Presidential Election 2024 To Be…Or Not To Be

By Brenda H. Andrews
Publisher
New Journal and Guide

“To be or not to be…that is the question.”

Shakespeare’s Hamlet popularized this phrase reflecting on the morality of life and death.

That was a question for me on Tuesday November 5 Election Day mid-day as I observed voting in America briskly proceeding.

Would our country choose a way of life to justice, liberty and freedom for all by electing Kamala Harris? Or would we be weighed down in a dark and dangerous place that supports the clock’s being turned back on every advancement we’ve made in civil liberties, human civility and First Amendment rights by choosing Donald Trump?

We were told it might be days before we’d know the final results of the historic presidential election we were witnessing and all it represented.

We were hearing about a big turn out of women, first time voters, college students, Republicans voting Democratic, just as we saw early voting in big numbers. I voted early, for only the second time in my voting life, to ensure my vote for democracy could not be lost on November 5 by a personal deterrent. I don’t mind standing in voting lines. I get a patriotic rush knowing I am striking a spiritual blow at an evil force that sought to keep my Black ancestors from reading and voting. I do know that people—Black activists and White sympathizers— died so that I can vote.

It was an odd question to ask before the election results began to come in on Tuesday night. Life or death. The answer seemed obvious.

Life: Democracy.
Life: Freedom.
Life: Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for all.

Isn’t that what we profess in America?

Yet, as I went to bed after midnight, it was apparent Donald Trump—increasingly unhinged, uncouth, and uncivil—would be returning to the White House, as the next leader of the “Free World”, but this time with his “to-do” hit list that includes freedom of the press I represent.

Many questions beg to be answered this post-election day.

I did believe our country would choose life and democracy over death at the hands of Trump. I did believe our country was big enough to finally elect its first woman president. I had to. I’ve spent my entire life in belief and pursuit of the American Dream.

I also believed Harris’ opposition would use everything in their power to delay and deny the results and abuse the democratic system in their doings, even calling on our biased one-sided U.S. Supreme Court whenever possible.

Now I know we face more and younger Trump court appointees who will affect policies for the next several generations.

The good news I must hold onto is they will ultimately lose, for as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., often said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” This offers us hope that the progress we’ve made toward freedom, equality, and justice will win out.

Many of us, including myself, scheduled election watch parties for local and state candidates, hoping the best for the candidates of our choice. We also knew we’d be watching the returns from those battleground states and counting up the electoral votes to 270 needed for a presidential win, hoping for an early night for freedom and democracy to ease the unrelenting stress this election cycle has produced.

What happened? How could the hopeful predictions for victory in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia have gone so awry? Who were those masses of people of good cheer packing the rallies for Kamala? How could Black and Hispanic voters excuse the racist and hateful vitriol spewed by Trump and J.D. Vance on women, on V-P Harris, immigrants, and even, the entire island of Puerto Rico?

How did we get here?

We must talk about the biggest elephant in the room as we begin to assess this fiasco.

Kamala Harris herself.

Her race, gender, intelligence and audacious John Wayne fighting spirit contained in a beautiful female body.

Why are we not “ready” to elect a strong woman president in the United States of America?

It’s not too early to talk about the whys and the lessons learned in the 2024 election cycle, and there is great need to do so. Something clandestine and evil entombed people of seeming good will who could have made a positive difference in the outcome when they entered the voting booths.

I have many questions that beg to be answered. But for this moment, I end where I started.

To be or not to be…that is the question to be answered first.

America has spoken. What is she saying?