Results of Presidential Vote Count

It is well known by now that on November 5, Donald Trump received both a majority of what is called the popular vote, currently 72,804,211 votes (50.9 per cent) -– to Kamala Harris' 68,161,909 votes (47.6 per cent) and of the Electoral College votes (295 to 226) and defeated Kamala Harris to become the next President of the United States.

This means that Trump got 9.75 million votes more in this election than the election when he became president in 2016. For her part Harris got 12 million votes less than Biden did when he got the presidency in 2020, despite the fact that the U.S. population has increased five per cent since then. In 2020 Joe Biden got 81,282,916 votes and 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 74,223,369 votes and 232 Electoral College votes in this election.

Overall voter turnout was about 65 per cent, less than 2020 but more than Obama's 2008 election. Tens of millions did not vote, especially among the youth.

Explanations for the Election Results

Chicago, November 6, 2024

A plethora of explanations are given for Trump's win and Harris' loss, including not a few which blame U.S. voters for whatever miseries they are sure to encounter under a Trump presidency. What these commentaries and explanations have in common is that none of them do much to explain what is going on in the United States from the point of view of the people of the United States. The people are always left out of the equation, except for purposes of slandering and maligning them by blaming them for everything that ails the society which is, in fact, another way of dismissing them.

For instance, many question why a Black person, or other minorities, or a woman would vote for Trump given he is an open and violent racist, misogynist and more. They do not consider why someone would think voting for Harris was an option, given that she proudly represented the justice system known for racist mass incarceration and the injustice of prosecutors and courts.

Once the people and what they think and how they act is removed from the equation, explaining the vote remains out of the field of vision and competency of those providing explanations. In fact, any attempt to aggregate individual votes of millions of people with many different views into this or that foot which fits the slipper carried by the Prince to find his Cinderella is a self-serving cause which gives rise to nothing.

Nonetheless, experience with elections in the United States shows that generally people do not vote based on the individual candidate but based on their concerns. Decisions which appear counter-intuitive in terms of the individual voted for in fact give expression to people's concerns, such as those against war or to express the rejection of the institutions which incarcerate Blacks and Latinos, produce rotten candidates for election, and so on.

A plausible explanation for the election of Trump is that in the United States, people voted for the causes which drive them in their lives, no matter how counter-intuitive this may appear to be. In this election, many voted against genocide with many sticking to their red line of No Votes for Genocide. For instance, the number of people who refused to vote for Kamala Harris in Dearborn, Michigan -- the largest Arab-American community in the United States -- was 22 per cent in favour of Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party's candidate for president who stood against genocide. In that city, Kamala Harris won 27.8 per cent of the vote and Donald Trump won 46.8 per cent. Some say that if the votes for Stein had not been cast deliberately against the support of the Biden/Harris administration for genocide, the combined vote could have defeated Trump. This is used to blame Stein and Arab-Americans for the Harris loss, rather than recognize it as the stand of many to refuse to conciliate with U.S./Zionist genocide by declaring that Harris is less genocidal than Trump.

Dearborn, Michigan, November 2, 2024 day of action, No Votes for Genocide

So too others did not vote for a candidate but for a cause, such as by expressing their conviction -- right or wrong -- that Trump is less likely to invade Iran and more likely to end the war in Ukraine. True or not is not the issue. In fact, the portrayal of Trump as anti-war is neither here nor there because individuals do not set policy. It is the private interests they represent which prevail at any time, such as their interest to preserve the Israeli state and alliances -- including the Abraham Accords with Arab states negotiated under the first Trump presidency. So too, the interests Trump represents will express the desire of the U.S. rulers to preserve U.S. global hegemony by maintaining a no war/no peace situation in the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine while simultaneously ending the war, healing the rifts between the U.S. and Europe, and using Russia against China and China against Russia, India against both, and so on.

Most importantly, a significant section of the U.S. ruling class seems to think that a Trump presidency may be more effective in preserving the Union. It is indeed a stretch of the imagination to conceive racist, misogynist top military brass taking orders from a female commander-in-chief they consider neither "manly" nor "war-like."

It is well-known that candidates of the rich, especially for president, are going to be pro-war, anti-people, racist, anti-worker and more. They represent the U.S. state, which is the most racist, violent, militarist state on planet earth, so candidates cannot be otherwise.

The U.S. working class and people are not confused about which class these candidates represent and what system they represent. They are representatives of a state and ruling elites facing serious existential issues. When candidates are spoken about as independent individuals whose individual policies will govern the country, it is the consciousness inherent in the U.S. experience which is assaulted.

Addressing how working people in the U.S. tend to cast their ballot as they perceive how matters of war and peace, freedom and justice present themselves paints an entirely different picture to the one that portrays half of the American polity as racist, misogynist, lovers of genocide, ignorant etc. It means that in this election, concerns about Gaza and broader war found expression in voting for Trump, voting for Harris, voting for Stein or not voting at all.

