Practice Love to Trump Hate
How the practice of love and hate played a role in the election.
Most people are aware of the saying “practice makes perfect”. But did you know we can practice an perfect emotions and how to show them and whom to show them towards? Take this last sentence, throw in a red elephant and a blue donkey and you have got modern day social politics. One cannot really go around for a while these days without hearing about or seeing Donald Trump’s face. During the election, this was not just involving Trump, but Hillary as well. The difference with this election, though, was that a good chunk of people found so many things wrong with both candidates, that they voted for one out of hate for the other.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign focused around practicing love and showed it in slogans, speeches, and signs. One of the main slogans she used was “Love Trumps Hate”. Much of her message that she put out was love for people who are marginalized: the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and women. She portrayed in that slogan that the love that one practices and puts out in the world overcomes the hate that others will project.
Much of Trump’s campaign was focused on making sure Americans come first, building a wall and enforcing a ban to keep non-Americans and “potential threats” out, and making American “great” again by following through with the first two things. However, to go through with the first two things he must continue, acknowledge, and practice imperialism and racism while ignoring classism. He also willingly practices sexism as a way to attract certain audiences/voters, even the ones he is belittling. To achieve what he wants, and apparently what America wants, he has to practice and act out hate for certain races, cultures, genders, and the people who embodied them.
“A culture of domination is anti-love,” writes bell hooks in her article “Love as the Practice of Freedom”. America, for as long as its history runs, has practiced domination and dominating opposing cultures and people standing in its way of being the greatest country on Earth. First, white men overtook the land that was previously inhabited and cared for by Native Americans. From then on, American government has practiced domination and hate towards other countries and groups, much of the time this has resulted in wars and domestic, tragic social issues. Trump has not only continued this practice, but in fact intensified it and brought it out from under its deep rock. After the election, people spray painted swastikas, wrote on social media that “terrorists” and “illegals” were out of luck, and committed numerous hate crimes and those doing it were people that wanted to prove their superiority and domination over the groups now being targeted.
Love was becoming a practice across the United States that was picking up speed and followers. Gay marriage was legalized across the States, Healthcare was becoming available for nearly everyone, and the social projects promoted and carried out by the Obamas to spread love and help others were becoming popularized. The hate was kept fairly quiet. Hillary aimed to continue this trend, however, she was targeted. Many claim it was because she was a woman that she became a target for the press with her questionable actions and tactics. Whether it was because of that or not, the hate yet again began to flow with a vengeance. Trump called her a “nasty woman” and used her gender against her, a sexist tactic. Everyone knows where that led.
bell hooks states that love is a way to free ourselves and others from the grasps of hate and the effects it has had on society and people. Hate has caused people to feel afraid, unimportant, and trapped. As previously stated, the shenanigans that took place after the campaign caused people of color and different cultures to feel as if they could not leave their houses in fear of violence. The amount of calls to mental health hotlines spiked because people were in fear of the hate they would receive and what was now normalized. A march against the Muslim Ban at the University of California, Riverside took place with a sacred Muslim prayer led students. This was soon met with a man chanting “USA, USA”. But the people leading the prayer met it with “Don’t worry. Don’t go after him, it’s okay. He will learn to accept it and love on his own terms.” I can’t recall a time when I felt an unimaginable sense of respect for someone as I had in that moment. He met the hate with love and it had an impact like no other on the people participating.
Throughout the campaigns, both candidates took what they had practiced and used it to their advantage or disadvantage. It was obvious what each had chosen. In the end, hate seemed to be the winner, but honestly, I strongly believe people are challenged to think of a time when people have been more active in fighting for their community, justice, equity, peace, and love. While it was true that hate ran strong in the veins of the United States in a sense of domination and supremacy, it is also true that love has been brought to a new high in practice.
The marches, the protests are all active practice of fighting hate with love and liberating those chained by the hate, as bell hooks states. Those who felt afraid and chained to their homes out of fear of violence if they left. Those who felt unsafe in their own schools and neighborhoods because the hate towards their races and cultures was something that was now “okay”. Those who felt victimized and crushed by the words spat at them by others devaluing them for their gender. They are all tied down by the hate they are experiencing because people have practiced it towards their communities. Love is the answer to liberate and free these people of their fear and worries for their own lives and worth. It is time for us all to keep in mind that Love Trumps Hate, but more importantly to practice what you preach. Love.
