When it comes to gauging the public mood on issues of importance, we tend to be overly swayed by the results of high-profile elections. For example, when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, it seemed to suggest that the country was beginning the process of overcoming its deep history of racism. But other than those conservatives who argued that this showed that systemic racism was over, few were naive enough to think that it marked the end of racial discrimination, and that much still needed to be done. But the feeling was that there was a positive trajectory. Trump’s election in 2012 shifted the mood back towards darkness, suggesting that overt racism was indeed alive and well. Joe Biden’s election seemed to suggest a swing back towards more positive attitudes on a whole range of social issues. But the last election has made many people feel depressed, that we have actually regressed quite a bit, and maybe entering a period that has attitudes more reminiscent of the 1950s when it comes to issues of race, gender, and sexuality.

I think that this deep pessimism is mistaken. There are surface and deep changes that take place in any society at the same time and one must distinguish between them. The former are like the ripples on waves on the ocean that can change fairly quickly while the latter are the deep ocean currents that change slowly. The former are short term swings in attitudes while the latter are deep-seated. We have to remember that relatively small changes in voting patterns, of the order of a few percent, can produce huge swings in election results, and some of that swing may be due to ephemeral factors.

As Donald Trump gets inaugurated for a second term, right now there is considerable gloom among Democrats over the past election, with some arguing that the country will not elect women, and black women particularly, to high office. Meanwhile Republicans are hopeful about their reactionary views are gaining ground. This is a reversal from the mood after the 2020 election.

Democrats are harboring strong feelings of stress and gloom as the new year begins. And many are questioning whether their party’s commitment to diverse candidates – especially women – may lead to further political struggles as Donald Trump is sworn in for a second presidency on 20 January.
…

While despondency is hardly unique for a political party after a high-profile loss, that finding reflects the deep depression that has set in among Democrats about the country and their party after Trump soundly defeated Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

Such concerns may already be shaping the Democratic National Committee (DNC)’s search for a new leader. For the first time in more than a decade, the top candidates for the job are all white men.

And looking further ahead, the party’s pessimism is influencing early conversations about the contest for the 2028 presidential nomination.

“We knew men hated women. The last election showed, for some of us, that we underestimated the extent to which some women hate other women,” said Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a Democratic state representative from South Carolina and former president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. “America is as racist and misogynist as it has always been.”

I think that is too gloomy a view. That the two leading candidates for the post of chair of the Democratic National Community are both white men is seen by some as the party backsliding on the issues of race and gender. But that may be reading things wrong. Women and minorities have broken through that particular barriers and become party leaders and shown that they can do the job. What is needed now is someone, of any race and gender and sexual orientation, who is best positioned to build the kind of nationwide organization that can win elections at all levels while holding fast to the basic principles of equality. This is because the nature of the job has changed.



The DNC job itself has changed over time, now less concerned with setting a vision for the party than the blocking and tackling of organization.

“It’s very much a COO kind of job,” said Caitlin Legacki, a Democratic campaign veteran. “It’s making sure that the bills are getting paid, making sure people have what they need. But much more functional than it used to be. If you’re an elected official who wants to have a bigger role in the party, the way to do that is not necessarily by taking this job that is very much focused on, like, making the bureaucracy work.”
…

The ideological schisms that existed in 2017 are also gone: This time, there is no candidate from the Hillary Clinton wing or Barack Obama wing or Bernie Sanders wing — a feature of the race that is indicative of the party’s larger leaderless moment.

“The forums in 2017 were a bit more exciting. I don’t say that as a knock on anyone who is running this year, but resistance to [Donald] Trump was a novelty in 2017. Now, it’s a slog,” Holdsworth said. “The conversation has moved on from resistance to how are we going to put Humpty Dumpty back together again? That’s not as sexy but it’s just as important.”

While the top line races went badly in 2024, Tatyana Tandanpolie writes that there were some good signs down ballot. These were the result of hard work by grass roots organizing groups.

Abortion rights enshrined in seven states

Ballot measures seeking to establish or protect abortion rights were on 10 states’ ballots this year as organizers fought to protect access and reverse bans enacted in the wake of the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. Seven of those states — Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York — would indeed pass measures to enshrine a right to abortion access in their respective constitutions.
…

Minimum wage hikes and sick leave

[A] significant majority of voters in four states also voted to tangibly improve the quality of life for workers by approving state ballot measures that will expand labor rights or raise the minimum wage.

Missouri and Alaska both saw voters overwhelmingly choose to raise the minimum wage up to $15 by 2026 and July 2027, respectively, and adopt laws requiring employers to provide up to 56 hours of paid sick leave for workers. Meanwhile, 54% of Massachusetts voters also secured unionization rights for rideshare drivers, empowering them to collectively bargain for improved wages, benefits and work conditions. 

In Nebraska, a Republican electoral stronghold, the “Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act” passed with nearly 75% of the vote, creating a system that allows employees to accrue five or seven days of paid sick leave depending on the size of their workplace. Under the new law, which takes effect Oct. 1, employees will earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked. The act also prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for taking that sick leave.
…

Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation defeated

As ads attacking Democratic candidates for supporting policies that protect transgender Americans flooded the airwaves this year, the American Civil Liberties Union also tracked nearly 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills making their way through state legislatures. Those bills often sought to limit transgender Americans’ participation in sports, restrict access to gender-affirming care and require educators to forcibly out transgender students in schools. 

But the vast majority of those proposals failed. Of the 574 bills the ACLU tracked, nearly 400 have been defeated in state legislatures, including 46 of the 55 bills advanced during the 2024 session in Oklahoma, which had the greatest number of such proposals of any state. 

Nearly 20 of the anti-LGBTQ+ bills were in Georgia, where organizers successfully worked to stall the progress of each proposal advancing in the state legislature. All were defeated by the end of the 2024 legislative session, which was one of the “highlights” of the year for Jeff Graham, the executive director of Georgia Equality, an LGBTQ+ rights advocacy organization that lobbied state lawmakers.

However bad things may appear now, I think that we should not forget how far we have come. Overt discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and sexuality that were so pervasive in the past are now frowned upon in most circles, though it still goes on. While some people seem to feel that they can now openly express disgusting reactionary views, they are not the majority. Most people, even if they have similar views, tend to not openly say so. Let us not forget that there used to be actual laws that justified discrimination. Those are almost all gone.

A good case is gender and sexuality. There is no question that many people are still opposed to homosexuality and wish that gay people were not so visible in the public sphere. But the days are past when one could openly discriminate against them. The hate that is currently directed towards the transgender community is because the people with anti-transgender views seem to think that they can succeed in discriminating against them in a way that they cannot do as easily with the broader gay and lesbian community. The transgender community has become the channel through which to express bigotry. It is the classic bullying tactic, where the bully picks on someone whom they think is powerless. That is why it is so important to show solidarity with the transgender community so that while their numbers may be small, people realize that there is a very large group of people standing alongside them.