The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

If there were a job description for the presidency, it might as well be written in bold print: women and people of color need not apply. America made history on November 5, though not the kind many would have foreseen. Voters chose a convicted leader whom a jury has found guilty 34 times, a man whom a judge ruled committed massive business fraud, while another court determined he had sexually assaulted a journalist.

They chose the felon over the prosecutor, fascism over democracy, and servitude over freedom.

Latinos and white women, many of whom once more voted against their own interests, who have borne the brunt of his attacks, were primarily responsible for this outcome. But plainly put, Donald Trump has ascended to the highest office in the land once more. A bruised Kamala Harris, meanwhile, didn’t bother to address the thousands of heartbroken supporters who had gathered at Howard University and soaked up hours by dancing, praying, and hoping that they’d witness the first woman—and first Black and Southeast Asian woman—claim the presidency. As the clock ticked toward midnight, it became clear: Trump had taken the race, and, surprisingly, it wasn’t even close.

“I have to say from basically start to finish this night has been clear,” election analyst Harry Enten said on CNN. “There hasn’t been any weird shifting directions. It’s basically been Trump since we got the first counties in. Very much unlike 2020 when there was whiplash as the vote count went on.” Unofficial results showed that Trump earned at least 276 electoral college votes compared to Harris’s 223.

The battleground states that so-called experts had insisted were in play weren’t close at all: North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio all went Trump.

Riding Trump’s wave, the GOP regained control of the Senate, guaranteeing the rapid implementation of their sweeping conservative agenda, Project 2025. Democrats held out hope for the House, but with Trump facing little to no punishment for his alleged crimes, many wonder if it matters. Many European leaders watched the results overnight.

A French official told NBC News that President Emmanuel Macron viewed the results with some sleep breaks in between. He was one of the first to congratulate Trump, posting on X that he was “ready to work together as we did for four years.”

In Europe, the viability of NATO and other trans-Atlantic alliances hangs in the balance. Despite controversy over Labor Party officials openly backing Harris, Prime Minister Keir Starmer had little choice when he expressed optimism about the “special relationship” between the U.K. and U.S., saying, “I look forward to working with you in the years ahead.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, himself viewed as the kind of dictator Trump promises to become, appeared ecstatic, writing on X, “The biggest comeback in U.S. political history! A much-needed victory for the World!” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a more formal tone, emphasizing Germany’s commitment to working with the U.S. “promoting prosperity and freedom,” while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the E.U.-U.S. relationship as “a true partnership.”

Back home, the path forward looks perilous for Trump’s political enemies. The outcome is a catastrophe for the world, many said. While Harris’s campaign was characterized by skill, grace, and a desire to become the first female president in America’s 248-year history, Trump’s campaign was marred by vulgarity, inflammatory rhetoric, and an attitude toward immigrants that often-echoed history’s darkest chapters. It may have been fair to ask, how was the race even close?

Exit polls reveal that white women, who appeared on the verge of breaking free from the grip of MAGA ideology, voted heavily for Trump despite his disregard for their rights and autonomy. Latino voters also leaned toward Trump, despite his incendiary rhetoric, which included labeling Puerto Rico as an “island of trash” at a recent Madison Square Garden rally.

Democrats must also face the reality of their shocking defeat. After a final debate in which some questioned his cognitive skills, the party sidelined President Joe Biden yet failed to portray Trump as the volatile threat he posed. With his 2020 victory in hand, Biden had warned that he alone could defeat Trump. But instead of managing their issues internally, Democrats choose to embarrass Biden, forcing him out just over 100 days before the election.

Although Harris raised unprecedented amounts of cash and had the backing of global celebrities, she and the Democratic National Committee faced criticism from Black Americans. There were complaints that the campaign appeared to scapegoat Black men, with even former President Barack Obama publicly admonishing Black voters for not doing enough.

High-ranking Democrats, including DNC Chair Jamie Harrison and former Congressman Cedric Richmond, played and lost the dangerous game of alienating Black voters, too. The campaign and the DNC largely ignored the Black Press, notably the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)—the trusted voice of Black America. Instead of engaging with Black-owned outlets in a move that would not only have provided needed resources for these African American small businesses while helping to get the party’s vital messaging to a critical constituency, the DNC choose to enrich wealthy mainstream outlets and leave out the Black Press. The DNC betrayed the NNPA by allowing the DNC to approach some Black newspapers with miniscule ad buys.

Harris’s campaign, if reluctantly so, only carried through on Biden’s original promise to spend the same $1.5 million with the Black Press of America that Biden’s people had promised. The paltry sum even rankled high-ranking Black lawmakers like Congressman Benny Thompson of Mississippi, who led the House Committee investigating Trump. Harris’s campaign and the DNC wrongly determined that the nearly 200-year-old Black Press couldn’t reach Black and Latino communities as effectively as megastars like Beyoncé, Tyler Perry, and Samuel L. Jackson. Instead, as an extension of the Biden administration, they offered cursory invites to functions like the White House’s Black Excellence celebration, and, after some pleading, access to campaign events like the vice president’s closing argument on the Ellipse and her no-show appearance at Howard University.

There’s little doubt that limited ad buys and the flat refusal to engage the Black Press backfired.

A lack of Trump’s accountability made the mistakes worse. Following his second impeachment by the House, Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who had called Trump “stupid” and “despicable,” had the opportunity to bar Trump from ever running again. But McConnell balked, and Trump was acquitted. After Trump incited the January 6 insurrection, Democrats in Congress led a drawn-out investigation before finally recommending criminal charges. By the time prosecutors in New York, Georgia, Washington, and Florida issued indictments, Trump had rebranded these as “political witch hunts,” gathering momentum as a martyr figure.

“For nearly a decade, he has tapped into America’s id,” U.S. Guardian editor Betsy Reed observed, pointing to a painful racial history stoked by Obama’s election and a sense of displacement among white Christian Americans. Xenophobia, Reed added, remains the backbone of Trump’s political identity. His campaign’s investment in ads stirring fear over transgender rights (“Kamala’s agenda is they/them, not you”) only magnified the appeal.

With a sinister assist from billionaire Elon Musk, Trump secured his victory. “Now brace for another Trump inauguration—American carnage redux—and another fantastical claim about his crowd size,” Reed declared. “Brace for norms to be trampled, institutions to be undermined, opponents to be targeted for retribution. Brace for an Oval Office occupied by a malignant narcissist without guardrails this time. Brace for unhinged all-caps tweets that trigger news cycles and move markets. Brace for national anxiety off the charts and global tremors from China to Ukraine. Brace, also, for a new resistance and surge of anti-Trump energy.”

While many across the globe and in America ask how Trump returned to power, Reed concluded with an ominous reflection: “America had ample opportunities to stop Donald Trump, but each time, it failed. It won’t turn into an autocracy overnight, but there’s no doubt this is a democracy in decay.” And in a piercing final remark, she paraphrased Oscar Wilde: “To elect Trump once may be regarded as a misfortune; to elect him twice looks like madness.”