Five years ago...
11 November 2021
Trump won. And I posted the following on Facebook. Excuse me, is it Meta, or Facebook now? I see one thing on TV and another online. Does it matter?
Quoting myself, from five years ago, only because now, after having lived through his presidency and looking at what I wrote then, I don't feel the need to change a word of what I said. The words ring true still, and if anything, it's even worse than we had feared then:
"I'm still angry, almost 72 hours after it became apparent Trump would win. I'm angry at the people who's vision of America is so radically different from mine. People voted for Trump for many different reasons. But there was one reason why no one should have voted for him: he finds it too easy to promote hate. Put aside for the moment the he finds it too easy to disrespect and denigrate people of color, people who may worship differently or not at all, or have a different sexual orientation. Put aside that with the same seed capital he was given by his family, a mutual fund would now be worth 10 times what he's worth. Put aside that he was quoted in a national TV interview (I saw it) as saying that if he were to run, he would run as a Republican because .."They're the dumbest group of voters in the country." That they, "..believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they'd eat it up." (and they did.).
As a New Yorker, I have watched Donald Trump for over 30 years. To 90% of us, he is as he has always been, 'the local billionaire buffoon,' an attention-starved narcissist, and a tasteless characterization of all that is wrong with American culture; its hedonism, materialism, its excess, just one more deviant from our core values. I would never have believed in a million years that a nation of people who, as a whole, have more to be thankful for, more freedom, and more economic and social opportunity than any nation on earth or any nation in the history of man, would be completely fooled by a man who appeals to our basest natures, who lives a life in direct opposition to Christian ethics conservatives so passionately claim directs their lives (where were they hiding during this election).
As this juncture, I fear for my freedom, I fear for the freedom of all of us, not just Muslims, gays and lesbians, Latinos, women, for the sick, for the poor, for our immigrant communities, all of whom should be treated with respect and dignity, and shown that we believe they, too, are just as American as anyone of us, and that we are valued for the things we can contribute to our society. I am afraid for the environment. I am afraid for the planet as those engaged in 'willful denialism' feel vindicated about global warming because a charlatan is now president of the United States.
I am afraid for my grandchildren, for the message that this election sends to them. That bullying is ok, that it's ok to hate blacks, that it's ok to treat girls as objects, transgender or gays as if they aren't human. I fear they will lose respect for the office of the President, and the government he represents, our government, that they will cease to believe that they can make a difference in the lives of their neighbors, family members and their community, that they will become more insular and less community-oriented because what they are trying to achieve is not valued by our leaders or a majority of the members of society.
Many people I know and respect voted for Donald Trump. I can understand that some people have problems with Hillary Clinton, and with Bill Clinton. I do too. I am angry with Hillary as well, for not being as open or as likeable as she needed to be so that people could get past her flaws to see that she was obviously the best qualified person to be our next President, on all counts. But, to vote for a man who is so clearly unqualified, who has so many personality disorders as to make him dangerous, who lives a life that, if it were a movie, you would walk out of the theater either laughing or sick to your stomach, leaves me thinking that I have been sucked through a vortex into some dystopian alternate reality, and landed in zero-star SciFi film.
Leaving the outright red necks, neo-Nazis, KKK types, and schizophrenics aside, I am trying to figure out what motivated people who, in all other respects seem to me to be rational, well-educated, friendly, kind and well-meaning family types, step into a voting booth and do something so contrary to everything we hold dear as a nation and a people. Ignorance? Greed? Fear of 'the other'?
This is why I don't feel like I want to be in the same room with you. I'm disappointed in you, and I'm tried of trying to understand why you did what you did, and why you felt it was ok to do it."