We are not likely to learn what we should learn. Not right away, anyway.
That appears to be a common theme for us as a nation family, here in the United States. We do eventually get to it, but not before the thrashing, and self-harm and the tantrum.
If there is anything that we should have learned from the most recent Republican and Democratic National Conventions, it is that we have, by function of the body we have become, earned these two candidates. They may not be the candidates we want, considering the job each is applying for they may not be the candidates we need, but it is our sound and fury which has called each of them forth.
Our President has been blamed for not doing enough. For trying to do too much for those with too little…
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We never really learned to appreciate our President. Not with the job he has done. Not in the way much of the rest of our global neighbors do. In this we have failed slightly. The rhetoric and name calling have been present for all eight years, slightly louder than the years just before. History will remember the fights he chose to have with regard to troop withdrawal, which was a necessity, health care coverage for our nation’s citizenry, and steering a nation ship during a severe economic downturn.
Through all of these, history will remember him being generally steady. It will remember him as a moderate. History will take note of his successes in difficult times, and his failures, and how his nation grew and struggled with change during his time in office.
History will also likely remember that he suffered more indecencies and insults than any White House Chief before him. That our whole nation family had not yet progressed to the point where his abilities as an executive outdistanced our ability to process his racial and physical humanity. He bore the weight of our bigotry, and our use of code words and cat’s paws in the form of the House and Senate, to fight him for every inch of progress he made. History will not be kind in its analysis of how we have treated our most recent President.
While he has been steady, we have, as a family leaped forward and jumped back with regard to our overall growth and progress. Though we congratulated ourselves upon electing a Black President, we have been given entrée regularly over the last eight years, to the continued struggles with prejudice and racism his community, and struggles for communities of color, and immigrants, and the poor and socioeconomically disadvantaged, continue to face.
History will note that we began to look toward the natural progression of electing our first Woman President.
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Our President has been blamed for not doing enough. For trying to do too much for those with too little. For being too Black and aware. For being too centrist. For being too liberal, and conciliatory and too veteran focused and not veteran focused enough. For being too sensitive and not powerful enough on the World stage.
We, first, as a nation family, have projected all of these things on to our President. And he has remained, generally, steady.
We didn’t look at these all too real traits, and accomplishments, and his place in history, and acceptance by our global neighbors, and say, more of the same. No, Rather, we, in our social media focused way of learning, have convinced ourselves that change, drastic and significant, is needed.
Into this loud and raucous emotional void, has waltzed Donald Trump. While it has been noted that he has limited experience, and a limited formal platform, it has also been argued by his constituency that he will “Make America Great Again.” This being often a criticism of the present and recent condition of America, which when you peel back that statement, suggests that we as a family are too diverse in our makeup, our core values, skin tone and gender roles. There is never any direct reference to what point in history we were our most great and should ostensibly return to.
History will note that Donald Trump has not been nominated because of any core qualifications for office, but rather for his difference from our present leader. He Is the representation of our family’s inability to gracefully grow, change and learn. He has rode in with loud proclamations without any plan for achieving his aims, and has activated a segment that has been , for example. losing privilege, and is demanding it be returned to them.
Making history, the very thought of it, appeared to be of utmost importance to some.
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History will note that we began to look toward the natural progression of electing our first Woman President. And birthed the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. It will note that we did not assess why Hillary Clinton would be a better candidate than Elizabeth Warren, as an example. No. We, in our age of social media, had accepted that we could have only one chosen Woman candidate, and would support her at all costs. History will note that we didn’t discuss her psychology as a former conservative, or her apparently inconsistent stances on matters. None of that in the background would be loud enough to enter our thinking out front.
Making history, the very thought of it, appeared to be of utmost importance to some.
These are the candidates that we now deserve. Because they represent our present ethos. Our difficulty with growth and balance. Our enthusiasm around causes an history, our reluctance to progress as a whole nation family. They represent our failure to rightly assess the steady hand of our present leader.
Each is a departure from what we have now. They represent much of what we have become, and often dislike about ourselves. But here we are.
It would appear that in the time it takes to matriculate through high school and college, that we have failed to learn enough about ourselves to stay a sound course or improve ourselves where we are fundamentally weak. History will take note.
Let us hope our candidates have been truly taking notes and are prepared for the tests to come.
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Photo: DSK/AFP Getty Images