On October 30, I voted for Trump/Vance. The next few days passed smoothly enough. I skimmed Xitter without taking its chaos too seriously, but I’ll admit—I faltered. The enormity of the Democratic machine loomed, and I thought, He can’t do it, like Rocky telling Adrian he couldn’t beat Apollo. OK, Trump isn’t “just another bum from the neighborhood,1” but I really thought we’d lose and I consoled myself with the thought that even in defeat, there was honor. We’d have gone the distance, proven we’re not dead yet, and lived to fight another day.
November 5th finally came. I was glued to my computer all night, toggling between Xitter and Decision Desk HQ. DDHQ gives a percentage prediction as to which candidate will win. Trump always led, but that didn’t put my mind at rest. At 99% chance of Trump winning, they wouldn’t call it. I slept fitfully, waking up to check my phone. Still 99%.
We won.
The next day, cautiously jubilant, I met a friend (the only other Trump voter in Manhattan, so “they” remain nameless) for a victory breakfast on the Hudson Greenway. And a gorgeous day it was: summery, breezy, a day to throw off all cares and concerns. We said our goodbyes at about 11:30 a.m. and as if on cue, my back seized up—a sharp reminder of the stress I’d been storing.
The body always wins, so I spent the rest of the day incapacitated indoors, but mentally celebrating.
I mention all this because had I written something on November 6, it would’ve been all-caps VICTORY: “The American people chose life over death!” I would have crowed and ululated.
I still feel that way, but let’s pause for some cold-eyed analysis, prompted by that breakfast conversation.
“Too Big To Rig” and the Missing 13 Million Democrat Voters
The MSM spins narratives until they harden into “facts.” I read many tweets on Xitter that this was a high-turnout election. That’s easily debunked. In 2020, Biden got 81 million votes; in 2024, Kamala got 69 million. Trump’s vote count stayed roughly the same. By definition, this was a lower-turnout election. Not low, lower.
Newsweek at least was honest about this:
In 2020, 66.38 percent of the eligible voting population turned out, with 159,738,337 ballots counted across the country, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab. There were 240,628,443 eligible voters that year.
As of 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, fewer people had turned out than four years ago—64.54 percent of the 245,741,673 eligible had cast ballots for a total of 158,549,000.
I broke it down for a British mutual on X:
in NYC, Biden received 2.32 million votes in 2020. Kamala? 1.76 million. Kamala got about 561K votes in Brooklyn in 2024.
It’s as if she had lost a whole borough!
This pattern repeated nationwide, totaling 13 million fewer votes for Democrats. No, I do not buy the kookspiracy theory that the Democrats manufactured 13 million fake votes. They pulled out all the stops and managed to push the voter participation numbers up two percentage points. In a big electorate that makes a difference.
Millions stayed home. Why?
Kamala was a historically awful candidate. She made Walter Mondale look charismatic and statesmanlike. Moreover, it was the way the Obamacrats pushed her onto an unwilling electorate. This, I believe, is the key to the 13 million missing voters. Remember how the palace coup dominated the airwaves for days? People argued about whether you could use the word “coup”; the airwaves were full of trash and static — and then, nothing. It got swept under the carpet.
Even some conservative voices dismissed the coup as irrelevant.
I’ve been watching the political reactions today. I’ve seen a lot of Republicans try to convince Democrats that their primary vote has been stolen or cheated or disenfranchised. Yet I’ve seen no Democrats claim this directly. Instead, Democrats were eager to jump on the Kamala bandwagon.
The truth is that Democrats DGAF who their candidate is — they just want the winning horse. They’re passive or even happy to have someone else choose that horse for them.
Regardless of whether it’s Kamala or someone else, Democrats will put up that yard sign without a second thought. They’re fine with whoever it is.
That’s what happens when you “watch the political reactions” instead of thinking independently and putting yourself in the shoes of the average Democrat — which I initially did by agreeing with Medvin. (I later recanted.) That’s what happens when you smoke your own stash and get lost in an echo chamber. When you dehumanize and degrade your opponent.
It turned out that average Dems did “GAF.” And they showed it by not voting for Kamala.
Kamala: Biden’s Booby-Trap or Obama’s Manchurian Barbie?
Remember the shock when Biden picked Kamala? No primary momentum, nothing to offer but identity. The theory went that she was Biden’s safeguard—If you think I’m bad, imagine her. But post-coup, that theory crumbled. Kamala wasn’t Biden’s choice; she was Obama’s “Manchurian Barbie” all along.
I do not think that these two theories mesh: she started out as one and morphed into the other. It’s either/or.
Obama never wanted Biden in the White House. He sidelined Joe for Hillary in 2016, hoping Joe would fade out. Biden finally had his moment in 2020, but at a cost: Kamala. She wasn’t a booby-trap; she was the plan.
Two scenarios are possible: either they intended to replace Biden pre-2024 or drag him through a basement campaign to a second term before installing Kamala as America’s first Black female president. (I go with the second but it really doesn’t matter.)
Either way, Kamala was always Obama’s agent.
The irony? His own voters rejected her, sabotaging the plan.
A Victory with Caveats
We shouldn’t take this win for granted. Yes, Trump was sharper this time—more mellow, humorous, almost grandfatherly. I saw him chatting with tech bros on X, holding his own. His team is incomparably better. I’m positive he will hit the ground running and issue a blizzard of Executive Orders undoing the insanities of the Biden Administration and get to work on the border pronto.
But my earlier reservations based on believing the Democrat machine was unbeatable remain. They still have that machine. It’s just waiting for the right candidate to lead it.
And here’s where Obama is so important. As long as he’s there gumming up the works the right candidate can’t come along. The machine will sputter and stall. And Obama’s not going anywhere. There’s going to be the mother of all power struggles in the Democratic party.
And when he’s finally gone, the Dems are left with a thoroughly unstable coalition, but that’s another story for another election.
There’s another possibility: the machine is dead. There’s a new America being born in the south, and the West and other places that seem unlikely. Take Florida. Ron De Santis was elected by a razor-thin margin2 but he governed superbly and turned Florida red.3
That can be done in other states. It can even be done in California. Look at Florida. Look at Texas, with its huge Hispanic vote.
Turns out the Hispanics in Texas didn’t like illegals streaming over the border anymore than other Americans did.
Elect a competent Republican governor, clean up the brand, and good things happen.
When I was young, I used to know it all. I now know how little I know. So I don’t know whether the old Democratic machine is dead or whether it needs a tune-up and a new operating system. We shall see.
But I do know this: Trump won a legitimate victory. It was a victory for sanity, common sense, the life principle. And, among other people, we have Barack Obama to thank for it.
He’s “literally Hitler!”
2,463 votes, or 0.4% of the total votes cast. The final tally was approximately:
Ron DeSantis (Republican): 49.6%
Andrew Gillum (Democrat): 49.2%
This close result triggered an automatic machine recount, but DeSantis' victory was ultimately confirmed.
Then Gillum imploded. In March 2020 he was found in a Miami hotel room where police responded to a medical emergency involving another individual. Reports indicated there were suspected drugs present, though Gillum denied using them. He later admitted to struggling with alcohol abuse and entered rehab. In September 2020, Gillum publicly came out as bisexual.
He cleaned up their election system among other things. Paging Arizona.
Great post, Diana. I'm with you on all this.
I'm a former 'progressive liberal democrat' who at 68 yo realized the Dem establishment was irretrievably broken, corrupt and autocratic. I held my nose and voted for Trump because the smartest, most ethical people were on board with him - RFK Jr, Tulsi Gabbard and JD Vance.