Can we stop the blame game and stand together?

The times are dark; let us share the light.

Yes, I made a mistake. Pollsters made a mistake. You may have made a mistake. Harris made a mistake. Biden made a mistake.

We all make mistakes.

So, what?

Just because a team fought its way through the season, made it to the final, and lost by a wide margin doesn't mean they're the worst in the world. They were simply bested by the other side. Instead of blaming, we can look at our mistakes, learn from them, and correct them.

I will never tell my son never to make a mistake. If I do, what kind of father will I be? The only thing I need to teach him is to make mistakes, learn from them, and not repeat them. Every mistake should make him stronger, not weaker. That is the only way to live. The other one is called suffering.

I know where I went wrong. I always knew that turnout would be a key factor in putting power beyond the MAGA world.

Link to my story published on October 21

So, yes, I have a plausible cover to escape. But what’s the point? I couldn’t foresee that turnout would drop. That’s where I went wrong. I expected the turnout to increase by atleast 1 point over 2020. Instead it went down. It cratered. I’m sorry for keeping my confidence level at 100 percent regarding an increase in turnout.

I wasn’t biased toward Harris, Biden, or the Democrats. If ten years from now, or twenty years from now, the Democrats start behaving like MAGA, I won’t support them. I’ve criticized the Biden administration for the way they handled Ukraine. In my opinion, Biden has the worst national security team in the world. My support isn’t for any politician; it’s always for their policies and actions. On that count, Biden has me in his corner for how he handled the economy, but not on the national security front.

I was biased toward democracy. I saw turnout increasing over the last 12 years.

It’s one of the best things that can happen to any democracy. You want turnout to keep going up, not down. From 128 million in 2012, it went up to 137 million in 2016 and 158 million in 2020. This year, we declined.

They are still counting the votes. There are plenty of votes still left to be counted on the West Coast. But it’s very clear that turnout has declined in 2024 compared to 2020.

We’ve backslid, and we may have set the stage for the collapse of our democracy. So, what should we do now? A mistake was made—maybe the worst one at this point in time. Should we give up and let the democracy built over 200 years be wrecked by a few hungry for influence, power, and money? Or should we stand together and fight our way out?

Should we tell the team that reached the final and lost to never play again? Should we tell our sons and daughters that one more mistake and they are done because it was the worst mistake in the world?

Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. What did he do? Did he just say, “Oh yeah, I made a mistake, and I’m not going to try again”? No. He just kept grinding and grinding. What did Fox News do when the GOP lost control of the Senate in the 2022 midterms? Did they blame the Republicans for the loss and encourage them to tear each other apart? Nope. They stood together, even when they lost. They stayed on the attack and told Americans that a great economy, which performed better than any other in the world after COVID, was the worst in the world. The mainstream media played along, and voila, here we are.

It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with learning from the other side, and there’s nothing wrong with accepting our mistakes. What’s wrong is the blame game and trying to pin the loss on individuals. We lost as a team. Let’s stay together. Let’s lift each other up. Let’s look at what we can do to correct those mistakes. I will look at how I can make amends and do better. If there’s something you think you did wrong, please go ahead and fix it. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Be glad that we are not liars who lack the courage to accept a loss. We are not sore losers, and we should never be.

Just look at the gall of the MAGA world. When they lost the 2020 election, they spread all sorts of conspiracy theories, claiming that the election was stolen. It was their government in power then. Now Biden is in power, and his team lost, but they gleefully accept the results because they won. Not a word about illegal votes. No movement to stop the steal. They lie their way to victory. Let’s understand who we’re dealing with. The other side is ready to turn a loss into a victory, while we’re here trying to tear each other apart over a loss.

There’s no need. Let’s stop the blame game. We lost. Let’s move on. We have to. The times are darker than ever before. Initially, I thought the House would be a firewall to protect the country from a full backslide, but it looks like the GOP will get the trifecta. They’re going to take control of the House, Senate, and the Presidency.

They’re going to push for tax cuts. They’ll impose tariffs. They’ll mass deport people. They will expose themselves. There’s a reason the United States elects members to Congress and the Senate every two years. That will be our last chance.

We can either sit here and keep telling ourselves that it’s all over, clearing their path to take control of the state, or we can stand together, lift each other up, and stay clearly focused on pulling the House and Senate back over the democratic line. Trump and Musk want us to give up the fight.

I won’t, and I hope you won’t either. We have a democracy because someone else worked to keep it that way. It’s our turn. Now is not the time to give up.

And what ever you do please do not blame Latino men or white women or anyother racial demographic for voting for Trump. It is now time to get them all back. Blaming them is exactly what the MAGA world wants you to do. Division is what they are playing for. Let us not go down that road. They made a mistake. So, did I.

Move on. Let’s fix it.

We have to fix it.

Blaming others is easier than fixing the problem, so please let us not take the easy way out. My confidence and hope has been shattered. You know what remains? A sense of responsiblity to stay the course. That will help me get my confidence and hope back to where it needs to be. Let us grind and grind.

I will and I hope to draw some strength from you.