How these older voters who backed Harris are engaging in ‘quiet resistance’
7 min read
Pat Levin, 95 years young, is wrestling daily with something new and depressing.
“It’s left me very afraid,” she said of the 2024 election. “Afraid of the future. Afraid of everything.”
That Donald Trump will be president in her twilight is by far the biggest slice of Levin’s post-election funk. But there’s more: Democratic Sen. Bob Casey was defeated, as was her Democratic congresswoman, Rep. Susan Wild.
“I want to fight,” Levin said in an interview last week. “I don’t want to fight. I think I have to. Because I think there’s no such thing as staying neutral. I think once you stay neutral, it’s the oppressor who wins and the oppressed who suffer.”
Levin is a lifelong Democrat who wasn’t happy when Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush won the presidency. But never did if feel like this. Her Republican neighbors tell her to relax, that it will all be fine. Levin trusts her instincts.
We met, for a third time over the past year, at the Bethlehem studio where Levin regularly does Pilates. She is sharp and witty and energetic. But she worries she may have been on the losing side in her last presidential election.
“I’m pretty sure,” Levin said matter of factly about Trump being the last president she sees. “I mean at my age. Chances are good that he will be.”
Levin is among the voters who participated in our All Over the Map project, an effort to track the 2024 campaign through the eyes and experiences of Americans who live in key battlegrounds or are part of critical voting groups, or both.
Voters over the age of 65 are among the most reliable to cast ballots. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris evenly split these voters nationally, with 49% each, according to exit polls. In Pennsylvania, Trump had an edge with voters 65 and over – 52% to 48% for Harris.
Levin lives in Northampton County, a place with a history of picking presidents. The winner in Northampton has carried Pennsylvania and won the White House in five consecutive elections, and all but three dating back 100 years.
Levin sees women’s rights in retreat; lies and distortions that go largely unchallenged; meanness toward immigrants; and disdain for civility and democratic norms.
“It’s a scary thing when you think about — is Elon Musk the shadow president?” Levin said. “Isn’t that scary to have to ask that question? Have we ever had to ask that before?”
We visited Levin and others in our Northampton County voter group just days after a post-election trip to Iowa, where Republicans who supported Trump were ebullient at his sweep of the swings states and win in the popular vote. Those Republicans support mass deportations and trade tariffs and see him as a strong leader on the world stage, while dismissing talk he is a threat to democracy.
Conversations with Democrats so soon after felt like entering a parallel universe.
“There are no guardrails any longer,” Levin said. “I mean, he has control. Control of the Supreme Court. What’s left in terms of stopping him? I don’t know what that is unless it’s a people. And it takes people with a lot of courage to buck that trend.”
Finding local ways to channel their disappointment
Marvin Boyer, too, is beyond disappointed in the election outcome and sees many troubling things on Trump’s priorities list. But he prefers to wait and see if things will be as bad as Levin predicts.
“I always think positive and hope that our better angels will, you know, resurrect,” said Boyer, a lifelong resident of Easton, Pennsylvania. “But, again, it was a message of divisiveness, of separation, of fear, and that seemed to resonate with a good deal of the population unfortunately.”
Boyer, 75, has been a civil rights and community activist as long as he can remember. We met at a community center where the main meeting space is dedicated to Boyer’s mother. On this day, it was being used to pack and organize Thanksgiving meal bags, and the community garden behind the building was another example of how local heroes like Boyer do what they can to help those who need a hand.
He urges disappointed Democrats to, like him, find a cause or causes close to home.
“This will not be my first disappointment rodeo,” Boyer said. “You have to give him a chance, despite some misgivings I have. … I often run into people who complain a lot, you know, and I’m a doer, and I say, be the change that you want to see in the community. Get involved in a local organization. Be more of an activist.”
Still, it is clear Boyer’s innate optimism faces challenges processing what he hears from Trump and what he sees from some voters, including fellow Black men in his own beloved community.
“It looks like it’s a revenge thing that he’s going for,” is how Boyer characterized the president-elect’s Cabinet and other personnel choices. “A big frankly, F-You to the other side.”
Boyer sees Trump as constantly stoking fears about America becoming more diverse, which makes the president-elect’s inroads among Black men especially troubling to him.
“I will hear what they have to say, and that’s what I do. I listen,” Boyer said.
Then his turn: “Why do you feel that way? Why would you vote for this guy? Why would you vote for an individual who I think is a racist who is a misogynist. … Who is with the January 6 situation? Why would you vote for a guy like that?”
The response usually follows these lines, Boyer said: “Because he tells it like it is, and that resonates with me.”
‘The quiet resistance’
Boyer’s suggestion to channel disappointment into activism is already part of Darrell Ann Murphy’s post-election plan — one she adopted with friends after a few days of crying.
“Friends of mine have started groups, we’re calling it the quiet resistance,” Murphy said in an interview at her home in suburban Palmer Township, a short drive from Easton. “We still have a voice. This is, you know, November of 2024, we still have a voice, not sure about 2025, but this is still America.”
Murphy, 84, teaches the Chinese tile game Mahjong, and says she was blindsided by the election results – in Northampton County and nationally – because most of the fellow seniors taking classes were Harris supporters. Three weeks later, she’s still trying to understand and is most worried about reproductive rights and a Trump tone Murphy sees as toxic.
“I don’t know how long I’m going to be around,” Murphy said. “I need to feel for my kids and grandchildren and the next generation, I need to feel some hope, some hope. Means more, means more to seniors. You know it really does.”
Our recent visit was the third time we sat in on a Mahjong game at Murphy’s home – the third time she and Catherine Long sparred feistily with Pamela Aita, a Republican and Trump supporter.
“I don’t have to have dinner with Donald Trump,” Aita, 72, said when character questions came up. “I don’t care what he does. Just keep me safe, keep my grandkids safe, and have money in our pockets. That’s all. That’s what, that’s my concern. I think the man can do that job. “
Long, 68, took issue.
“I have a problem having a man keep me safe who is a convicted felon and doesn’t believe in the laws of the land,” she said. “I’m scared to death of what he’s going to do.”
Aita reminds her friends Trump was president before. “Did anything horrible happen to the country?” she asked.
Long and Murphy said Trump was incompetent handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
That they can spar, and smile, is sadly rare in today’s polarized politics. Aita at first blames Trump’s critics, but then agrees he, too, often stokes the fighting.
“I’m saying both parties, both parties,” she said. “Knock it off. … Just let’s all come together for this country. It’s just, I don’t know, I don’t like the division and everything.”
Murphy can agree on that point.
“It’s awful,” she said. “It is affecting every family, every friendship.”
But the disagreement stirs again as Aita tries to wrap that point.
“We have to just knock it off,” she said. “He’s president for four years. We’ll have another election.”
Long interjects.
“We hope,” she said. “I have fears that he won’t leave.”
Aita: “Come on. That’s ridiculous.”
Long: “I’m not kidding. I have fears that he won’t leave.”
The CNN visitor suggests it can be a topic of polite Mahjong debate for the next four years.
“If we’re still here on this earth,” Murphy said.
“Yes,” Aita echoed. “We might not be here, John. You ever think of that?”
Back to the game. Won on this day, perhaps fittingly, by Aita, the Trump supporter.
By John King, CNN
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