I am a Bi-Coastal Liberal Elite
And this election rocked me to the core, and here’s the thing… I’m thankful for it.
Goodness…
Is it too provocative to say that humanity’s philosophical, ethical and moral compasses are just spinning right now?
And I wouldn’t be too quick to judge whose compass is spinning which way.
I am the first to admit that if anyone falls under the category of a bi-coastal liberal elite, I probably would. I grew up in the East Coast, went to college in New England, worked in California and now live and work in New York City.
I have worked in both high technology and high finance. Silicon Valley and Wall Street. I attended an Ivy League school. I went to business school. Also Ivy League. Guilty as charged.
I am, by most measures, extremely privileged.
I voted for Hillary and I am admittedly deeply, troublingly disappointed in her loss.
But here’s the thing.
I am also now fully coming to terms as to why she lost.
This election shook my beliefs to the core. In many ways, it opened my eyes. To ugliness, yes. But ugliness on all sides. There are just as many liberals throwing verbal assaults as there are conservatives.
It’s also opened my eyes to indeed a bias in our media. Whether this is intentional or not, you can not make the predictions that were made with the outcome that has transpired and not call it some form of bias.
What’s more, it’s opened my eyes to the vast and complicated lattice that is human culture. Red vs Blue no longer does our humanity service although it seems we still manage to cling to these overly simplistic categories by default.
A life raft of identity in a see of uncertainty.
No, this election, while deeply troubling, has also given me a small glimpse into something else.
Perhaps, it was the realization that Glenn Beck, of former right-wing shock jock fame, now absurdly seems to be a voice of reason in many cases.
Perhaps, it’s the realization that while Hillary won the popular vote, 61 million people still voted for Trump.
Perhaps, it’s the fact that one of my coworkers is staunchly pro-Trump (or perhaps anti-Hillary) and is otherwise a seemingly caring, intelligent, educated and successful person.
Perhaps, it’s the fact that, yes, I myself have often joked at the expense of “fly-over country”. What with its so-called religious fanatics. Its country bumpkins. I am quite sure that if Hillary had won, I would have felt perfectly at peace continuing to make said jokes at the expense of approximately half of our nation’s population.
Well I joke no more. And in an unexpected way, I’m thankful for it.
As a minority and as a father, I for one, do not excuse anything that Trump has said, but that doesn’t mean I can’t seek to understand why his words have connected so deeply with so many.
Say what you will about the undercurrents, the rationales, the animal spirits.
Say what you will about the poor white folks. The uneducated straight white males. The white privilege card.
Say what you will. But not all of those 62 million were poor or white or straight.
So where does this lead me?
To do what would have once been anathema. To explore the other side. To read Bannon’s views, to read Breitbart. Not to accept all that I read, but neither to now accept all I read from the NY Times or the Washington Post. I will seek out more information over time from both the left and the right.
This election has forced me to become more critically thoughtful than I thought I already was. And in a lot of ways, it has added to my personal confusion. But that’s ok. We don’t need to always know the right answers, but we do need to know the right questions.
It has also forced me to be more empathetic. Mind you empathy is not equivalent to sympathy. I have no sympathy for the true racists that undoubtedly now feel vindicated. For those that harbor such real hatred, there is no real puzzle to solve for.
What I am more interested in are those millions that used Trump as their “human hand grenade”.
The millions who felt this was their last true hope and option to be heard.
Again, say what you will about the potential folly of this mentality, but, I personally, no longer find it so easy to dismiss the visceral reality of the emotion.
The greatest danger now is to dismiss it. Or to simply group it together with those whose hatred of the other is their only clear rationale. That is too simplistic, too clean and too naïve.
The reality here is that we are all wrong. And all right. And we are all to blame for what has happened and what will happen.
Furthermore, let’s be honest with ourselves.
Let’s be honest. If Hillary had won, half of our population (and arguably half the world’s population) would go on living as they have, deaf to the cries of those who were willing to risk it all on Trump.
Let’s be honest. Climate change is not going to change if we outsource it to our governments. It never was and it never will. No matter what happens in Paris. Hillary winning would have let us sit at ease and continue to live life as we were, content that someone else is “leading the charge.”
