A Reckoning

I’ve known Trump was going to win for about a month. I can’t tell you why I knew this; it was just a feeling I had. I was still hopeful, but I knew my hope was irrational. I was trying to prepare myself mentally. I didn’t want to go through how I felt in 2016 again; crushed, devastated, furious at everyone that wouldn’t vote for Clinton because she was a woman, whether they recognized that or not.

In the past couple of days I’ve been thinking about the first presidential election I voted in, McGovern vs Nixon in 1972. When McGovern lost, and lost so profoundly and thoroughly (Nixon got 60% of the popular vote, and McGovern won only one state) I was shocked. I lived in a little hippie bubble, and although I knew that not everyone thought the hippies were great, I still thought most people knew we were all about peace and love and against the war and who would disagree with that? Most people, apparently.

Since that time I’ve grown up a lot, of course. But in some ways part of my brain is still in that bubble, and so are the brains of a lot of other liberal/progressive folks. I’ve been condescending about Trump voters, and so have you. I’ve thought they were ill informed, uneducated, brainwashed even. I’ve thought they were bigoted, xenophobic, angry. Either that or rich, typical Republicans that only care about their taxes.

So I need to stop that, and if any of this seems familiar, so do you. Trump voters are my neighbors, and indeed some of them are my friends. I’m going to throw away my old assumptions and be genuinely interested in what they think and why they voted the way they did. 

Does this mean that I’m going to try to find something to like about Trump? OH.HELL.NO. I think that HE is a despicable human being that only cares about himself and doesn’t give a shit for the people that voted for him, or anybody else for that matter. But just because I dislike him, doesn’t mean that I dislike his voters, if I look at them as individuals and not as a raucous mob at one of his rallies. That’s what we want them to do when they talk about liberals, don’t we? So let us be an example.

This doesn’t mean I’m going to throw in the towel on issues I care about. Abortion. Undocumented people and reforming the immigration system. Mass incarceration. Gun control. Etc. Etc. But I’m going to be looking at the big picture differently, at least for awhile.

This doesn’t mean either that I’m not worried about our democracy. It’s never good when one party holds all the branches of government. That’s where things can go really amuck. 

On the local level, however, I’m grateful to live in Minnesota, which is still a reliably blue state, and where the voters in Shorewood, the small suburban town on the outskirts of Minneapolis where I live, have voted in some fresh blood on the city council which will hopefully loosen the hold of the good old boys network that has run this town for too many years. I’m looking for some positives, and this is one! Even the crank that ran for mayor, although he didn’t win, and I didn’t vote for him, made a strong showing, so the current mayor has been given a wakeup call. Time to focus on local issues for a while.

And personally like a lot of people, I’m going to be working on self care this week. A lingering knot in my stomach? Go for a run, take a pilates class, play with my grandsons. A lump in my throat? Take a shower and cry, go for a walk in the brisk fall air. A piece of news that makes my heart sink? Write a letter to my congressman, vote when I can, write.

We will get through this. People are already saying that Harris’ slogan was too weak and nebulous. I disagree. I knew exactly what it means, and I still believe it. Come what may, we are NOT going back. We.Are.Not.