Jenaro Pagan

No way out

Photography by Nona Limmen

Justin O’Neal

My Thoughts on the 2024 Election Results…

How? How could he win again?!

A putrid, vile, decrepit man with no right to wield the power he has been given. A man so lacking in intelligence that he can barely form coherent sentences. A man who would see our democracy fall to ash and ruin instead of conceding to defeat. A man who insighted violence upon our nation's capital so that he might cling to his fleeting power.

How does such a man take the seat at the head of our nation once more, over an impeccably intelligent, well-spoken woman?

How?!

The outcome of this election feels like the punchline to a bad comedy. The looming fact that it is now not a matter of if my rights to live, and love freely and openly will be taken from me, but a matter of when. Rights that have been so vehemently fought for throughout decades of activism and protest, now will be dissolved before I have ever had the chance to exercise them. Where my heart not so blackened by despair, I could almost laugh at the cruel comedy of it all.

It doesn't feel real. It feels like a horrible dream. A terrible reoccurring dream that I cannot wake from. It doesn't make sense. How did he so handily win when he was so widely disliked? How did he win the popular vote? How did he win, when it was almost a universal sentiment that we needed someone younger in the Oval Office? Was I truly in such an air-tight leftist echo chamber that I couldn't fathom this outcome? Was I truly this blind to how far right our country had fallen? I am not one to fall for conspiracy easily, but it feels like there was some sort of outside influence or some underhanded business. How do we have a record-breaking voter turnout and voting lines longer than we have seen in decades... and yet nearly 18 million fewer total votes than in 2020?

Do men truly so vehemently hate women that they would rather sign the death warrant on our democracy than see a woman take the office of President?

Was the economy truly such a grand issue? Was his "concept of a plan" really so convincing? If you think a man, with 34 felony convictions, and at least 6 corporate bankruptcies, is going to fix our economy you are irreparably stupid. Was the false promise of lower gas prices so enticing that you would sign our country over to tyranny? All these economic promises are naught but illusions, and deceptions, lies told by a vile man who will do anything to maintain his chokehold on power.

And spare me the empty, condescending platitudes that masquerade as hope, for they offer no solace. The unbearable anger and despair that has come to bear upon my shoulders feels as if it could crush me under its weight. Each moment that drags on feels like an eternity, and the thought of waking to see the dawn of another day feels like an improbable miracle. Should I find the strength to draw breath as the sun rises tomorrow, it would be a testament to resilience against these shades that haunt this waking nightmare that has become our reality.

ANTI-FASCIST ACTION

♱ dark ♱

Untitled by ABeardedArtist

𝚅 𝙰 𝙼 𝙿 𝙸 𝚁 𝙴 | Uknown Artist.