Disappointed!

Well, I was wrong….

Two weeks ago, I predicted in this column space that Vice President Kamala Harris would become the first woman to serve as Commander in Chief but after the dust settled early this morning, the history that was made was Donald Trump becoming the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve non-consecutive terms.

While I will have far more comprehensive analysis in the days ahead, as I wrote on Facebook earlier, yesterday proved, once more, that America is what it has been since its founding in 1776—a nation in which race and gender matter in ways that are typically detrimental to people of color and women!

For historical perspective, remember that 13 presidents were slave owners—with eight enslaving Blacks while in the Oval Office!

Remember that Jim Crow stymied the post Reconstruction gains of formerly enslaved Blacks for nearly 100 years with laws passed in the individual states (or signed by presidents) like Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge that denigrated and denied basic rights to Black people, immigrants of color, and women well into the 1960s—with some effects still felt well into the 21st Century!

Remember that women could not serve on juries across the country until the 1960’s, and just last week marked the 50th anniversary of women receiving the right to obtain credit cards and mortgage loans without having their husband or father serving as a co-signer! In essence, Donald Trump is far from the first (nor will he be the last) bigot to serve as president but nonetheless, the Earth has kept on spinning—and minorities and women continue to achieve in spite of the odds!

Yes, I know that all of the race baiting, women bashing, and demonization of people based upon how they look, pray, or love have quite a few of my fellow Americans who supported Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign in deep fear about what lies ahead; I, too, am fraught with those same apprehensions and in the wee hours of the morning, found myself actively contemplating leaving a nation that my direct ancestors built during slavery and Jim Crow.

But with each Google search that I made about possible landing destinations, I kept hearing my father’s long silenced voice saying “boy, don’t you quit” and with that, I choose to recommit to the cause of resisting Trump, Trumpism, and Project 2025 with all of my might in the days ahead!

Politics remains a marathon, not a sprint, and the work to defeat the radical Republican agenda begins NOW! To that end, I remind all who are just as disappointed as I am to grieve for a moment—but to hold your heads high in knowing that you did your part in 2024—while preparing to do our parts again starting with the 2026 mid-term elections!

Lest we forget…

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Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.