Post-Election Fantasy

The opinions expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the LA Progressive.

I know I'm not alone in recognizing that November 5 is the beginning, not the end. The beginning of what is the real question.

It pains me to observe right away that far too many people, including most in the political class, cling to the idea that November 5 is the end. They still can't see past the balloting; they still seem to believe things will be settled on the day after. Almost no one talks about the violent chaos that is sure to follow a narrow Harris victory. Such is the spellbinding power of election derangement syndrome.

But let us pursue our fantasy and suppose that we survive the inevitable violence. Let us imagine that Kamala Harris can actually function as chief executive by the traditional January 20 inauguration date. In my dream scenario, four surprises would emerge as the dust begins to settle.

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Here are four imaginary headlines:

HARRIS SHAKES OFF THE BILLIONAIRE'S GRIP

True, she blew the opportunity to campaign on the one issue that actually unites people on both sides of the red/blue divide: unchecked corporate power and greed at the top. True as well that she took their money, understanding full well how the pay-for-play system works. But then she surprised everyone and declared in no uncertain terms that her administration will be totally committed to bottom-up prosperity and to significant checks on malign corporate activity on a variety of fronts. Her first anti-corporate signal: she kept Lina Khan on the job at the FTC. Her big donors were outraged, needless to say, but there wasn't that much they can do: they read the polls, too, and they knew that the popular tide was with her in moving dramatically away from decades and decades of Democratic subservience to corporate overlords.

HARRIS DECLARES THAT MILITARISM HAS FAILED

In her first major foreign policy address, the new president gave voice to what the rest of the world has long understood: the American project of attempting to police the world has been an abject and very costly failure. She told traditional allies that the U.S. won't abandon them and will always join them in resisting naked aggression, but she also said that the U.S. would no longer spend a trillion dollars a year to support a bloated military footprint and maintain nearly 900 overseas bases. She specifically told the State of Israel that the weaponry used to slaughter Palestinians would no longer be forthcoming. Americans overwhelmingly cheered this sane and realistic reassessment of this country's place in a multipolar world.

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HARRIS COMMITS TO A BIODIVERSE FUTURE

Although climate change barely figured in her election campaign, apart from an unfortunate wet kiss offered to the fracking industry, Harris shocked Big Oil and Big Ag alike by announcing that she would devote every possible resource to achieving emissions targets. Even more astonishing, she also said very specifically that the health of the world's imperiled oceans would get her administration's priority attention. Scientists who recognize how everything hinges on oceanic health wept for joy and gratitude. In keeping with the new administration's demilitarization thrust, dangerous nuclear weapons development and testing programs have been scrapped. Leaders steeped in indigenous earth-keeping practices will hold positions of authority across a range of key federal agencies.

HARRIS SEVERELY LIMITS WHAT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN DO

Unusually, the new president did not take the predicted step of creating a study commission on the threat of artificial intelligence; instead, she created a whole new top-level agency with sufficient power to impose reasonable constraints. In taking this decisive action, Harris cited four primary sources of concern: the huge job-destroying potential of AI, the technology's obvious enhancement of misinformation/ disinformation potential, AI's shredding of any recognizable concept of intellectual property, and the shockingly high environmental impact of the massive data servers that AI requires.

I described this as a dream scenario. It's not an exercise in pure cynicism; it's meant to invite us to think more clearly about the common task for all of us. Always and ever, that task amounts to organizing despite the odds. Kamala Harris won't magically become a different kind of leader without a huge uprising of pressure from below, but creating that level of pressure is not inconceivable. Almost all younger Americans understand that what we've got now is completely broken: that everything must change. And let's not forget that history is full of surprising turns.

So yes, let's unite to defeat the immediate fascist threat. And then let's get down to the real work.