Now that we have settled from the stir of the recent general election, it is important to hash out what this means for us as a country going forward.
Kelly Ayotte is governor-elect of New Hampshire and Donald Trump is president-elect of the United States, leaving us on potentially precarious paths going forward.
Kelly Ayotte
Ayotte has successfully beaten Joyce Craig for the governorship; with an endorsement from incumbent Governor Chris Sununu, who decided to not run for reelection. One of Ayotte’s biggest hurdles in this election was to maintain the optics of being a centrist Republican with standard issue opinions and policy positions. However, that is not how Ayotte has voted previously when she was a U.S. senator.
Ayotte voted against S. Amdt 4750 – Fix Gun Checks Act of 2016, which failed in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 56-44, according to votesmart.org. This amendment would have required the U.S. Attorney General to work in conjunction with state attorneys general to maintain a records system that is available to the national background check database and prohibit non-licensed dealers or manufacturers from selling guns. Ayotte voted for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, a crude oil pipeline that was planned to run though the Midwest. She also supported abortion restrictions and the protection for facilities that declined to provide abortion care.
While running her gubernatorial campaign, one of Ayotte’s primary focuses was dissuading people of her leanings on reproductive rights. She argued that even given her position on the subject, she would not alter the current abortion laws in N.H. given the public’s support of it. While Ayotte has done a decent job of quelling those concerns about abortion policy, the electorate should maintain a healthy skepticism throughout these next two years, especially with her glowing endorsement from incumbent governor, Chris Sununu.
Sununu endorsed Ayotte as a continuation of his current policies and governance style. He and Ayotte have been skeptical at best regarding the legalization of marijuana. Sununu has been an impedance to renewable projects both in N.H. and in partnership with neighboring states, setting N.H. back regionally in our grid development. He has been a staunch supporter of austerity governance; limiting funding in all areas whenever possible, especially cutting public education funds and diverting public education funds to private institutions through the voucher program.
If Sununu’s endorsement is remotely accurate, this is what New Hampshirites have to look forward to for the next two years. The same dry and ineffective conservative politics that lead to the stripping of public power and funds; the art of putting lipstick on a pig.
Donald Trump
In a tightly polled general election race, Donald Trump was able to squeak out a win on the morning of Nov. 6. In a campaign surrounded by retribution, threats and fear mongering Trump has brought another four years, possibly, to the American people.
Throughout his campaign there were references to the “enemy within” and the importance of re-electing him to combat them. He threatens journalists and mocks them as the “fake news media,” going so far as to make a joke at his most recent rally in Pennsylvania that an assassin would have to shoot the journalists while trying to get to him. Trump has primed his voting base for the case of a “stolen election,” suggesting that if he were to lose there should be pushback; more deeply, it challenges the concept of a peaceful transfer of power. While we have avoided a “stolen election” scenario, we have yet to elude the more harsh policies to come.
As the prospect of climate change looms over humankind, a return to Trump’s policies will be detrimental to what little progress has been made, stating a desire to open up lands to fossil fuel drilling. Rolling back the “Green New Deal” has also been a chief priority in his energy policy for this term. He and the Republican party are militantly against LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive rights as well. Rhetorically Trump has stated he has no interest in a national abortion ban; however with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, anything is possible. The most unsettling aspect of this new Trump term is his disregard for democracy.
Trump has made many remarks about using the Insurrection Act to establish martial law for the sake of regaining “order.” He commented after his loss in 2020 the U.S. constitution should be “terminated” in a fight to maintain power. With a red trickle coming to the U.S. Congress, Republicans may hold a trifecta by a slight margin. Many state governments have decent Make America Great Again (MAGA) factions, so if Trump took it upon himself to alter the 22 Amendment, though it may be difficult, it does not seem impossible. I do not mention this to be flippant though, he has shown fascist tendencies both in and out of office. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, commented that Trump is “the most dangerous person to this country” and “fascist to the core,” quotes coming from an upcoming book from journalist Bob Woodward of the Washington Post.
Closing
As we go into these new administrations, we should move cautiously and with skepticism. There is potential for these leaders, Ayotte and Trump, to be helpful and generally beneficial in their policy choices, but I have low expectations of them. This is a pivotal point in our country’s political history and we as Millennials and Zoomers have a responsibility to take control of the narrative and bring to the forefront our policies of choice. Too long have we been sitting idly by as the status quo leaves us behind. While I have many complaints from Boomers, they did know how to throw a good protest; we should utilize that knowledge and power they exerted on the government during turmoil in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
In James Baldwin’s book, The Fire Next Time, he says, “The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” We Americans are at a turning point of such magnitude, we just need to utilize that danger to the status quo in such a manner that we work for all of us, as humans.
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
