Well, it happened today. Donald J. Trump became our President. Winning 70,00 votes from three states gave him the needed electoral college votes to win the Presidency. Hillary Clinton had two million more votes from the citizens. So not a great reflection of democracy in action. If you add in the concerns of Russian hacking and James Comey role in the FBI it is difficult not to be discouraged. As former President Obama said, “democracy is messy.” It is not a perfect system.
Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating at the start of his Presidency since they have begun keeping records about 70 years ago.
Isolationism, protectionism, a desire to return America to the time in the world just after WW2 where the US saw unparalleled growth and domination in a global economy for 30 years. It made jobs and health care benefits plentiful and easy to afford. We thought it would go on forever. But as we grew economically and the technology revolution changed the nature of many industries the modern economy underwent another industrial revolution that changed the world economy.
It brought great opportunity and great dislocation. It became more interdependent. We began living in a more diverse and multicultural economy through globalization. And that is where we are today. We need to consider that when one country can do well all countries may benefit. We are all connected. For instance “good trade deals” should benefit both partners.
When President Trump speaks to his base he is expressing what many people feel who live outside of the big cities or those who are trapped in poverty in the inner cities. Pittsburg, PA is doing great—so is Madison, Wisconsin— cities just an hour away from Janesville and Reading. The economy is doing well with low unemployment and for those with the right skills tremendous opportunities are plentiful. Innovation and our “start up” economy are booming.
President Trump is not talking about the majority of Americans. In his inaugural address he said:
But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists. Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge. And the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
He creates the picture that this is the America we all live in. We don’t but it is a part of America that globalization has hurt and people there feel like they have been left out of the prosperity that much of the country is experiencing.
So tomorrow I will be in the Women’s March in San Francisco. I will be marching for a women’s right to choose, ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center; I will be marching for equal rights for all no matter of race, gender or sexual orientation, I will be marching to be sure my Muslim brothers and sister receive the respect and support they are entitled to as Americans, and I will be marching for Black Lives Matter and white American Christians who live in America’s second and third tier cities who need our help to rejoin a world that globalization has made them a casualty of. Because I know we are all in this together. Especially for the next four years.
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