No one can escape the devastation of grief, that emotional state that recognizes deep loss and pain. Whether we lose a family member, a dear friend of even a person we admire, we will all experience grief.
When we think of grief, however, we usually think of the suffering of individuals. But organizations can also experience grief, and although each person will have a different understanding of grief, he or she will connect with others in the group who are going through the same loss.
The Left, after experiencing its loss of the presidency in November, is grieving, experiencing the first four of the five stages—denial, anger, bargaining, depression—on a loop, never making it to the “acceptance” stage.
How do these stages of grief relate to the reactions of the Left?
The first stage is denial. Here is how one Democrat characterized the initial Democrat response to the Trump victory shortly after the election:
For my fellow Democrats, the stages of electoral grief have begun. First, the pulverizing shock. Then, the deep confusion. Finally, the burning questions, spreading across cable news green rooms like wildfire.
How could anyone vote for him? What kind of country have we become? What went wrong? And what country should I move to?
People can get stuck in this stage for quite a long time. Our psyches seem to know that our suffering will not end with this process, but there will be more heartbreak ahead. Although many on the Left are still trapped in this mindset, unable to find their way out, others have moved to the second stage: anger.
Anger is a highly emotional state of mind, and can be directed at almost anyone, but for many people who saw Trump win the election, their anger is directed at him, his supporters, other Republicans, and conservative justices to name a few. Elon Musk and Tesla dealerships and Tesla customers, many of whom are likely Democrats, have suffered the wrath of this anger. Some of the anger may also be vented toward others on the Left.
Although many people will tell you that anger is a very unpleasant emotion, they also often find that it is empowering; that it is justified by their sense of disappointment and betrayal. This is another stage where it’s easy to get stuck, due to the power it bestows on the griever. People may bounce back and forth between denial and anger. And there is no timeline for going through this process completely.
The third stage is bargaining. Bargaining is where we try to negotiate solutions, without having the advantage, to somehow reverse the results—in this case, of the election. Some people threatened Trump with impeachment almost before he had walked into the Oval Office. Some have proposed removing Elon Musk from his work with the administration. Others are trying to prevent anyone from being fired by DOGE, or agencies from being closed down. These solutions don’t have to be practical or possible, but they give the proposer a sense of control and power.
When we relinquish the hold of bargaining on us, we slide into depression. This stage can be the most debilitating and devastating, “marked by a sense of withdrawal from others and the world around us.” We’ve seen countless social media videos from leftists, announcing that they will no longer associate with certain family members because of the election results.
Once we can finally find our way out of the mire of depression, the next and last stage is acceptance. For the Left, this stage has proven the most difficult to achieve. It requires them to come to terms with the current situation, even if they dislike it intensely. Through acceptance, people can see their way out of their circumstances, even in small ways. They may still be somewhat obsessed about their losses, but find ways to be productive and occasionally optimistic about the future.
The reason this stage could be so difficult to achieve is that many on the Left are spinning their wheels in one stage or another. Also, they’re often regressing to a former stage after being triggered by a situation or memory, or by a social media post. They’re choosing an isolated environment with others on the Left, so people outside their sphere won’t be able to influence them. (They don’t trust those people to help them, anyway.) And because these stages are fluid and differ in intensity and impact, people will be at different stages at different times, so unifying them will be challenging.
Ultimately, if the Left wants to free itself from the stages of grief, it must resolve to go through the painful process of grieving. This process can’t be ignored or transferred to someone else.
Do the leaders of the Left have the resiliency and power to make that happen?
Will they free themselves from the paralyzing effect of grief to work on the future?
Do we even want them to recover?
Image: Free image, Pixabay license.