Happy Election Day! We are in the last day of the most heated presidential race in modern times. The polling is dead heat and most people are exhausted by the flurry of news and advertisements. Despite recent developments in the past couple of weeks, nothing has really changed with polling since Kamala Harris entered the race. Regardless, this race is still very close and either candidate could win this election. The results are in the hands of voters.
Beyond the top of the ballot, you also have thousands of races down-ballot from the US Senate, state ballot initiatives, and local county positions which have huge ramifications on daily life in regards to things like reproductive healthcare and increasing the minimum wage. The effects of elections should not be downplayed. However, we often forget that there will be a day after the results are announced, where there is a lot more work to do regardless of who wins. I am not intending to diminish the impact this election will have, but I do want to caution you all from being fatigued and throwing up your hands after the results are announced. I also want to urge the continuation of the enthusiasm for real political change in the United States.
This article is simply a roadmap for various issues that need vital attention after election day.
Palestine/Global Solidarity
This was obviously going to come up so I’ll address it first. This issue is front and center for many people due to the degree of complicity the US government has in it. This is probably a movement which will not lose steam after the election, especially since both major party candidates have awful positions on the issue of Israel’s genocide. The day to start holding the future presidential administration accountable for their support of a genocidal state is as soon as they are declared to win. There is no grace given beyond election day, no accepting of mincing words about de-escalation or the security of Israel. We must be focused on an immediate arms embargo on Israel, an invocation of the Leahy Law, and pressuring Congress to sanction Israel for its apartheid policies.
These sweeping demands will not appear tomorrow. There must be concerted pressure from various groups such as unions and students for these policies. They must be achieved through agitating in different forms. This includes protests, civil disobedience (disruption of major areas of weapon distribution), the boring task of engaging with politicians, or just talking to more people about Palestine as an issue. This year has been a total awakening for the Palestine solidarity movement and while it doesn’t seem like it, the student movement and other movements associated with it have extracted demands from universities and led more politicians to be critical of the Israeli state. The Palestinian movement must continue well beyond the election. Luckily, most people aren’t under delusions that either candidate will actually change the policy on Israel in any significant way which is desperately needed with the genocide’s expanding reach into Lebanon and the recent pummeling of North Gaza.
I additionally hope this focus on Palestine leads to increased solidarity across borders about issues of human rights and self determination with the ongoing crises in Sudan, DRC, Ukraine, Kashmir, Balochistan, West Papua, Western Sahara, and everywhere in between. I hope they become united causes.
Housing/Unhoused Civil Rights
Housing prices have definitely become a very hot button issue for the last couple cycles with debates about rent control and tirades against the NIMBY movement hindering the building of more housing. There is a huge role for outside agitation to make sure more housing is being built in all communities suffering from high rent. This activism will have to be mostly done at a municipal level since those officials are the ones that determine zoning and most of the housing policy. Obviously, though, there has to be federal investment in housing, specifically low cost housing. There also needs to be a general shift towards decommodifying housing so that housing doesn’t become an investment you guard against and is recognized as a human right.
One very important part of the housing crisis that hasn’t gotten much attention this cycle is its consequence: homelessness. Neither Trump or Harris have talked much about it, which makes sense because housing policy is generally locally oriented in how it’s handled. Despite that, this issue is more important than ever as the reactionary Supreme Court, in their Grants Pass v. Johnson decision, allowed municipalities to ban unhoused people from sleeping in public places. This greenlight from the Supreme Court has been picked up by towns and cities across the US, including Morgantown, West Virginia. These local ordinances paper over the social problem of homelessness with something that looks better: removing unhoused people from sight in an effort to make cities appear more pleasant. This is a terrible policy; it will needlessly increase the prison population and will not actually solve the issues for any individual suffering under the housing crisis.
There have been huge movements of local activists aiming to challenge this criminalization of unhoused people through procedures like local ballot initiatives as well as recalling local officials. These movements must continue after today.
Reproductive Healthcare
A major issue of this election cycle has been abortion rights with Democrats correctly pointing out how these rights have been eroded by Republican-appointed judges.Democrats have successfully protected abortion rights in multiple states through ballot initiatives. However, it is very likely that Democrats will lose control of the Senate, and thus, it is probably impossible for abortion rights to be codified in the next two years. With this background, there is a lot of work to be done following the election for abortion rights. Agitating the FDA and local communities for protections for mifepristone and misoprostol, are drugs used for the majority of abortions, to help protect access to abortion will also be vital in protecting reproductive healthcare. Additionally, getting more legislatures to protect abortion access or at least returning the decision to voters will be crucial.
