TPM THIS WEEK...

If you're reading this newsletter, a day and a half or so after learning that Donald Trump will be the 47th president, it's a fair assumption that you've already read/watched/listened to a number of election post mortems. Maybe you read Josh Marshall's "Thoughts On The Day After" or David Kurtz's Morning Memo, "Not The Fight We Wanted Or Signed Up For But It's The One We Got," or listened to Josh and Kate Riga's Wednesday podcast, "Assessing the Wreckage." Whatever your post-election media consumption has looked like, we're honored you included TPM and are here now.

We realize that at this moment, not all our readers are looking for the same thing. Some of you are probably looking for more insight into how a majority of voters could elect a convicted felon with openly autocratic aspirations. Was it the economy?... Post-pandemic backlash against incumbents? … Biden's unpopularity? … Harris's unorthodox candidacy? … Gen Z bros? … Hispanic men? … Suburban woman? … Gaza? … Israel? … The failure of legacy media? … The pervasiveness of right-wing media? … Powerful billionaires? … Feckless Billionaires? … Dick Cheney? ... etc. … etc.

Others might be looking for community, as one reader wrote to us, "not in the social media sense but a feeling that I'm not alone in seeing things as they are and I'm not alone in seeking a positive, constructive way to endure." 

So rather than use this space for yet another post election analysis, we thought we would ask you directly: What are you looking for at this time? What questions do you have? What is missing from or insufficient about the current discourse? To send us your thoughts, just reply to this email.

Early Wednesday morning we received the following note from TPM Reader JB:

Not sure I've ever written in before. I'm feeling crushed, and fearful, and grim—of course. But thanks to all your efforts, for better or for worse I'm not shocked and I'm not demoralized.

And as I sit here, waiting for the sun to rise (as it will), I suddenly realize I have zero appetite anymore for dire warnings of how bad this could get. It's not from resignation—it's just that, as you have so often said, history doesn't end. What happens next hasn't happened yet. So how do we get to dealing with it? 

I'm not interested in recriminations or in a resistance ~aesthetic~, either. I want to know what's happening, and what can be done, even if it's only on the margins. I trust TPM more than anybody else to tell me those things.

I know what my country is, I love it deeply in all its contradictions, and I dream of what it can be. I wish our story hadn't taken this turn, but I'm a stubborn, cock-eyed optimistic American and I'm not giving up on us yet.

Stay strong TPM, keep doing what you do so well, and let's not take an inch of whatever's next as given—

Thanks JB. We promise to keep reporting on what's happening and we look forward to hearing from more of you.

By Josh Marshall

I'm pretty sure over the coming days and weeks and months Donald Trump and his political party will see this election as an overwhelming mandate to institute the whole MAGA agenda. That will cause a lot of chaos and public immiseration, though unevenly distributed. It will begin to drive its own public backlash. Much of the establishment media and corporate America will try to get along and go along. But some will chronicle and enumerate the toll. And within that maelstrom we will all have to decide, individually and collectively, what we're going to do about it.

What doesn't seem warranted any longer are the warnings, alerts, and cautions about what lies ahead. You've heard those from me for more than a year. The whole country heard similar warnings from multiple quarters. It was loud and clear. The campaign was fought directly over the issues of democracy, rule of law, basic decency and respect, and protection for the marginalized. Those principles and values lost and lost badly.

It's a playing field that Republicans not only dominate; Democrats don't even compete. They still depend heavily on traditional media sources that simply don't operate the same way these right-wing PR arms do. And we know that these forms of media are powerful; they reach tons of people, and are seen as useful enough pawns that Russia has invested in some of them.

Kate and Josh with the view from the day after.

ONE MORE THING..

If you value what we do, consider joining us!