Another example is the extent to which people cast their ballots to express their profound anger against the system, by opposing Harris, not Trump. This includes anger against the administration in the states where they were left to fend for themselves following the hurricanes, droughts and other natural disasters, or anger at the system of mass incarceration and lack of justice against racist killer cops and the like.

The anger in the United States against the establishment and what it represents is very great, very profound, as is the case in other countries as well. It is visceral -- relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect. These feelings and emotions, deeply rooted in experience, culture and resistance, create a collective consciousness independent of individual human brains. Furthermore, because this consciousness is molded by human experience and resistance, it can also be informed to set a direction designed to reach a definite favourable destination.

This explanation defies all notions of identifying the vote in the United states as a "Black vote bloc," "Latino vote bloc," and the like as if whole collectives of people irrespective of who they are within life itself stand for whatever the ruling class propaganda machine says they stand for.

For instance, according to this type of "identity politics," it is common to hear it said that white workers are to blame for the election of Trump because they favour the rulers' white supremacy or anti-immigrant actions, or misogyny. Far from it, many are simply saying they want economic security for themselves, their families and communities. So too, half the population of the U.S. is blamed for Trump's election, totally ignoring the anger of the people against an establishment that commits crimes against the people every minute of every day.

An appreciation of the peoples' concerns counters all the propaganda that people who voted for Trump are racist, anti-immigrant, and so forth. Conversely, it counters all notions that all those who voted for Harris are progressive. Or that those who did not vote are indifferent. Or that a vote for Harris would save liberal democracy and the Constitution while a vote for Trump will destroy liberal democracy and the Constitution when both candidates stand for strengthening the police powers of the presidency and depriving people of their civil rights in one way or another.

It is not the peoples, as collectives, who are racist, pro-war and anti-immigrant; it is the U.S. state, its agencies, institutions and presidents.

Facile explanations for the vote also ignore the role that state disinformation plays in the United States to depoliticize everyone, i.e. make sure they do not influence the affairs of the polity in any way. It is to say that the working class and people should not be an organized force for an aim they themselves set.

This election showed that not only did the people vote according to causes dear to their own hearts but that the organized force of youth and voices speaking in their own name against genocide, injustice, mass incarceration, for equality, economic sustainability, in defence of public health care and education, etc. did not fall prey to this particular attempt to disinform them.

What to Expect from a Trump Presidency

What is certain is that going forward with Donald Trump as U.S. President the polity can expect virulent attacks on immigrants and refugees and attempts to portray them as an enemy within and danger to U.S. prosperity and stability. The use of presidential police powers against the people's protests is also likely to increase. Furthermore, anarchy -- created when the public authority is destroyed and narrow private interests take over state power -- will continue to generate violence, both at home and abroad.

But this is not all. It is also certain that the true U.S. majority comprised of the U.S. working class and peoples of all origins will continue to advance their claims on society. The fierce struggle being waged by the peoples of the United States against genocide, impunity, inequality and the attacks against them will continue and grow stronger.

It is the resistance of the working class and peoples of the United States to their exploitation and oppression and their striving for freedom, justice, equality and peace which forges their identity as a people. It always has and always will be up until they empower themselves to set agenda and implement it, and even then.

The collective consciousness of the peoples is such that their struggles are not determined by elections, but by their drive for justice, in defence of the rights of all at home and abroad. Trump cannot stop this, any more than he was able to stop the broad united actions against racist police killings in 2020.

The working class and peoples of the United States comprise the majority and it is their resistance that can counter government actions and further strengthen their stand that genocide, racist mass incarceration, family separation and detention camps for women and children along with misogynist laws, are Not in Our Name! They do not represent the society the peoples stand for. They are not acceptable, Not in Our Communities!

Whether at the border or cities across the country and rural areas, people will continue to speak in their own name and organize to defend their rights and advance a people's way forward. They will continue to stand as one with the peoples of the world engaged in the same striving to empower themselves against old arrangements called rule of law which empower elites to rule over them, take all the decisions and cast them aside.

It is important to take note that the space for change does not belong to the rulers alone. It is objective; it belongs to one and all who come forward to occupy it. The organized resistance of the working class and people for change which favours them is beginning to occupy this space in time with their refusal to conciliate with the crimes committed against humanity, the destruction of the natural and social environment and the cause of the peoples for peace, freedom and democracy of their own making.

This is the change which is consistent with the call of history for humanity to humanize the social and natural environment and create the world in its own image of an emancipated humankind.

This is what we can expect under the Trump Presidency. No matter what he does, the contradictions within the ranks of the rulers, and those between the presidency and the peoples, both at home and abroad, will continue to intensify. The working class and people of the U.S. will continue to fight for their rights and the rights of all. They will continue to speak in their own name. They will continue to answer the call of history to march on, to become the makers of history themselves, forging their identity through their deeds, in the struggles for justice, equality, peace and freedom for all of humanity.

It can be done because it must be done! Following this U.S. election, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) congratulates the youth, workers and all those forces from amongst the intelligentsia in the United States who stuck to their conviction to speak in their own name and, in whatever way they thought possible, cast a ballot against genocide, racism, and war.

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