Trans Rights
In the past couple of years, the right wing has pushed an agenda of the danger of “transgender ideology” with specific attacks on gender affirming care for trans youth and their rights to compete in sports. While these attacks have failed to gain traction on the national stage, the fact that numerous states have passed similar measures shows that these policies are harming many children across the country. There has to be an intense pushback against these laws as soon as they are proposed and unfortunately, other than the bully pulpit, which will probably prove ineffective on state legislators, the president can’t do much to change this. Another place this conservative culture war has been forced to become a battlefield is the classrooms. Hence, it is very important that we are also focused on school board meetings to prevent conservatives from legislating anti trans legislation.
These anti trans policies have been shown to increase suicidality among trans youth and unfortunately, this is the goal of reactionaries who are trying to “eradicate transgenderism.” It is only more crucial to continue organizing against these reactionaries beyond election day.
Criminal Justice
As opposed to the 2020 election, criminal justice reform has taken a backseat. Instead, we have distorted media narratives about a crime spree with exaggerated reports about shoplifting and violent crime in cities. This is not helped by the fact that both candidates are trying to express that they are harder on crime than the other, especially with Harris presenting herself as a prosecutor in many advertisements and speeches. The platform of the Democratic party has shifted away from criminal justice reform and even removed mentions of abolishing the death penalty despite this year continuing a trend of increased executions in the US. (going from 11 in 2021 to 21 so far in 2024).
Police brutality has been seldom mentioned this cycle despite police murders increasing consistently since 2020. This is under a backdrop of increased police budgets nationwide and the propping up of police training centers known as “Cop Cities” across the nation, the first center is planned to be in Atlanta’s Weelaunee Forest. These centers aid in trends of the militarization of the police and also are heavily backed by corporate donors such as Coca Cola, Bank of America, and Chick Fil A. These programs have seen bipartisan support among the city’s political leadership and have seen intense protests against them with protesters being arrested with insanely high bails. Most dramatically, many attempts have been made to alter state law to make it harder to bail these protesters out of jail.
Another major issue which has rarely been mentioned is the crisis of mass incarceration. Although rates have marginally reduced in the 2010’s, they are now back to increasing due to “tough on crime” policies fueled by fear-mongering over the small increase in crime after the Covid lockdown was lifted. Organizing against various harmful policies such as arresting for simple drug possession, cash bail for nonviolent crimes, mandatory minimums, and harmful prison conditions are all desperately needed. Various avenues exist for these demands to be presented such as educating people on the current rates of crime, which are down, focusing on legislation at the state level to reduce penalties for non violent crimes, and connecting with incarcerated individuals through prison book exchange programs or pen pal programs.
Immigrant Rights
This election has focused a lot on migration due to Donald Trump’s incoherent ramblings about the issue and his draconian pledge to deport all undocumented immigrants in the country. Unfortunately, while Democrats’ policies are better, they have still completely accepted the untrue narrative pushed by Republicans that the increased crossing represents some existential threat that has to be solved with heavy law enforcement. This is represented with Biden and then Harris’s monotonous mention of the bipartisan border bill that was proposed but shot down by Trump. That bill must be repudiated in its entirety whether or not it hurts Democrats since it gives sweeping power to the president to shut down the border and violate international law by blocking claims for asylums.
Those seeking rights for undocumented immigrants and other immigrant groups have opposed any administration which would try to pass any bill similar to the one that is lauded by Harris. They must continue providing services for undocumented immigrants and agitating for the continuation and expansion of DACA and DAPA with a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.
Conclusion
This is not a conclusive list of policies to continue to focus on after today. There are other things such as increasing unionization, student loan forgiveness, ranked choice voting, and much more. The work really begins tomorrow by preparing for the challenges the next administration will give.
Throughout this article, I have been critical of both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris because I believe the way that you extract concessions from our political system is challenging politicians of all stripes rather than acting like any one of them cares about your interests at all. This analysis bears out with our political system being swamped with money from all around and donors having far more power than the average citizen. However, it has to be noted that there are a lot of differences between Harris and Trump. Organizing against reactionary forces on all of these issues will be easier under a Harris administration with Trump ready to attack the left in a far more concerted way than Harris. This is shown with him demanding that foreign national college students be deported for protesting against Israel, mentioning how the radical left is the enemy within, his administration’s battle against unions and worker rights, and his close relationship with far right figures like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.
Whether or not you can stomach voting for Harris is your prerogative, and personally unless I was in a swing state, I would not. I am truly repulsed by how the Biden/Harris administration has handled the genocide in Palestine with them coddling the Israeli apartheid regime as well as being disappointed with their acceptance of right wing framing on migration. Nonetheless, it is definitely preferable for Harris to win compared to Trump, especially in light of his recent comments expressing delight at the press being shot at , his hatred of representative democracy, and his unwillingness to accept the results of the election if he loses.
At the end of the day, no one person controls this election. Rather, it is an exercise of all voters (though primarily those in swing states due to the electoral college). Before counting starts, it would be beneficial if we all took a deep breath and hugged (or expressed affection in another way if you are not fond of physical contact) someone that you love and tell them it is going to be alright.
We shall overcome.