Turnout Updates

Well, there are lots of analyses of what happened and how Trump got more votes than Harris. See the various pundits in the NY Times opinion pages; see Robert Reich; see electoral-vote.com's summary, see various other people. 

But here are the latest numbers, as of today:

2016  Clinton: 65,853,514*        Trump: 62,984,828

2020.  Biden:   81,283,50           Trump: 74,223,975

2024:  Harris:  71,263,166          Trump: 74,849,554 
Previously:      67,825,418                       72,521,905

The question still remains: Trump's numbers didn't rise appreciably from 2020. Harris is running 10 million votes under Biden in 2020. Where did those voters go? They did not all vote for Trump, obvously.

SF Symphony Program Change, May, 2025

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

There's a change to Giancarlo Guerrero's May, 2025 concerts at SFS. Gabriel Kahane's Talent & Phoenix, a San Francisco Symphony commission, has been postponed to a future date, presumably in a future season. Instead, we'll hear the 1947 version of Stravinsky's Petrushka. Still on the program: Kaija Saariaho's Asteroid 4179: Toutatis and Ottorino Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. (This was going to be, and to some extent still is, one of the weirder programs this season. Yeah, people who are really into new music, like the Saariaho and Kahane, are definitely big fans of Fountains and Pines.)

 

It's About the Turnout.

Like pretty much everyone I know, I'm heartbroken and enraged today. (If you're happy that Trump will be back in office, getting another shot at wrecking our system of government and our country, well, we have a problem. You may safely unfollow me here or on social media.)

I'll quote Matt at What the Fuck Just Happened Today about Trump:

Trump – the twice-impeached, multiply indicted, once-defeated former president – overcame 34 felony convictions, 88 criminal charges, accusations of insurrection as part of his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, civil lawsuit judgments totaling more than a half-billion dollars, allegations by his entire first-term cabinet that he’s unfit to serve, his openly fascist intentions, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, his failed response to the Covid-19 pandemic that led to more than 400,000 deaths from a virus he repeatedly claimed was “going to disappear,” his repeated overt acts of racism, at least 26 public accusations of rape, kissing, and groping without consent, his promises to prosecute his political opponents, and the threats encapsulated by the Project 2025 agenda, to become the nation’s 47th president. 

Yeah. He's manifestly unfit to hold any office, let alone the most important elective office in the world, one where he has the nuclear codes. And everybody knows who he is. 

Here's what I think happened:

2016  Clinton: 65,853,514*        Trump: 62,984,828

2020.  Biden:   81,283,50           Trump: 74,223,975

2024:  Harris:  67,825,418          Trump: 72,521,905

A couple of states are still being counted, but they won't make an appreciable difference in the above numbers.

1. Harris's total exceeded Clinton's in 2016 and for all I know would have been enough to win in 2016.
2. Trump's high water mark was in 2020.
3. Overall turnout is way way down this year versus 2020. Biden got seven million votes more than Trump in 2020 and nearly fourteen million more than Harris this year. What. The Fuck. Happened. Everyone thinks Harris had a great ground name, a huge swell of enthusiasm, and the rage of women behind her. She also raised a cool billion dollars in three months. Who didn't vote? Who didn't care enough to turn out and keep Donald Trump out of office?

We'll know, I guess, when there are crosstabs and analysis of the vote.

* Please quote these vote totals any time someone tells you how unpopular HRC was as a candidate. So unpopular that three million more people wanted her as president than wanted Trump.

VOTE.

 

Zimmerman, E. M. & Shaw, A. H. (1915) Votes for Women: Suffrage Rallying Song. Zimmerman, M., comp [Philadelphia, Pa.: E.M. Zimmerman, ©] [Notated Music] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017562229/.

Tomorrow is an incredibly consequential election in the United States. Make sure that you get out and vote. And keep in mind that some members of one party think that it would be just fine to take away women's right to vote, along with our bodily autonomy.

Closing Tomorrow: Tristan und Isolde, San Francisco Opera

Simon O'Neill as Tristan and Anja Kampe as Isolde

Tristan und Isolde, Fall, 2024

Photo: Cory Weaver, courtesy of San Francisco Opera

There's just one performance left at San Francisco Opera of Richard Wagner's monumental opera Tristan und Isolde, and (unfortunately if you're a U.S. citizen and/or you care about the outcome of the election) it's tomorrow night, Tuesday, November 5, 2024, at 6 pm.

I'm here to tell you, if you want some distraction from the election or you want to see some great opera, get yourself a ticket. Tristan has as one of its themes the nature of oblivion, and the music will transport you. I have seen the final dress rehearsal (which we don't review, but I will tell you that at the end I was pretty sure we were in for something special on opening night), the first, second, and fourth performances in person, and the livestream of the third, and one result is that I am haunted by the second act love duet, all forty minutes of it.

There's plenty to love in the other acts as well. The photo above is of an important moment in Act 1: Tristan and Isolde are having a little discussion about their past history, which you've heard about already in Isolde's narration. O'Neill's hand is about to float up his chest to Isolde's, they will lean in toward each other, and they will almost kiss before the chorus of sailors interrupts them and Tristan jumps up to deal with the ship.

It is clear from Isolde's narration that they fell in love while she nursed him back to health, more or less over the body of her late fiancé Morold, whom Tristan killed in battle. And this little scene, so beautifully directed, is before they drink the potion that they think will kill them: they do not fall in love because they've drunk a love potion. They are already in love. Thinking that they will die, they are able to finally give voice to that love.

And act 3, with Tristan's drawn-out delirium and eventual death? Magnificently sung and acted by O'Neill.

The cast is outstanding, the conducting transcendent, the orchestra is playing magnificently. Go see it, particularly if you haven't seen it yet. (Friends whom I made sure saw it last Friday were basically OMG OMG OMG when it was over.) We are extremely lucky to have this production in town.

And here are a few words from Joshua Kosman's weekly newsletter (which I hope you're subscribing to):

Because of a confluence of personal and theatrical conflicts, I wasn’t able to get to last Saturday’s opening performance of Tristan and Isolde at the San Francisco Opera, or the second performance either. And now here I am, jumping up and down and trying to grab you by the lapels to tell you that you must see this production, and there are only two performances left in the run. That’s not right. [He goes on to explain why it's so fabulous.]

Yeah, I wish the run were longer myself, although the title roles make impossible demands on the singers, and they are humans with human limitations. But whatever, get your tickets for tomorrow night right here.