“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”
John Lennon
Journalists, podcasters, cable news hosts—all of them told us, the politically engaged, to be patient on election night. Some said it could take days before the winner of the 2024 election became clear.
So when a buzz from The New York Times on Tuesday night told me Trump’s apparent victory in Florida cemented the state’s profile as a Republican stronghold, I wasn’t too concerned. I mean, it’s Florida, right? With a governor like Ron DeSantis, the verdict wasn’t necessarily a surprise.
Upon receiving that notification, I will say — to use a phrase from his opponent’s canon — the vibes felt off. Could the pollsters be right? Could Trump really win?
Living in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, I knew my surroundings were skewed, and I’d need to prepare myself for the potential of Trump — a twice-impeached president with no respect for the constitution, a convicted felon who’s bragged of grabbing women by their genitals, a failed businessman with no political experience before his first stint in office — becoming, once again, the president of the United States.
To rein in my nerves, I flipped to the Settings app on my iPhone, turned off all notifications, hopped back in bed, took another hit of weed and read a chapter of Eve Babitz’s Slow Days, Fast Company — a notably non-political book.
Though as I soon fell into a warm marijuana-induced sleep, nerves about the next morning crept through my bones. In this dream state, I saw the writing on the wall: Trump might very well win the presidential election and the GOP could gain control of both the House and Senate.
Election Night Hangover
I’d be lying to say I was surprised to find the next morning my fears had all come true.
Being someone who reads more newsletters than any sane person should, I made the choice to steer clear of morning-after insight into the race — what went wrong, where we go from here, what world leaders are saying — and instead began listening to some tunes.
One song came to mind: “Keep Moving On” by Sam Cooke. I’d send it, along with other philosophical ramblings, to friends, peers, family members who lean blue, to help them see past despair and move onto the next stage of grief: acceptance.
Such advice came to me from reading Alexei Navalny’s prison diaries, published in The New Yorker in October. Like you might guess, Russian prisons aren’t necessarily a nice place to stay. But Navalny found what he called his “prison zen” to stay sane on the inside. His guiding principle was: imagine your worst possible fate and accept it, quickly. It’s the only way to live without fear. And fascists like Putin — and Trump — feed off fear. Navalny urges his followers to not be afraid in the face of fascism: never let them see you fall; stand tall before monsters to make tomorrow a better day for all.
With Navalny’s words fresh in my mind, I made three decisions yesterday:
- To accept our reality
- To not be afraid
- To diversify my media diet.
Along both party lines, it’s obvious, views have diverged and been shaped by the echo chambers we subscribe to. Coastal elites like me need to look for ways to resolve this — by heeding advice we often brush off — like watching more Fox News.
Together We Stand, Divided We Fall
“The unexamined life is not worth living” — Socrates
It might be hard to look too closely at the folks behind the MAGA movement, but they make up a majority of our country — a body in dire need of examination.
We must come together. It will be hard, but once we accept the nation’s sweeping support of Trump, we can try to better understand his base and our country’s deep divide. How? Watch more Fox; read more Truth Social.
As a yogi and vegan, the word hate is not in my vocabulary. I don’t want to hate “the other side” because that’s exactly what Trump, Vance and the whole MAGA crew want me to do. I will not play into their hand. I will live without fear.
And the first step is understanding how we got here.
Ashley Elizabeth Miller 
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