Reason for Optimism

Even in a Hall of Mirrors

Three presidential elections in a row, with three rounds of outrage and disbelief.

Three presidential elections in a row, and three rounds of excitement and relief.

We are in a hall of mirrors. We can be sitting right next to someone who has been shown entirely differently “facts” about what is true—facts which demonstrate how decrepit Joe Biden is, how sexist Donald Trump is, how incompetent Kamala Harris is.

I don’t believe the middle of those three statements, and I do believe the others. Many people believe the opposite of what I do. None of us are inherently fools or fascists for believing what we do.

Science is about figuring out what is true. We scientists don’t always get there, and we won’t necessarily know when we do. We make mistakes—lots of them—and it is incumbent upon us to correct those mistakes when we discover them. Science is a messy, non-linear process, and scientists are only human. We all have capacity to discern fact from fiction, though, to think scientifically. One easy step to take is to distrust any who tell you that they are the voice of science. Science is not something to be followed, or to be believed in. Science is something that you do.

One thing is certain: (almost) nothing is certain.

Fact-checkers have become popular in recent years as arbiters of truth, as have their mouthpieces, the mainstream media. They are not. They get a lot of things very, very wrong. The problem is not so much that they get things wrong, though, but the certainty and authority with which they do it. We were assured that SARS-CoV2 didn’t come from a lab. (Oh, but it did.) The mRNA Covid shots are safe and effective. (No, they’re not.) Donald Trump said that there were some very fine people among the white supremacists in Charlottesville. (He did not.)

Our sense-making apparatus is upside down and inside out, and even most of the scientists don’t seem to know what is going on. Just as many big names at Kamala Harris events were paid to be there¹, so too are many scientists paid to come to conclusions that satisfy their funders. These don’t sound like democratic or scientific processes to me. Everywhere you look, people are being paid to endorse people or products or ideas, while claiming that they arrived at their conclusions entirely on their own. This is not only dishonest; it is tearing the fabric of society.

Meanwhile, the warmongering neocons whom Democrats like me used to disdain, are being welcomed in to the Democratic Party.

That sentence may be difficult to parse. To be clear: I still disdain the neocons. And I am no longer a Democrat.

Any party that embraces the neocons is not the party for me. Establishment politicians are running to the Democratic party, because that is their only remaining safe harbor. That should tell us all something about what is happening over in Republican land. It’s chaos. Many of us hope and believe that the chaos will result in far better things in the future. Chaos is inherently unpredictable, though. So even though more than half of us who voted, voted to undo many of the things that have been done by the new Democrats, and this can be seen as a vote for chaos, we are not certain. There is no certainty here. We are optimistic. And it would make sense for everyone, no matter how you voted, to be optimistic, too.

Many of us came together for Unity on the National Mall in September, for the Rescue the Republic Rally². MAHA was there in the greatest numbers—Make America Healthy Again—but all sorts were represented—left, right, and center, if those terms even mean anything anymore. We are Americans. We care about America. And we want to see our people, and our country, thrive.

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Allow me to tell you a bit about some of the people I met in the two weeks leading up to the election³. Traveling from my home in the San Juan Islands, off the coast of Washington state, I was first in Key West, then in Miami, then Pittsburgh, then Livingston, Montana. Two conferences, a party, and curiosity about the world explain the trip.

Specifically, I want to say a bit about some of the amazing women whom I met.

There were young women, and middle aged women, and old. Maidens, mothers, and matriarchs, if you will. Young mothers and middle-aged mothers, women who will become mothers but have not done so yet, and women who know that they never will. Women who became mothers during their peak fertility, when they were young, and women who waited until the doctors called them elderly for having their first baby after 35. Women who are childless by choice. Women who are fiercely pro-choice, and a few who are not. Some, but not many, have had abortions in the past.

Women in partnerships with men, relationships that are healthy and strong. Women in partnerships who are struggling, wondering what comes next, whether the relationship will last. Women in intimate relationships with other women. Women who are single, and like it that way.

Women who have suffered addiction, or abuse, or rape; women who have not, in the past, been allowed to make their own choices, but fought hard for their freedom. Women who put themselves through years of schooling to attain advanced degrees; other women who eschewed the degrees in favor of other ways of making meaning in the world.

I spoke with a former mayor, a fashion designer, a comedian. A future theologian, a former sportscaster, and self-described hippies. Writers and analysts, doctors and lawyers, professors and entrepreneurs and scientists.

All of these women, to a person, are smart and strong and capable. And everyone whom I have mentioned here voted for Trump⁴.

These are not self-hating women. They are not immolating themselves for a cause, nor voting the way that some man wants them to vote. These are independent, curious, adventurous women with talent and passion and drive, who see in Trump hope for the future⁵.

Many Americans cannot imagine how independent, curious, and adventurous women could vote for Trump. They are looking at a wholly different set of “facts.”

If you are one such person—if you are terrified or angry, outraged or anxious—I would invite you to follow the advice laid out here:

Maybe I am wrong to have bet on Trump. I doubt it. But whatever happens next, we should all be united in having optimism for the future. We are the ones who will realize our dreams.

1. Oprah was paid a cool million dollars, apparently. Here’s David Sacks saying that “supposedly” Beyonce got paid ten million dollars by the Harris campaign to show up; others have made the same claim. Here’s a list of payouts (“disbursements”) by the Harris campaign, info from the FEC, on GitHub, which I cannot vet directly any more than I can the claim by Sacks and others (my original source here), although it does back up the payment to Oprah—to “Harpo Productions Inc.”

2. Clips of all the speeches from Rescue the Republic are here, including Bobby Kennedy’s, Bret Weinstein’s, Tulsi Gabbard’s, Matt Taibbi’s, mine, and many more.

3. I did this on DarkHorse livestream #250 as well.

4. There were a couple of non-Americans whom I talked to, who would have voted for Trump had they been American citizens.

5. Here’s my tweet thread showcasing just some of the arguments for Trump made by smart women; embedded in the thread is my own argument, also here.