One of my goals as I anticipate the New Year is to embrace more consistently the concepts of grace and gratitude. And given the results of this past election, it is harder—but perhaps more important than ever—to try to aspire to this objective.
The election’s smoke has cleared. There is a definitive result. With the exception of some random conspiracy theorists on the left—spinning the same kind of ballot-tampering nonsense that election deniers did four years ago—America has accepted the outcome and either has moved on or is bracing for the tectonic shifts in governance that will accompany the incoming administration.
We know, of course, that had the results turned out differently, we would have been in for another round of “Stop the Steal.” But the fire hose of bogus complaints that had been streaming in on Election Day—Pennsylvania experienced “massive CHEATING,” bellowed Donald Trump on Truth Social—stopped abruptly around 10 p.m. ET, when it was clear Trump was going to win. The playbook had been foreordained: “We lose, it’s rigged. We win, it’s fair.” But since we’ve actually had a free and fair election, and will soon have what we expect to be a peaceful transfer of power—sans insurrection—maybe most observers can acknowledge that one of the nation’s foundational tenets survived the 2024 race: Representative democracy in America is built on an election system that still works, and works very well.
Who cares if Trump won by 1 million or 2 million, or if he won the popular vote by 1.2% or 1.1%? He won clearly and convincingly. The time has passed for engaging in absurd arguments over the semantics of what defines a “mandate.” The time has come for the pundits to stop blathering, for the pollsters to stop trying to justify their botched forecasts and outmoded models. The reality is plain: Republicans will hold the presidency, the Senate, and the House. The right also has a solid majority on the Supreme Court. So call it whatever you want, but whether you like it or not, Republicans get to run the show.
At the start of 2016, the presidential race had about a dozen Republican candidates. Remember Carly Fiorina? Rick Santorum? Jim Gilmore? Neither do I. But if you were a political operative who wanted to grab on to a candidate’s coattails, hoping to work for the likeliest next president, Trump was your 12th interview. So he got the worst of the lot, and he went into the Oval Office with a bunch of broken toys.
Not this time. Trump will be starting his second term with an experienced, well-oiled support team, one including chief of staff Susie Wiles, who probably ranks up near James Baker as one of the most respected former campaign operatives to be tapped as White House chief of staff.
The broken toys are headed to Goodwill. One of the key shit-stirrers who helped run the campaign, Corey Lewandowski, is out in the cold for now. After the election, having seriously thrown his weight around during the 2024 campaign, he reportedly offered a conciliatory handshake to co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, who, according to Politico, poked a finger in his chest and said: “Fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you. You have fucked with the wrong person. I am going to fucking destroy you.” This was like a cinematic face-off between an underboss and a consigliere—a fight that at one point involved LaCivita posting a picture of Tony Soprano giving the middle finger.
