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I went to bed last night demoralized, my faith in democracy challenged in a way I never believed was possible.
It was late, after the acceptance speech by President-elect Donald Trump. I was exhausted. I slept very little.
I awoke this morning in a state of confusion, a daze that still lingers over me. My fear of half the nation’s voters, more than 50 million of my fellow citizens, brings grief and anxiety to my every thought. Can our ideas about what defines the United States of America be that different? Yes, they can.
I’ve worked a lot of campaigns as a volunteer. This one was different. This one was unprecedented in its vitriol and disgust. This one was personal. This one was moral. The fog of war created cover for absurdist antics and human abuse. This behavior was not taught as acceptable when I learned as a child to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
I have been physically threatened on multiple occasions for my writing about the election, almost entirely by anonymous sources online, for expressing my views, activating my right to free speech. I have experienced anti-Semitism. I have been asked to leave the nation to which my family immigrated generations ago. It is always strange to see words like this in print because I do not experience them at all in real world life, yet those words are always out there masked in cowardice. They never go away. Hate may sit in the background, but it is always with us.
I won’t stop writing. I won’t stop talking. You may have won an election but you haven’t won the bullying match. Don’t believe me, just watch.
I received an email early in the day from a dear friend asking for my advice on how to address his community this morning in the face of shock. I told him I was still forming my thoughts, but here was a start:
I would remind people we are now almost perfectly divided, that Trump prevailed by geography and demographics, not by intellectual mandate. Clinton won the popular vote, albeit by less than 1%, which tells us how few minds have to change for sanity to return.
I would make the point empirically that education is the basis of democracy, and while a precious few students enjoy the highest privilege on earth, that is not the norm in this nation by a long shot and if we don’t fix that divide we will destroy the American dream. With intelligence must come humility or Progressives will continue to be seen as elite and detached. Regardless and without apology, reading beats YouTube and a tweet is not a policy statement. Rigorous thought matters over the long haul, no matter how many trivialities consume our hours.
I would tell them to stand by their beliefs, that courage is only real when you oppose the tyranny of the majority and risk losing something for what others can have later. History is written in the future, not the present. Fight hate, fight oppression, have empathy for your opponent or you can’t win them over, have compassion for the hungry, never betray your morality for material gain, and prepare now to fix this error four years from now.
He’s the President, not the King. We bond together now to keep him from having more authority than our Constitution will allow. False prophets are always exposed. This one will betray his following like all others have and then our good work can continue.
Clinton supporters vastly underestimated the power of disaffection and blame.
Trump supporters are even more vastly underestimating our commitment to our values and hard-won gains.
We are separated by the thinnest of all margins. We tip the scales by standing our ground. In the letdown of our opposition, which I believe is inevitable, a few will join us and then we right the ship.
Don’t underestimate a committed cause. It cuts both ways, but reality will expose delusion.
Stand your ground, speak your voice, recommit to goodness.
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Photo credit: Pixabay
A major part of the results of this election that for obvious reasons is being ignored and that is the media. What came out loud and clear is that America found out how corrupt and dishonest the media is and has been. They have discovered how the main stream media, liberal media attempted to steer the election. Their egos got the best of them. Americans wanted to be provided with information that would help them make an “educated” vote but instead were given trash talk, National Enquirer level news. As a Republican, I will be honest, if it had been… Read more »
I have to say that I am neither relieved nor disappointed. But – the country decided to vote for honesty and reality rather than subversion, coercion and politics as usual. Why? there are real problems to solve and the government isn’t a solution. And as an educated professional – please quit calling this a democracy. Democracy is another word for mob rule – this is a republic. It works and it did work. The government on every level has ceased to be effective – local, state and nationally. Why not make it the way it was intended? When only real… Read more »
Everything you are feeling here, I’ve felt from the left, including my own heritage being diminished and dismissed, threats to my family when I was active that force me to go underground for their sake. Each and every statement, argument, contention are familiar to me, but from the opposite side of the isle. There is no one clean in all this. There are good and bad in this nation. We all know who each are and it is up to the good men and women to not see this as defeat but opportunity to change the course of our nation,… Read more »
Thumbs up to you DJ
Thank you for this post. Now those of us who oppose racism, sexism and all the other prejudices have to stand up for our brothers and sisters. We have to oppose intolerance more loudly and forcefully than ever before. We can no longer be complacent.
But we have to stop redefining racism and make sexism an all inclusive issue and by all means quit falsely labeling people or even better, using labels.
Keep believing. Despite being Welsh, having seen Brexit happen for Britain and being back visiting there in June while it all happened (I’ve lived abroad for 7 years), it was like losing a relative at the time and put my thoughts f returning back there soon in big doubt. The same again yesterday with the news from Washington. The conscious world is all hurting for what’s going on this year both in Britain and the US. It is because we do care. All the people who throw vitriol and hate are the ones who don’t look past their own noses… Read more »