In defeat, our mission is more clear than ever

What the fuck just happened?

I, like many of my fellow Americans, am in a state of disbelief. Donald Trump is the presumed president-elect in an unprecedented upset of Hillary Clinton. There are so many angles to take on why and how this happened:

Voters did not want to embrace the status quo

For whatever reason, there was nothing conventional about this election. Despite Obama having a high approval rating and many of our problems trending in a positive direction, the voting public no longer trusted government. This has been brewing for a while. But the combination of a free and unchecked media, a tendency to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and a focus on what’s going wrong over what’s going right all contributed to the idea that America needed to be saved by an outsider and reject the status quo.

Fighting dirty was the path to victory

Democrats, Progressives, and Liberals all wanted to take the high road. They wanted to be intellectually superior and appeal to the good in people. Trump had none of that. He used every cheat code he could to win this election. He went low, he lied, he fueled hate and fear. Our optimism and politeness let us lose.

Bigotry is more prevalent than we thought.

The silent majority. The polls were a red herring. The polls assumed that people would be proud of who they voted for. We dismissed the loudest and meanest people as a basket of deplorables. Meanwhile, the others who don’t hold those views quite as strongly were happy to enable. They were quiet and partisan and feigned making a “morally tough” choice to justify voting the way they did. But they voted for what they voted for.

Demographics.

Hey, White People. Seriously, what the fuck.

So what now?

I personally lamented to a coworker the other day that I’m so sick of doing things just because that’s how they’ve always been done. I was talking about daylight savings time. The country seems to feel the same way, but about things much bigger than time zones.

The point is, stop relying on the conventional paths to progress. Obama was elected on a strong message. Clinton was more experienced than him then. Sanders and Trump were no where near as strong on policy as Clinton, but both were more interesting and trustworthy. Trump beat out a dozen Republican candidates, both conventional and not. The experience, the conventional path, none of it mattered in the end.

Point is, stop relying just on smart and educated. Reach outside of your echo chamber. Talk about the things that matter to the people that matter. Ask people why they struggle, why they hurt, why they blame, why they fear. Educate people.

Most of all, fight back. Stop being polite. Stop standing up for social justice online but say nothing when someone is being verbally assaulted on a train. Stop saying you support women’s rights but interrupt them in the workplace. Stop enjoying everything great about other cultures (their food their music, their athletes) while dismissing their rights to live the same life as you.

I’ve been a product of all of these things, and I’m spurred to take more action than I ever have. The Codex has some announcements and goals coming soon. I have never had a clearer sense of our mission, and I’m ready to fight.

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