This is not what I had planned to write this week. I already had the title in my head. It was going to be ‘Kamalaland’. I was excited. Eager. Hopeful. Cautiously optimistic. I was away from home at a conference in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I stayed awake till the results started to appear a bit clearer. I had this sinking feeling and heartache that I felt back then in 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost. As I went about my affairs the following morning, people who I was attending the conference with would say ‘Good morning’ and I would reply with, ‘this is not a good morning’. The difference between 2016 and now is that while I am sad, I am not heartbroken and inconsolable the way I was back then. In 2016, it was such a shock, to discover that one of the most qualified people ever to run for President lost to a candidate who did not have a fraction of her experience. All the voting blocs who were supposed to propel her to victory either voted for her opponent or simply stayed home.
With this result of a President-Elect Donald Trump win and Vice-President Kamala Harris loss, it really does not matter what anyone feels or thinks. Americans have made their choice. That is the beauty of democracy. We might want to try it out sometime. It was a flawless election. No guns were fired, no ballots snatched, no nervous Professors had to squint while reading out results. No generators had to be fueled so that the collation centers could carry on their work. No thugs had to be mobilised to demobilize threats, based on instructions from their leaders. The results were known in a timely manner, the winner was projected within twenty-four hours.
The analysis and recriminations have started. There are those who will pontificate on why President Trump won, and others who will explain why Vice-President Harris lost. There seems to be consensus that it would not have made a difference if President Joe Biden had not been shooed off the ticket. Before the first Presidential Debate in June, President Biden was trailing Ex-President Donald Trump in the polls. After the debate, the Democrats tried to make it business as usual, but the polls kept getting worse and the party faithful were restless – a change was needed. The arrival of Vice-President Kamala Harris breathed new life into a lacklustre campaign, and when she hit the ground running with her Vice-Presidential nominee Tim Walz and a huge campaign war chest, she appeared unstoppable. She had momentum, she oozed empathy, she had a message about hope and moving forward, and she was a unifying figure. She had an army of powerful influencers in politics, business and entertainment backing her – the Clintons, the Obamas, Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, Bill Gates, Mike Zuckerberg, Beyonce and many more.
As the short Presidential campaign went on, the warning signs started to appear. People were very unhappy with the Biden administration and wanted a change, his Vice-President was not that change. The economy was not doing well enough and people could feel it in the rising cost of living. There was also the immigration crisis, which was a concern for Republicans, Democrats and independents alike, something the Trump campaign weaponised in spectacular fashion. Some of the labour unions who traditionally backed the Democratic party, refused to endorse the Democratic candidate this time. A good number of black male voters indicated a preference for Donald Trump. Elon Musk brazenly offered U$1m giveaways to impressionable voters, many of them young people who see him as a hero who must know what he is doing and what he is talking about. And then there was good old sexism and misogyny. Many who expressed doubt that a Kamala Harris could lead a country like the United States and stand shoulder to shoulder with male world leaders such as Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. In the end, it came down to what people preferred. One candidate had a history of successfully prosecuting felons, served as Attorney-General, Senator and Vice-President. The other has at least 34 felonies and a conviction for sexual assault in a civil case, and when his first term came to an end in 2020, he enabled an insurrection on January 6th 2021 that almost toppled democracy in the United States as we know it. On November 5th 2024, eligible voters in the United States opted for the latter.
It is still early days, but the voting patterns that have emerged from the November 5th elections are interesting to note. When Hillary Clinton lost, it was revealed that one of the reasons was because more white women voted for Donald Trump than for her. In spite of the fact that the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade in 2022, ending women’s constitutional right to an abortion, more white women voted for Donald Trump in 2024, just like in 2016. In a country where a black man was voted as President twice, 20% of black male voters voted for Donald Trump in 2024. More male Latinos voted for Trump in 2024 than for Harris, the same demographic that has been threatened with mass deportations under a Trump regime. The only voting bloc that overperformed for Harris were black women. What have I learnt from all this? That you can not cry more than the bereaved. That when all conditions are in place for adults to make informed choices for their present and future, those choices have to be respected. That customers have a right of purchase but buyer’s remorse is the buyer’s burden. That what has happened will not stop many of us from telling our daughters that they can be anything they want to be. That we will still have to live with racism, misogyny and gynophobia for a while to come. That we cannot lose sight of the fact that democracies are meant to be built on fundamental values of respect, freedom of choice, inclusion, justice and fairness. That we will all have to continue pushing for what is right, starting within our own communities, so that we do not reward bad behaviour and discourage those who dream of touching the skies.
As I tried to avoid the depressing news about the US election, I allowed myself to be distracted with the news of Baltasar Ebang Engonga, Director-General of the National Financial Investigation Agency, Equatorial Guinea. What consenting adults do in private should be no one’s business. However, a senior government official making out with and recording over 300 women, mostly in a government office? That is a serious scandal! I was having lunch with colleagues at the conference during the week and we were talking about the scandal, when someone stated that since Baltasar did not force any of the women, he could not be charged for anything. Some of us pointed out that finding charges against him would not be hard. If you have the audacity to record yourself having a good time with the spouses of your bosses or their current/potential mistresses, then you have yourself to blame. In fact, facing charges will be the least of his problems, let him ask the ghost of Jeffrey Epstein. As if we knew. Now, not only has the Banger-in Chief been sacked from his job, he has been charged with, ‘irregularities committed in the exercise of his functions, as well as inappropriate family and social conduct for the performance of public duties’. Democracy is not black and white everywhere. Hopefully, a cautionary tale for the undiscovered Bangers as well as their gullible, adventurous, lonely or bored victims.
What was I saying before I got distracted? Oh, yes, we need to invest in sound democratic values and structures, we cannot plant feathers and expect chickens to grow. Kamala Harris, I am proud of you and so are many people around the world.
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is a Gender Specialist, Leadership Coach, Policy Advocate and Writer. She is the Founder of Abovewhispers.com, an online community for women. She can be reached at BAF@abovewhispers.com