In Japan, there’s an old saying, “後の祭り” (ato no matsuri)—”after the festival.”
It’s akin to our English “too late” or “a day late and a dollar short.”
The phrase evokes the pointlessness of arriving once the show is over, lanterns doused, and the scent of food stalls fading in the breeze.
It’s a bittersweet refrain for missed chances, an epitaph for action taken just a beat too late.
That’s where we are, watching the embers of the latest U.S. election flicker out.
As the ballots settle, so do the debates, but the question lingers: What was gained, if anything?
I didn’t predict every twist of this election, but I had a hunch.
I sensed Trump’s victory this time around.
That inkling solidified watching Obama take the stage in November 5th, from his twitter post.
Check out the speech here:
“If you’re still on the fence about voting in this election, think about what really matters – about the values we were taught, the kind of country we want to be, and how this is a moment when your vote really does count.
Your vote could determine the fate of our republic – the… pic.twitter.com/qv46tK0r89″
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 5, 2024
Yes, there he was, as crisp as ever, voice radiating the calm, reasoned eloquence that’s practically a trademark by now.
For a moment, it felt like a spark.
Obama asked: Would you trust Trump as a business partner? If not, how could he be trusted with the country?
Obama’s charisma was magnetic that night, but I wonder if, as people went home, those same piercing words held up against the backdrop of their daily grind—rising costs, a strained economy, immigration pressures.
These are exactly the issues Republicans have hammered on with brutal clarity.
The Democrats, meanwhile, seem to bring philosophy to a fistfight, too often trading bread-and-butter solutions for lofty appeals.
When Obama urged Democrats to speak to Republican friends “with love and respect,” I couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew he was speaking into the void. You’re bringing a knife to a gun fight!
“Value and decency” don’t sway prices or secure borders; ideology, however noble, rarely grips the gut.
Moral is for riches.
I was suddently reminded of a line from a movie “My Fair Lady”.
- “Have you no morals, man?”
- “No, I can’t afford ‘em, Governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me.”
Alfred P. Doolittle
Meanwhile, Democrats are caught in the blame game. The road to rebuilding won’t be a short one.
Maybe voters grew weary of celebrity endorsements—the Taylors, the Beyoncés—whose glitzy allegiance seemed laughably out of touch with daily realities.
Did Oprah, perhaps, feel the sting of surging grocery costs?
Idealism, no matter how grand, does little to curb the weight of reality pressing down on most Americans.
Looking outward, one senses the steady encroachment of a harsher world.
With Russia looming to the north, China rising to the east, and an emerging global South, Europe, the west has been gasping for air.
The world has entered an era with no compass nation, no moral center to guide the way.
Advanced nations may need to embrace a new kind of dignified decline for we see no way out, at least not of a decent one.
