I did not decide to vote until I approached the turn off to head to my home from my office. I wasn’t excited about voting this time, and I put off the decision to vote until the last second. A sense of obligation convinced me to make the short detour to my local polling place.
Even so, I punted on my vote for a president. I couldn’t pull the switch for red or blue. I just didn’t have it in me.
I know I am not alone in the way I felt this election season. A Relevant Magazine article published October 8, 2024, reported on survey results indicating that 41 million Christians did not plan to vote in this election. They are my tribe, and I was one of those 41 million.
A dialogue with a long time friend (who probably doesn’t see the world as I do) about why the election results turned out as they did inspired me to do some post-mortem review of the election. I chose a trusted source for that analysis: Bari Weiss, a former NY Times reporter who has established her own news outlet, the Free Press.
I spent some time today listening to the latest podcast episode on Honestly, with Bari Weiss, Why Trump Won. Bari Weiss is lesbian and liberal. Her panel of experts included a transgender woman, Brianna Wu, and her conservative representative was Batya Ungar-Sargon. Senior Editor of the Free Press, David Svadnik rounded out the panel.
I like to say, “Truth is truth”, and I appreciate people who are able to put aside their agendas and biases and speak to truth. We all have them (agendas and biases), but there is something highly valuable about the effort to cut through those personal values that motivate us and be honest about the way things really are.
Bari Weiss started the discussion with statistics from CNN exit polls that show Trump won about 13% of black voters in 2024 (up from 8% in 2020), and Trump won 45% of Latino voters (up from 32% in 2020.) She noted that Trump improved on his 2020 votes almost everywhere.
This seems to be at the center of the story of this election. Weiss says, “It’s indicative of a massive countrywide political realignment.” It was a “Republican landslide”, and the question we should be asking is, “Why?”
Continue reading “Making Sense of the 2024 Election Results: The Exit Polls Tell a Story”
Navigating by Faith 