Where do we go from here?
We don’t know what a Donald Trump presidency will look like, exactly. The markets are telling us what they think:
This could quickly correct, but who knows? After all, the reason the markets are jittery is because Trump isn’t predictable. If he validates that feeling by walking back trade deals, blocking immigration, stunting wages or inviting criticism from international human rights organizations, then investor confidence will stay on the fritz.
What I’m more concerned about is our ability to be decent to each other. As Mother Jones reported in an investigation into America’s alternative right, the rise of Trump has given white nationalists a voice. “The success of the Trump campaign just proves that our views resonate with millions,” said a spokeswoman for a white power organization. “They may not be ready for the Ku Klux Klan yet, but as anti-white hatred escalates, they will.”
If you’ve never seen what indecency looks like, here’s a video that went viral yesterday:
This isn’t as isolated as some of the Trump supporters I’ve talked to would suggest. I grew up in Portage County, Ohio, where the word “nigger” is gleefully tossed around by white men with confederate flag bumper stickers and guns in their pickups. That doesn’t make them automatically bad people—I know them well enough to know it’s more complicated than that. But they’re provincial and intolerant, and the election results prove they’re more than just a loud minority. On the contrary, they’re a majority with a mandate in the White House, Congress and, pretty soon, the Supreme Court.
So that’s where we’re at. What do we do about it?
Start with some basic questions. Was this the inevitable result of globalization, or have we done something wrong collectively? Have we done a poor job of sensitizing the white working class to the humanity and struggles of persecuted groups? If these white workers—think coal country union members, formerly left-leaning—feel so disenfranchised, then what, if anything, has the Democratic Party done to lose them?
Those are big, structural questions for the party leaders and political philosophers. I’m also interested in what we should be doing on the individual level. “Love trumps hate.” That was the Clinton rallying cry. But clearly that’s not true in America in 2016.
Glenn Fleishman is an American journalist I admire. When it seemed certain that Trump would win, he dashed off a series of three tweets that brought home the reality of this situation.
But then look at his conclusion.
I’m not sure if he meant that as a hopeful message, but it seemed that way to me. It suggests that there’s a pathway to better governance just by putting out a hand to somebody.
To believe this you have to believe people can change. It has happened. Take Derek Black, whose family is prominent in the white power movement. His godfather is a KKK leader. But, as Eli Saslow reported for The Washington Post, even Black turned a 180 on his racist beliefs the minute he started having weekly meals with a Jewish guy.
None of this will erase the inevitable global damage of a Trump presidency, but at least it’s a way to build a foundation for moving forward.
My daughter is only 7 months old. The way I see it, we can still salvage this. We’ll spend the next weeks and months talking about how. But the first step is to believe it’s possible.
