It’s the day after the United States of America elected Donald J Trump President, once again. Fitting; that the sun didn’t come up this morning. Instead, it was a steady gray rain. Like many millions of Americans, I can’t process the election results, yet. But there are some “rules” that might help all of us.
1. Don’t be embarrassed. We lost; we lost when we HAD to win, we lost when we believed (and still believe) democracy is on the line. But it wasn’t from being lazy, and it wasn’t from some failure in the campaigns. Our brother and sister Americans who voted for Trump absolutely see something completely different than we do. That’s just what it is.
2. Hold you head up high. You did all you could do.
3. Don’t judge. I’ve heard it already: it’s because she was a woman, or Progressives had too much to say in policy, or we defended the LGBTQ too much, or Democrats must completely start over. Most of that is, what the kids call, “BS”. We are far too close to the “scene of the crime” to have any perspective on what happened. Wednesday morning “Quarterbacks” aren’t playing on Tuesday night for a reason.
4. Stop listening to Kornacki. And don’t hate him either. He is only the messenger. He just reads the stats, he doesn’t make them.
5. Don’t leave the country. You’ll still be an American, whether you live in Costa Rica or Canada or Portugal. Leaving the country won’t change your heart. It will just take away your power to make a difference.
6. Don’t drink to excess. Take it from me, the news is even worse when you’re hungover.
7. Gird yourself for the future. First, do what you need to do to protect yourself and your family; legally, emotionally and financially. Start small with that. More global issues come later.
8. It’s too soon to “Resist” again, but we can’t wait for a “White Knight” to come to our rescue. That’s what they do. Besides, as President Kennedy said: “let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”
We aren’t leading, yet, but we will again. Saving Democracy is truly our own task now.
great commentary, as always.
The Dems need to do some serious soul-searching. They really have no one but themselves to blame. They screwed this up 9 ways to Sunday. They need to take a long hard look in the mirror. They need to stop drinking their own Kool Aid. They need to stop looking down there noses at those who are on “the other side” as “deplorable”, “garbage,” “racists” or “fascists.” And they need to take a real look at the direction of the electorate. They can’t blame this one on the Electoral College. The winds have shifted. If you keep going in the same direction, it is going to get worse, not better.
Look no further than Ohio. They actually ran ads PROMOTING Bernie Moreno b/f the Republican primaries, b/c that is the candidate they thought they had the best chance of beating. Very effective, but completely deceiving ads. So they got the candidate they wanted to run against. How did that work out for them? We end up losing a really decent, qualified, honorable man as our Senator. Brown’s politics are a little to the left of me, but he has been an exemplary Senator for Ohio.
I say “they” throughout this post, but I really should be saying “we”, as I now identify more closely with the Democratic party than the Republican party. I voted Dem for President, Senate, & House. I voted Dem for 2 OH Supreme Court nominees. I have voted not voted for the Republican Presidential nominee in the last 3 presidential election cycles. I voted for Issue 1. My downballot votes are split almost exactly 50/50.