2026 Life Logs, Day 308: Day After Historic Election
Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2026
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 64, Low 58 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth MA
The Guardian Headlines … Democrats win control of Congress as voters punish Trump … US voters rebuke Trump as Democrats win control of Congress in ‘blue wave’ … Resounding wins for Democrats is a wholesale rebuke of Trump’s Maga. US headlines all included words like rout or blue wave or tsunami, or they said things like, “Voters reject Trump’s GOP as Democrats rack up wins.”
My friend, Jerry Lanson, wrote a Substack post today. He wrote the same things I have been thinking. Here are some excerpts from that post:
“Americans spoke … They voted this election day in anger and disgust but with purpose. They spoke up for health care and affordable housing, for sane gas prices and utility bills, for food prices they can afford. But they spoke up for more — for decency and a roll back of overt, daily corruption … They elected a governor in Ohio abused as a child and mocked for it by her opponent. They elected a senator in Iowa, who was a para-Olympian and campaigned from a wheelchair. They elected a logger in Maine to the U.S. Senate and the pastor of a mega-church in Kansas. They elected a Native American to the Senate from Minnesota and may yet elect an African-American from the deep red, southern state of Mississippi. They elected a Muslim-American smeared as a terrorist and non-American in Michigan. They elected a Latina governor of Texas and an African-American governor of Georgia. And they elected a 37-year-old Texan, part populist, part preacher, raised by a single mother with a closet for his nursery as a babe. He ran against Elon Musk and the $212 million Musk donated to defeat him. And he beat him, and the state’s long term conservative incumbent governor, in part by casting the race as David vs. Goliath, with the voters of Texas as his slingshot. Meanwhile, close to home, I am now represented by a 24-year-old state Assemblyman who took on a long-entrenched Republican well-liked in my community but nonetheless tied in some ways to Trump’s party and brand … What an extraordinary group of candidates and now new elected officials. What a diverse group in a country in which the president has done everything he can to deport people to countries they’ve never set foot in, to erase their history — our history, to intimidate, bully and threaten anyone who stands up to him. In truth, relatively few college presidents, members of Congress, business leaders, or law firms have. The Supreme Court has largely crumbled, but the court system, federal and state, beneath that high court has not … Nor have the American people.”
Personally, I am still trying to internalize that this really happened. Since January 2025, I have worked hard for something like this to happen, but I never let myself think that this midterm election would be this successful. But as throughout history, the American public once again voted for what is right and just.
You and I–all of us—can take time to celebrate, but then we have to stay vigilant and push very hard against the widening inequalities that are corrupting our system … and keep pushing very hard for democracy and social justice.
