11/7/24

CATASTROPHE!
The election wasn’t our fault.
What we do about it will be

 I WISH I HAD THE ANSWERS.
     Just a couple would do.
     One insight or two into why Trump won and won so big.
     A few profound ideas about what we, the losers, can do.
     But like Trump himself, the election is a hideous mystery.
     That our friends, neighbors could willingly, purposefully, thoughtfully, soberly and deliberately push the country over the cliff into autocracy and chaos is, and always will be, baffling.
     As I write this, I’m still in shock. When I woke up the day after the election, I was amazed that I could still breathe in and out, that my heart continued to beat and my eyes blinked.
     So, still dazed, these are my thoughts after talking with my wife and hearing from faraway friends, their dear voices so welcome and comforting just to hear.
     I outline a few ideas in the first person, because I feel unworthy and unequipped to write a prescription for anyone else. Maybe you’ll find these useful, if only to advance  your thinking.

 ABOVE ALL, I MUST BE KIND. If a driver is trying to pull out of a side street, I must stop to let him in. If there’s somebody struggling for exact change at the checkout, I need to be patient. If I pass someone on a sidewalk, smile. Hold the door. Pick up the stray candy wrapper.
     If I want the Next America to be more humane, I have to act that way. Instead of being a scowling, grumpy, self-centered creature, I’m pledged to at least try to do the kind thing.
     It will be important to remember the beauty and wonder of America – its astonishing landscapes, and its inspired creative and cultural energy.
     I want especially to be kind to Kamala Harris and the Democrats.
     The virulent post-election Blame-A-Thon now underway is unseemly and unfair. Harris ran a robust, brilliant campaign that culminated in her devastating trouncing Trump in their one TV debate.
     Her mastery of the mechanics, decision-making and rhetoric of the campaign in the short, crisis-driven campaign showed that she was absolutely qualified for the presidency.
     Her loss was far more than a lost chance to banish the evil of Donald Trump. It squandered a rare opportunity for a the nation to enlist a capable, even great president.
     To beat up on Joe Biden, or find fault with Harris’s failure to “understand” the economic pain purportedly felt by the Trump voters, is unnecessarily wasteful and cruel.
     The scope and depth of the voters’ embrace of Donald Trump is as bewildering as it is grotesque.

 I’M ANGRY AND MUST STAY ANGRY.
     The Trump voters – every single one of them – are betrayers not just of democracy, but decency.
     They have a lot to answer for.
     They endorsed racism, nativism, corruption, criminality, cruelty and sexism.
     The big Trump policies will include massive deportation of immigrants, which will ruin lives, imperil the economy and set the stage for attacks on many other groups and lead to an eventual turnback of civil rights.
     One half the population – women – will be recommitted to second-class citizenship, not just in terms of healthcare, but in every sector of society.
     Climate change will continue to imperil the planet and all of us who live here.
     The economy – the supposed excuse for voting for Trump – will weaken and become more unfair, with all of us “little people” imperiled on a bipartisan basis.
     Every aspect of American life will be worse under President Trump than it would have been under President Harris.
     What Trump voters have done to us, in other words, is unforgivable and must never be excused or rationalized.

EVERY DAY WILL PRESENT CHOICES. I must make the right one every time.
     Do I speak out?
     Join this group?
     Donate money?
     Let this car in line?
     Subscribe to this newspaper?
     Follow this podcast?
     Buy from this company?
     Pick up that stray candy wrapper?

 ACKNOWLEDGE THE CATASTROPHE
     I know enough about myself that I will want it all to go away, that I’ll wear out, become exhausted, frightened, and weary of what it will take to get the country back on course.
     The only certainty of the next four years is that every aspect of American life will be worse – far worse – than we expect, mirroring the astonishingly breadth the election itself.
     The first attack will be on free speech and free assembly. Trump will wage war on all media; he will criminalize demonstrations; he will turn the national security apparatus against all citizens.
     I must pay attention, and respond individually, and participate collectively, to counter every assault on the First Amendment. A big part of what otherwise should be “charitable” donations will go to individual media and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.
     The ultimate agenda is breathtaking, because the election was so sweeping, and because Trump’s appetite for malice is so vast.
     I don’t know whether I’ll be up to the challenge, only that I want to be.