One Year Ago Today
It’s been a year since the unthinkable happened. It’s been a year since I sat resigned and teary in my living room as my TV displayed something I had thought would never happen: Donald Trump has been elected president. It’s been a year since the blue wall crumbled.
It still feels surreal and devastating to me when I stop and think about it. Hillary Clinton lost, and the man who won has been, at his best, incapable of getting anything done, and at his worst, destructively blunderous. Overall, he has been a tremendous embarrassment to this country. Our president has made ours the only country in the world to reject the Paris Climate Agreement. Our president referred to Neo-Nazi and Klan members as “some very fine people.” Our president has tried to strip millions of Americans of their health insurance. He has tried to ban transgender soldiers from the military. He has consistently shown himself to know very little about our country and our Constitution. And on the international stage, apart from his general PR blunders, he has brought us closer to nuclear war than we’ve ever been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. So, while his presidency has not marked the end of America as I once thought it would, he has generally met expectations of what an incompetent mess he and his administration would be.
I’m still upset. I still get a lump in my throat when I see a piece of Hillary campaign ware or get an email from her. But something I’ve missed, which I am now regaining, is hope. Last night I saw two wonderful Democrats sweep two major gubernatorial elections. I saw the man who shook my hand during the 4th of July parade this past summer become the governor of my state, replacing Chris Christie at long last. We have miles to go before 2020, and there’s no room for complacency as state and midterm elections approach. However, even as I remember the pain and disappointment that assailed me one year ago today, which has not yet fully subsided, I cannot help but feel an increasing glimmer of hope.
As Winston Churchill said, and I paraphrase ever so slightly: We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to vote, in local, state, and federal elections, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to canvas and phone bank against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of American politics. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all gerrymandering, victory, however long and hard the road may be. We shall fight in Pennsylvania and Ohio, we shall fight in Michigan and Wisconsin, we shall fight in Florida and North Carolina, we shall defend our democracy, whatever the cost may be.
