Chapter Thirty-Three: What an Octopus Taught Me About the 2024 Election

Dear Diary, 

I thought Kamala Harris was going to win. Given the choice between a convicted felon—an angry man with terrible makeup and divisive rhetoric—and a woman who exuded competence and leadership, the decision seemed obvious. I mean, literally everyone who had ever worked for him publicly declared they were voting for Kamala. Surely, I thought, she would win in a landslide.

But instead, I watched in disbelief as Donald Trump claimed a decisive victory. The results left me reeling. How could women vote against their own autonomy? How could people of color overlook his history of inflammatory rhetoric? How could working-class folks back policies like tariffs that seem so contrary to their own interests?