Not Your Typical Election Takeaway(s)

Chicago, August 23, 2024: on the sign, but not on the table. 2024 Campaign marked a departure from discussions of leadership and bonds which hold the country together. Instead the public got partisan invective. Photo courtesy apnews.com

Election 2024: shed your punditry and grasp what the stakes are.

With respect to Steve Kornacki’s claim, “(every four years) this is who we are,” one is curious as to what’s on the 2024 ballot, and what’s not.

The 2024 Election campaign was that kind of public display, where an increasing gap in our struggle with democracy was portrayed, between what we were not voting on, or could not vote for — because political forces performatively prevented, or hadn’t imagined, or failed to gain enough signatures to insert on the ballot — and what we were voting on.

We’ll begin with what is on the states’ ballots. The following is a sampling, tilted conspicuously towards democracy-strengthening initiatives:

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

Following in Michigan’s foot steps in 2022, 10 states put a woman’s right to an abortion (or denial thereof) on the ballot.

“In 2024, 10 states will have abortion measures on their ballot seeking to either affirm that the state constitution protects the right to abortion or that nothing in the constitution confers such a right.” (kff.org)

Gun Violence Protection

Only one state — Colorado — has a gun-related initiative on the ballot in 2024. “Over a dozen gun-related initiatives…