Wide Awake in 2016

I awoke yesterday morning to find myself in a state of shock. I did not expect this outcome, and I’m certainly not alone in that. From what I hear, even those within the Trump inner circle were surprised by how things turned out. He defied political gravity.

What now? In terms of policy, who knows? He is a chameleon. Will he be a hard-line conservative ideologue? Probably not. Will he be able to actually get things done in a bipartisan way? Maybe on some issues. Maybe. In any case, we will get policy proposals that serve to bolster his fragile ego, which is what matters most to him. They will flip-flop, and be blown hither and yon by the fickle fragility of his narcissism. Of that, I am certain.

To be honest, that’s not my main concern right now. The portion of his supporters that belong in Hillary’s basket of deplorables will remain there. These are the hardcore racists, the white nationalists, the misogynists, the haters. The rest of his voters, who may have voted for him hesitantly, have (intentionally or not) legitimized and given sanction to the worst of the lot.  They themselves might not be card-carrying members of the KKK, but they are shoulder-to-shoulder cozy now with those who are.

To them, Trump’s hateful behavior was unfortunate, but not a deal-breaker. They will tolerate it. That, I suppose, is what bothers me. They seem willing to throw their daughters under the Access Hollywood bus. They seem to turn a blind eye to his words about veterans, all the while furiously waving the flag. They are quick to abandon what they claim are their Christian principles and sell out to a greedy rich man with the best camels,  and the shiniest, gaudiest golden needles (see Matthew 19:24), the embodiment of hubris.  Christian principles, it seems, are very selective and mostly have to do with refusing to bake cakes.

What has emerged most clearly from this election is the fact that we have not made as much progress as we perhaps believed. Racism has made a roaring comeback, and don’t you dare tell me that this has nothing to do with our first black president. Misogyny has come back out in the open. The patriarchy is alive and well, and a new generation of young women who thought that feminism was irrelevant are realizing that their mothers and grandmothers aren’t so out of date as they previously thought in spite of their sensible shoes and pantsuits. The Religious Right has shown itself to be what it really was all along: a vehicle for channelling hatred and hypocrisy while ignoring all those pesky verses about loving thy neighbor.

We see clearly now. The scales have fallen from our eyes.

For now, let us tend to our own. Parading in the streets with hand painted signs chanting anti-Trump slogans might make you feel better, but they won’t help much at the moment.  2020 will be here soon enough. In the meantime, what can you do? Reach out to those in your circle who might be feeling vulnerable right now. This includes pretty much anyone who isn’t a straight white Christian adult male. Speak up for them. Donate to organizations that do good work on the ground, in communities.

Most especially, be very awake to the fact that a large portion of our country is willing to go along with the level of hatred, misogyny and bigotry shown by the president-elect. Be awake to that. Never forget. It is the ultimate lesson of 2016.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, but that arc is long. It is longer than our lifetime. It stretches deep into our history, and reaches generations into the future. We have come far as a nation, but there is clearly a long way to go.