George Packer: “For two and a half centuries American politics alternated between progressive and conservative periods, played between the 40-yard lines of liberal democracy. The values of freedom, equality, and rule of law at least received lip service; the founding documents enjoyed the status of civic scripture; the requisite American mood was optimism.”

“Although reaction has dominated local or regional (mainly southern) politics, it’s something new in our national politics—which explains why Trump has been misunderstood and written off at every turn. Reaction is insular and aggrieved, and it paints in dark tones. It wants to undo progress and reverse history, restoring the nation to some imagined golden age when the people ruled. They want a strongman with the stomach to trample on the liberal pieties of the elites who sold them out.”

Politico: “Republicans and Democrats alike had largely assumed the battlefield was set… But Trump’s improvement with Hispanic communities — one of the most dramatic shifts emerging from the 2024 election — is blowing all of that up, leaving Republicans plotting how to capitalize on Trump’s success and Democrats scrambling to keep a once-loyal demographic in the fold.”

“Republicans will have a wider path to grow their House majority — if they can figure out how to take advantage of Trump’s inroads in these Latino-heavy areas in Nevada, New Mexico, South Texas, Central California and Florida.”

New York Times: “More than a decade ago, Mr. Musk brought his private space company, SpaceX, to Cameron County, where the blasts from his rocket testing and launching site on Boca Chica Beach rattle homes for miles. His mark is now everywhere. And his face, too.”

“Downtown, in the county seat of Brownsville, the old culture — part Mexican, part American, part Tejano — clashes with the new: Images of space, astronauts and Mr. Musk adorn buildings that date to the early 1900s, blocks from the southern border. Along the Gulf Coast marshes on the road to his Starbase launch site, a giant bust of Mr. Musk keeps watch over Cameron County’s nearly 430,000 residents and the occasional wayward hog, the world’s richest man honored like a king in one of the poorest counties in America.”

“Such a tribute would be a mere curiosity were it not for what happened here on Nov. 5.”

Seth Masket: “2024 actually provided us with something resembling counterfactual evidence: there were two presumptive Democratic nominees. Lest we forget, Kamala Harris jumped in the race on a rescue mission, replacing a Joe Biden who was flailing after his June debate performance against Trump and appeared on track to lose by several points. Harris immediately improved the prospects for the Democratic ticket, turning a very likely loss into a competitive race. That is, a woman of color subbed in for a white man and was doing better. Now, if your response is, ‘Sure, but Biden was old and was bad on inflation/abortion/Gaza/etc.,’ fine, but you’re conceding that sex and race were not the most important features of this contest.”

“Additionally, while there are plenty of examples of sexism running rampant in the American political system (just look at the composition of the Senate!), women getting fewer votes just because they’re women is not really one of them…”

“Finally, there were the political science fundamentals-based forecast models of the election, which overall predicted a very close race, but one with Trump having a slight advantage in the Electoral College. The state-based forecast models predicted this election result precisely. Again, these are models that don’t include any information about the identity of the candidates — they’re just based on the state of the economy, wars, party registration, etc. All that suggests that Harris did about what any Democratic nominee would have done.”