. That number is roughly double the share he got four years ago. Roughly half of young Latino men voted for Harris, compared to about 6 in 10 who went for Biden in 2020. Checkmate (again).
 
The common thread amongst American men of all races is their angst for “woke” policies. This brand of woke is NOT a direct correlation to the struggles of the summer of 2020. It is in correlation to the LGBTQ community and gender reassignment. Most traditional men of monotheistic faiths believe it all to be an abomination. Moreover, they have grown progressively more disgusted with what seems to them to be a “gay agenda.” I can’t blame the white or Hispanic man because I constantly hear these talking points in the barber shop and even in discussions with my brothers. Most men are willing to “put up” with LGBTQ, even though they aren’t fully accepting. But to push an agenda (their sentiments, not mine) is non-cipher. The irony of it all is the Trump ad featuring Charlamagne tha God and DJ Envy of the world-famous Breakfast Club morning show on 105.1 FM New York. It showed clips of the two men speaking on Harris’ support for gender reassignment and maintenance in the prison system. Both men spoke of their disdain, arguing that they didn’t want their tax money going to such nonsense. The ad also spoke on transgenders participating in women’s sports. It showed a big, brutish transgender female on a basketball team full of “normal,” regular sized girls. The ad played incessantly during the World Series and on Sundays during NFL football games. It reminded me of my trip to Richmond three years ago for Homecoming when McAuliffe and Youngkin were at war to be the next governor of Virginia. I saw an infinite number of Youngkin campaign signs on lawns and anywhere there was a piece of grass, from the northside to the southside. I noted this to a few people that weekend. McAuliffe was the frontrunner, but my eye test told me that Youngkin had a freight train of momentum behind him. I was correct. Virginia went with the Republican, shunning the former governor and his liberal agenda. The transgender ad should have issued me a similar warning. It did. I ignored it.
 
White women were the final drop in the bucket that tipped in Trump’s favor. They talked a good one. But at the end of the day, they still backed the man who threatened to further strip them of the rights their mothers and grandmothers fought so hard for. Exit polls said that 52% of white American women voted for Trump (newrepublic.com). So much for cancelling out their husband’s vote. So much for women’s reproductive rights. So much for not looking back. One of my old BCBAs, a decent lady in my estimation, never revealed what her political views were in our diverse conversations. She hinted at a few things, but she always had a blatant cutoff point. Last Wednesday, she posted on snapchat for the first time in over a year. It was a selfie of her smiling, donning (pun intended) the infamous red MAGA hat. Wow. It is what it is.
 
I should have known better. Perhaps America isn’t ready for a woman to run the country. Or perhaps Trump’s message resonated much more than Harris’. Perhaps it was an unhealthy blend of both. One thing is for certain: on 1.20.2025, Donald Trump will return to the White House for his second stint as president. Y’all asked for it. God help us all.