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| White house is so small and lacks gold plating. Sad. |
Well, 47% of America, you finally did it. After President Bush led our country to the cliff's edge of economic ruin, Barack Obama and his administration sucked it up, got us back on the road, and had us going the right way, albeit slower than we'd like in many places. And now, when you had the chance to keep going in that right direction, you decided instead to throw caution in the wind and swerve right off towards another cliff, this time one hanging over a terrible whirlpool of white supremacy, anti-semitism, international pariah status, and possibly worse.
This post isn't to litigate the election, to put blame on anyone (believe me, there is plenty to go around to all but basically women of color, who did their damnest to keep us on the right track).
I'm not here to point out that Clinton has won, and will end up winning, more votes than Donald Trump. I'm not here to complain about Wikileaks and Russia basically messing with our election process, with some assistance from a thoroughly incompetent (or worse) FBI Director.
I also won't be discussing the rumors of Trump's cabinet picks, all of which rank from awful (Rudy Giuliani) to worse (John Bolton). Nor will I talk about how he won votes saying he'd "drain the swamp", while he proceeds to refill it with raw sewage mixed with radioactive waste. I won't even get into the clearly obvious voter suppression which had a major effect in several swing states (particularly WI and NC). Hell, I won't even spend much time on the pandering to the white nationalists, so that such wonderful organizations like Stormfront and the KKK became fans of our President elect.
No my focus is one very big reason why so many of us are disgusted by this election result. This is not a normal thing, and we should not normalize it. While I accept that Trump won the election as per the Constitutional rules, I do refuse to "unify" behind a man so thoroughly corrupt and incompetent as Donald Trump.
This has nothing to do with him being the Republican candidate. Had John McCain won in 2008, or Mitt Romney in 2016, I would have accepted their victory and given them the benefit of the doubt. Had pretty much every candidate who Trump bested in the Republican primary won the nomination, and beat Clinton in the general election, I too would have accepted the result and given them all a fair chance. I'd be pretty wary now that they controlled all of the levers of government, and somewhat bitter that they had successfully stolen a supreme court appointment from a sitting President, but I could have moved on to mere typical opposition. Most (but not all) of the Republican candidates were serious people.
The President of the United States must be a serious person. That doesn't mean they can't have a sense of humor, or must be stern and stoic at all times. It means they must show a serious to the job, and understanding of the stakes and the importance. This is more than some ceremonial position where you get to fly around and sell your "brand". The President of the United States has incredible (although not unlimited) powers and responsibilities. Thousands, if not millions, of lives can be in jeopardy if a President makes a wrong decision.
Think back through American history and try to picture Donald Trump as President. How does he handle the firing on Fort Sumter, or the Great Strike of 1877? How does he deal with the Nullification Crisis, or Influenza epidemic of 1919? What about the stock market crash of 1929, or the much more recent collapse of 2008? What happens if another 9/11 happens, or another Hurricane Katrina? Forgetting all of that, what if the New Madrid fault goes off, demolishing Memphis, decimating St. Louis, and causing a massive supply problem as truck, rail, and barge traffic would be very disrupted for weeks, if not months? How would Trump deal with a intricate, brittle diplomatic situation like the Cuban Missile Crisis? It's entirely possible similar situations could come up during his Presidency, considering they all happened before during a previous President's administration.
Forgot the momentous events, what about the mundane parts of being a President. 95% of the job is being in boring meetings about minute policy details, or reading highly intense security or intelligence briefs, or gritting your teeth and smiling for pictures with some egotistical asshole just because he's a major diplomat, an important businessman, or even your successor. Throughout the campaign there have been plenty of stories about how Trump bores easily with the busy work of a campaign. If he can't keep interested during a campaign, how can he be expected to handle drinking from the fire hose of the Oval Office? He hates being away from his home in New York, how will he handle living in the White House?
I know what some of you are thinking "but Andrew he has staff. He'll delegate, like the great businessman he is".
Well, putting aside the fact that his acumen as a business man is not a sure thing, he doesn't seem to have an understanding of the scope of the job. Were you aware that he and his staff didn't realize that they have to build their own team in the West Wing? Yep, they assumed the staff was a hold over, like the civil service workers in the government departments. So even if he has the understanding of when exactly to delegate, there's no guarantee they'll understand what to do either.
We had a chance to elect a flawed but competent, experienced woman who has served her country for almost fifty years. While not a born campaigner, she swallowed so much hatred and vitriol and kept going. She would have been an excellent fit for dealing with the mundane and banal tasks that truly make up the presidency. Millions of Americans would have benefited from her marginal, cautious, and incremental fixes. While hamstrung by a hostile Congress, she'd still be working on fighting climate change, rather than putting in place a man who denies it even exists.
