Re: Interesting question

When Obama was elected for his first term, I/we felt elated and validated that his campaign and his charisma had overcome a huge historical hurdle, and we, as a nation, were ready to give him a chance. Remember, the country was in dire straits financially, and as a Black comedian quipped… hell yeah, the country is bankrupt… might as well give it to the Black guy…

When Obama was elected to a second term, watching Steve Kornacki literally running the numbers in a frantic dance of returns and projections,  I/we stood in the living room and held each other in tears of joy and utter amazement. It’s real, not just a fluke; America has turned the corner and taken a huge leap forward.

Then Trump, the insurrection on January 6th, 2021, the saving of democracy by the integrity and courage of Vice President Mike Pence to stand up to the man who would be king… in my opinion, President Biden did a great job to keep America whole and guide us through the pandemic. I also think that Kamala Harris would have been or perhaps will be a great president. 

Trump is an aberration, an abomination. He is the symbol of white supremacy and white backlash. He is a pathological liar, but with no conscience and no soul, he can be very convincing. On that note, he convinced a lot of people that he was a great businessman, would build our economy, and as one of my friends phrased it (she was very concerned about all of the destruction caused by Helene) he’s going to put Americans first. She was very sincere, and I think many of his followers were able to overlook his crass behaviors because they believed that ‘he really loves America’. 

This midterm gives me hope. It gives me a renewed faith in the ultimate wisdom of the American people and in our unique yet uniquely fragile form of government. It’s wildly ironic that all of Trump’s money, insidious lies, hate, corruption, and Republicans’  relentless efforts to gerrymander, manipulate, and suppress the vote actually had the opposite effect. People suddenly realized that we can’t take democracy for granted. That civil rights and human rights are not guaranteed, and so people came out to vote like it was their very last chance. Mainly because there was a plausible chance that it was. Kamala, when asked what are you going to do in 2028, replied, “ I’m putting everything I can into Now because if we don’t win now, there might not be a 2028.”

I don’t know if that makes one event Bigger and another, but it certainly makes all of these events very Meaningful!

I appreciate the opportunity to spout off, and I really appreciate that young people are paying attention and expressing Your Love for America.

Pete 🤓 and Zeke 🐶

On Nov 6, 2026, at 1:36 PM, Dave Bock <bock@htva.net> wrote:



Hi — 

This morning my son-in-law posed a great question to me. I thought I’d share it with my politics/history friends. 

I suppose there isn’t much point in trying to compare and put one thing above another as more important or less important. But these election results in some ways feel even bigger than Obama’s first election.

If we try to somehow measure the delta between the depth of the shit we were in just prior and the potential good that now feels possible, these midterms will rank very high. So widespread, so diverse, all different levels of government, and effectively the end of the Trump republicans that have plagued us for 10 years. Just incredible. 

Again, I don’t see it as a competition, but curious if you feel like this is bigger

What do you think? (I attach my response below, but you might want to give it some thought before seeing what I said.)

— Dave

My response:

Tough call. Obama’s election took a big chunk out of a centuries-long legacy of racism. This election undoes a decade of grandcanyonesque “depth of shit”. In both cases a dam burst — the former a result of erosion and the latter an earthquake. I’m gonna guess it was growing up during Jim Crow and living through the Civil Rights battles of the ‘50s and ‘60s (and the hours I put in canvassing in PA) that made the Obama election feel so cathartic, a glorious victory at the end of decades of struggle. In my youth I could not imagine it could ever happen. That said, I also never imagined the country would embrace the fascist depravity of the last 10 years. While I hoped for a change of direction Tuesday, I envisioned more of an off-ramp than a U-turn! I’ve felt rushes of emotion for both, but in a different way. One tense and painful movie reached a long-awaited and glorious climax, while in the other Thelma and Louise’s convertible screeched to a halt as the front wheels were sliding over the cliff. We needed to elect an Obama sometime, if not then, soon. We needed to put a stop to this NOW, because “soon” might be too late. It’s triumph vs. relief. For exhilaration, I vote Obama. For exhalation, this.