I don’t remember ever being so afraid. You might want to skip this morning’s walk.
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I know several people who are kind and who support civil rights who I know voted for him. I’m talking about people I see up close and personal on at least a weekly basis. I can only imagine that they have focused in on a particular point that they hold dear and feel he is the one on their side. I know that I need to lighten my focus to see these people as the whole individuals that they are rather than just the one aspect of them that would make such a choice. I’m just saying that they are not like him or at least as he comes across. So, I feel hope about the voters for the most part. As for whether this atmosphere will now let up and whether our elected leader can lead is yet to be seen.
The systemic problems are the ones that worry me most because those are not being addressed.
You don’t worry alone.
I liked the little reference to the Hermit of Lammas Wood: Change Is Coming. I think you paused when you said that because you remembered writing it.
8 years ago those of us on the Right had to face that change. Now it happens to those of you on the Left. It’s natural to be afraid at such times.
I don’t know enough about you and your life to know if you’ve been living in a bubble – – many on the Left have been, purposely walling themselves off by blocking people on Facebook, Twitter and other social outlets who disagree with them.
As for the people who voted for Trump – – whose name, like Voldemort’s in the Harry Potter books, you seem unwilling to say – – many of the very same people voted for Obama in 2008: Obama wouldn’t have been elected without receiving a majority of white votes.
It’s possible you’ve forgotten how the Left reacted after Ronald Reagan was elected: terror that we would get into a nuclear war with the Soviets, terror that rights would be trampled. He did very little trampling, as it turned out. And, if we’re lucky, Trump won’t, either. Buck up.
With all due respect, Reagan did a fair amount of trampling. His (non) reaction to the gay community at the height of the AIDS epidemic was appalling.
I’m of the mind that there is no amount of respect too small for Ronald Reagan. We’ve been saddled with those stupid economic policies for waaaay, too long.
The difference between Reagan and Trump is that, above all, Trump has encouraged an attitude of rage and hatred towards the other (be it on racial, political or ethnic grounds). This will encourage the forces of fascism and intolerance around the world and who knows what will result. The voices of un-reason have loosened in a way that hasn’t been seen since the 1930s. I wish your country well – it needs all the luck it can get (very sad sigh). And so do the rest of us elsewhere in the world – Change is coming, but don’t bet your life on it being beneficial or even life-encouranging!
Nathan, my thoughts are with you and indeed ALL Americans.
This election result is scary for all of us around the world because of its potential to embolden the many forces for un-reason who demand easy answers for extremely complex questions.
Hopefully some reason and restraint will rule the day. We can only wait now and see what plays out in the short-term.
Since Mr Trump has held all sides of almost any issue over time, it’s hard to judge what he will try to do. Conversely, the Republican Party establishment has an fixed aversion to facts for almost any policy question. Faith based positions on social issues, I can understand, even if I don’t agree. Faith based economics or climate change policies, ignoring the facts, I don’t understand. Concentrating wealth as a matter of tax policy does not, in fact, “trickle down”, it sticks and stops at the upper income levels. Lots of data is available on this topic in published, reviewed studies.