Instead we elected a snake oil salesman* who refuses to put his business interests in a true blind trust, instead having his children run it while also requesting they be given security clearances, a clear conflict of interest. This is a kakistocracy, a kleptocracy in the making. At best we'll have a Republican civil war, as Congress spars with an unpredictable President who changes his mind at a whim and scares the crap out of us all, including the billions of people who couldn't vote for him but are affected by the global power of the United States. At worst we're looking at an actual civil war, or some god-awful global conflict, or a complete collapse of the economy.
There is no longer a bottom in American politics, and that is a truly scary thing. I suppose I should have known that most people don't think as much about their vote as this. I just thought enough took this seriously. A poll showed that one out of five voters who didn't think Trump was qualified for the job still voted for him. This means they were either unreconstructed Bernie Bros pissed at Clinton winning the nomination, people voting for Trump because of a laugh, or people who just really hated that Hillary Clinton's voice and didn't think through the consequences.
Yes, not every body who voted for Trump is racist. The racial makeup of Trump's campaign, and how we react to it, is much more nuanced than that for many, heck, most of his supporters. In large part they voted for Trump because they felt their concerns weren't being heard.
And yes, there is some truth to that, but you know what? That just means that the "forgotten" white middle class of the Midwest and Upper South are like so many groups that could be hurt by a Trump presidency. In a union? Congratulations, you just voted for a man who is thoroughly anti-union. Young American citizens are afraid Trump is going to deport them and their parents, while muslims (and Sikhs, who are victims of true ignorance) have to weigh their personal safety with keeping to their religious beliefs. Black people are wary of Trump, worried that all of the gains they've made since the beginning of the civil rights movement will be swept away as we enter the Second "Redemption"*. Sure, Trump says he's "fine with gay marriage", but he has railed against it in his rallies, as well as against treating transgender Americans as if they are humans worthy of respect. Ir also doesn't help that his Vice President will be a man who not only believes that conversion therapy is effective, but also believes the state should foot the bill for it.
And oh yeah, we're replacing a President who leaves with an economy that's no longer in the hole caused by the Great Recession, who will leave office neither hobbled, mentally disabled, or racked with scandal. Barack Obama brought honor and respect back to America both here and abroad, and did it all with a whole heap of nasty shit thrown his way. He did it with Republicans refusing to help him out at almost every turn. He did it with a rabid and cynical gang of Fox News and talk radio attack dogs trying to delegitimize his presidency with the scurrilous rumor that he was not born in the United States. Despite that being the truth, and most Americans accepting that solid and unimpeachable fact, 47% of all Americans, a majority of the electoral college, decided to give the most well known "birther" of the bunch the white house. I was so proud of how the President handled meeting with Trump with a grace and respect that I'm certain I couldn't have mustered. He even is going to help give Trump some remedial assistance, in a likely futile effort to minimize the damage.
On January 20, 2017, one of the best Presidents in recent times will be replaced by an unknown quantity. I hope I am dead wrong, and maybe Trump will surprise us all. I expect, however, that this will not be the case and will prepare accordingly. If you thought you weren't being heard, I guarantee you're heard loud and clear now. For my part, I'm going to be trying to escape my bubble and listen to more diverse points of view. Without compromising my principles, I will do my best to understand where you are coming from, and we hopefully can find some common ground as we head towards the 2018 midterms, and beyond. With luck we'll get out of this without too much damage, but if we have to rebuild the New Deal, restore our national parks, and regain the trust of the rest of the world, we can do it. Perhaps after two years of a mixed (or Democratic controlled) Congress, on January 20, 2021 we'll see a President who we all can be proud of.
Until then, I will remain dejected and apprehensive, but also defiant and resolved in my course and conscience. Never again will I be so complacent and naive to believe that just because what I see is obvious isn't necessarily so to other people. With that I leave with a few quotes that seem appropriate given the current circumstances:
"They kilt us but they ain't whupped us yit"
- William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (By way of Tim Kaine)
"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
- H. L. Mencken
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
- Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
"With reasonable men I will reason, with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost."
- William Lloyd Garrison* Only the best snake oil, I promise. Even crooked Hillary loves my snake oil. It's Yooge in the United States. Yoooge.
**Read up on Reconstruction and the first "redemption" and disabuse yourself of the notion that we are always on a path to ever greater civil rights.
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