Let’s be honest. Racism exists, but so does classism and elitism. To focus on one but not the other only tells half of a very complicated story.
Let’s be honest. This was a wake-up call. A loud, rude, earth-shattering wake up call. I heard it. My head is still ringing.
So now what?
Find a silver lining. A trillion dollar stimulus. I would rather spend our money on that than on a six trillion dollar war. If there is a way to bring more jobs and more skills to the struggling towns in the Midwest, let’s do it while interest rates are low.
You can say what you will about technology, about the future and about progress but what is progress if we leave half of our fellow Americans behind?
What else do we need?
Vigilance. It’s a wake up call for all. We must now be vigilant and engaged to make sure we hold each other and those we elect accountable. Trump says he’ll bring “big league” jobs. He says he’ll bring the country together. As we have all seen, he says a whole lot of things. Now we all need to make sure he does it, especially those that voted for him.
In Wall Street parlance, this whole ordeal has a ridiculously high beta. The risk is off the charts. We are swimming with Black Swans. We are no longer in Kansas anymore. As such, everyone needs to be extra-fricking engaged. No sleeping at the wheel.
How do we stay engaged?
Protest if it helps you blow off some steam, but I don’t think that’s the best answer at the end of the day. Here’s what I think is the best answer.
Create.
It’s what we’ve always done. It’s what America has always done best. It’s what we need to do now, more than ever in our history.
When the infrastructure money runs out. We’ll have shiny bridges and freshly graveled roads. But then what?
When the government paychecks run out, then what?
When we are left to our own devices in our daily lives and as we peruse our plentiful media, then what?
We need to build, create, make our way out of this hole we have dug. And if Trump can kickstart it with this stimulus then so be it. But just like climate change, we will have hell to pay if we think someone else is going to fully solve this for us.
If anything at all is true about 2016, it is this: it brought the crisis home.
Right to our dinner tables. I’m sure this is painfully true for many who have politically divided Thanksgiving dinners coming up.
Don’t let the Turkey Tryptophan put you in a false sense of complacency.
If you agree the crisis has hit home, then embrace it. Internalize it. Transform it into creative energy and action.
Bring that energy to your family by empathizing with your relatives. You don’t need to agree but you need to understand where they are coming from. Their fears, their concerns, their viewpoints. That’s love. That’s family.
Bring that energy to your community. Make the community you thought you had and wish you had. It’s still there to be made. Bring schools together, bring parents together, bring politicians together. Bring them together by not succumbing to this option or that option. Dream up a third option. And then make it happen.
Bring that energy to your workplace. When we build together, we grow together, so build your company together. Strive for greater goals than just the bottom line.
The worst thing to do now is to drown yourself in consumptive distractions.
I know it’s hard, but when you start to create, even in small ways at first, you will realize that that has been the only real answer all along.
For those that feel your creative powers have been pushed down, drowned out and starved for resources, know that if you have access to the internet, you have a greater means to create than any human in centuries past. Make a video, draw a picture, write a poem, sing a song, build a prototype, write a spec, create a recipe, blow some glass, build a shed, print some t-shirts, make a birdfeeder, code a game, build some furniture… whatever it is, just make it.
Make, America. And Make It Together. It’s what truly made you great and the world needs it now more than ever.
Post-Script
From my limited perspective, if anything embodies the philosophy and culture we need now up and down the coasts and across America, it is the Maker Movement, the grassroots, DIY culture that is now spreading well beyond it’s initial origins in garages, backyards and labs.
My hope is that to all the struggling towns in our country right now, that each of you has a MakerSpace to call your own in the very near future. A place with woodcutters and tools alongside 3d printers and laser cutters. A space with laptops and handsaws. Rootkits and rocking chairs.
This won’t come with a Trump stimulus so build it now for your own sake. For your neighbor’s sake. Ignite the imagination that’s been lying dormant for decades.
Middle America may not have the financial, media and technology hubs of our country, but they have something that is just as essential; craft. So let’s bring that ingenuity back and make our future together.
