Members of the Whitman and Walla Walla community somberly filed into Maxey auditorium on Wednesday night to debrief and discuss the outcome of the 2024 election. Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the election to President-elect Donald Trump only a few hours before the event.
The Community-Driven Debrief was led by a panel that included Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics, Katie Heard; Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Writing and Public Discourse, Kaitlyn Patia; Associate Professor of Politics, Susanne Beechey; and Vice President for Inclusive Excellence, Dr. John Johnson.
Beechey emphasized the conversational nature of the event in her opening remarks.
“We’re here to think together and with you,” Beechey said.
Though many of the questions asked by audience members suggested a feeling of shock and indignation, Patia and Johnson both expressed that they were not surprised by Trump’s victory.
“It’s something that, frankly, I’d hoped to be wrong about, but had kind of expected…In some ways I see this as the system working the way it was designed to,” Patia said.
The discussion turned to voter disenfranchisement and the degree to which many state and federal policies discourage voter turnout by limiting access to polling places and failing to make election day a national holiday. Though voting by mail increases voter turnout, Beechey pointed out that eliminating polling places may have the effect of reducing privacy around voting, specifically in instances where women may feel pressured to vote the same way as their husbands.
In response to questions as to how Trump won, Johnson reflected on growing fears amongst white voters of becoming a “majority-minority” nation and Trump’s ability to speak to the anxieties of those groups.
“The Republican party tapped into a kind of belonging for a particular [group of] voters who may be feeling really disenchanted,” Johnson said.
He also noted that there was a surge of enthusiasm for Harris when she first announced her campaign that dwindled as the election got closer, possibly because she was not selected by voters through a Democratic primary.
A student in the audience expressed frustration that the Harris ran a campaign pandering to the right, while ignoring the concerns of progressive voters.
Another audience member expressed that he no longer believes the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice (referring to a Martin Luthur King Jr. quote) after witnessing the results of the election.
Despite the gloomy atmosphere, panelists emphasized the importance of staying engaged in important issues through community building, working to find common ground, and putting pressure on representatives.
Patia explained that she finds hope in the remarkable changes activists throughout history have been able to make through organizing.
“At the end of day, I look to the organizers as I’m thinking about this. …[Their work] might not make the headlines, but it’s happening all around us,” Patia said.
Though most of the Debrief was spent addressing heavier topics of precarious civil rights, toxic masculinity, and white supremacy, there were moments of hope and even laughter as community members came together to discuss what this election indicates about the past, present and future of the United States.
