Disappointed, But Not Surprised In Trump’s Re-Election

We Democrats need to recalibrate, but I’m not quite sure how

Ryan Fan
10 min readNov 9, 2024
Photo by Joshua Woroniecki on Unsplash

“Disappointed, but not surprised” is the most common sentiment I have heard from most of my progressive friends. It’s not like I don’t know any person who voted for Trump, but I picked a side in this very polarized climate and wrote two days before the election about how much I hoped Kamala Harris would win. I also said I was relatively optimistic about her chances, but acknowledged it was not a prediction that would age well, given the past two election cycles where Trump’s chances were underestimated and possibly could again.

It did not age well, and the election was a landslide. As much as I empathize with Trump supporters and preach empathy over and over again to reach over the aisle and listen instead of cast people out, to try to understand instead of thought police, I am still a coastal elite. My whole life, I have lived in or near major cities of New York, Atlanta, and Baltimore.

But as much as I try to understand Trump supporters, of which are growing more numerous and more diverse, I am not one. I live in a liberal space where I sure do suspect that some people who are more quiet in conversations about politics did actually vote for Trump. I know people who have confided in me personally…

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Ryan Fan
Ryan Fan

Written by Ryan Fan

Believer, Baltimore City IEP Chair, and 2:35 marathon runner. Diehard fan of “The Wire.”

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