This is Our America Now. Own it.
If you’re looking for someone to blame, look no further
In the waning hours of last night’s historic election, I witnessed a lot of fear. My social media feed is overwhelmingly liberal and college educated and likely more comprised of minorities than average. It’s also comprised of many “millennials” who, for all our positives in empathy, sense of social justice and willingness to share with strangers, also tend to be hyper-reactionary, both in times of good and bad. Unlike a majority of my circles, however, I also enjoy reading viewpoints from both sides. As Sun Tzu says, he who knows his adversary, like he knows himself will not fear the outcome of the battle.
Across no less than 6 group chats, a Facebook scroll, Twitter feed, Periscope and Purple, I followed both sides of the election intently. My friends and family in particular, went from comically musing about the unlikelihood of a Trump Presidency, to the shock and horror when key states swung Red and then to dejection and resignation when we realized Trump would win and the social and economic progresses Clinton and her party had fought for would likely be left unfulfilled.
Let me start by saying, these fears, are not unjustified.
Trump dug into America’s base tribalism, a silent majority disdain for “otherness” to propel his candidacy. Racism, both implicit and explicit, xenophobia, homophobia, and much worse have been the hallmarks of a 2 year campaign to “take the country back”.
Most days in my New York City bubble, I forget that I’m not white. Tonight, looking out at the sea of Red Hats at Trump’s victory rally and more keenly, at the faces under them, I was abruptly reminded of my own color. I was reminded that I, as a socially-liberal, fiscally right-of-center Indian immigrant, am, in fact, not white. And that someone in that crowd might want to take this country “back” from me and my family. And that I don’t know what the extent of that reclamation might be. And that I’m not sure if anyone in a Red Hat will stand with me or speak for me when they try.
I know it’s unfair to paint all Trump supporters with a broad brush. I know this election hinged on issues beyond race – mainly economic class and federal government dysfunction. I know not every Trump voter is a bigot – some, I assume, are good people. But millions of people — Muslims, Hispanics, gays, lesbians, trans-people, women share my very same fear. We don’t share the average Red Hat’s privilege and are now reminded of our “otherness”. These anxieties won’t be assuaged overnight.
When I started writing this bit of catharsis at 4AM last night, right here is where I had planned to stop. But then something worse happened:
Fear turned to finger pointing and some very smart people started saying some very dumb things.
I began to see flurries of tweets and posts blaming white men from the Rust Belt, lower socioeconomic class, uneducated Midwesterners, and so on. You know, all those hillbilly Trump stereotypes you have in your head. They blamed Russian hacking, the electoral college, James Comey, unconverted-Bernie supporters, Stein supporters, Johnson supporters and anyone they could get their hands on.
Doesn’t matter how accurate or inaccurate the claims – it’s now Democrats surrendering to baser instincts. This frustrated me in a way I hadn’t imagined it would. What good is an education if you make the same mistakes as the people you chastise – if you understand nothing about people outside your own echo chamber and instead try to lay blame on “the other”. The stupidity of tribalism cuts both way.
Trump won by tapping into a portion of the populace the wanted to believe that their problems were not their own. They wanted to blame someone else instead of stepping back to assess the real culprit in the situation. It’s so much easier go circumvent your own cognitive dissonance than to take the time to assess where you might have failed. Moreover, if you only listen to the people in your social media bubble, you’ll routinely be surprised by how few actual people actually share your view.
If you fall prey to fear and finger pointing instead of trying to understand the fears of the people you villainize, you’re a victim of your own hypocrisy.
The people that swung this election felt disenfranchised. They felt their way of life was threatened. It doesn’t matter if on a statistical scale, they were better off than any generation previously. They felt voiceless. Someone gave a face and a voice to their fears. So they voted. So they won. This is Democracy. Sometimes the other side wins.
We coastal educated “elites” ignored their fears. We downplayed them in the face of a changing electoral landscape. We didn’t try to understand their fears and now we must work ever harder to help them understand ours. We all did this. I won’t be blameless. Ever time I muted or hid a non-troll Trump supporter on Facebook or Twitter I walled myself in even further.
But I want to do better. I plan to listen more. To affect passion with reason and actively engage with more people who disagree with me. It’s not true progress unless you can positively impact the hearts and minds of people who feel adversely affected. It’s not going to be easy. Actually, it’s going to be really fucking hard.
But this is our America now. We have to own that.
We have to do better.
And if you’re looking for hope, look no further than Aaron Sorkin’s Will McAvoy. If you’ve never seen it, watch it all the away through. I promise it’s worth it.
If you have, watch it again. It’s beautiful, poetic and good for our collective soul.
