Well, the deed is done. The Electoral College has proved that it has abandoned all of the responsibilities that Hamilton placed on it, and become a useless rubber stamp for the Establishment. Because of this, Caesar lays on the floor in front of us, dead from many knife wounds. My question is “What Now?” The donald is, barring a miracle, going to be sworn in on the 20th of January, and, even if HE is out of office in less than four years, we, as a society, are stuck with his administration. We need to mourn the death of something very good this year, but, once we have wept over what Our Country has become, we need to stand up and say “No More”. Eugene Robinson, a man of many talents and great wisdom, who came under attack by trump cultists, made some very telling remarks in an Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post:
Eugene Robinson Washington PostThe people chose Hillary Clinton. But it’s the electoral vote that counts, not the popular vote, so Donald Trump will be president. And no, I’m not over it.
No one should be over it. No one should pretend that Trump will be a normal president. No one should forget the bigotry and racism of his campaign, the naked appeals to white grievance, the stigmatizing of Mexicans and Muslims. No one should forget the jaw-dropping ignorance he showed about government policy both foreign and domestic. No one should forget the vile misogyny. No one should forget the mendacity, the vulgarity, the ugliness, the insanity. None of this should ever be normalized in our politics.
The big protests that have followed Trump’s election should be no surprise. You can’t spend all those months trashing our nation’s values and then expect everyone to join you in a group hug. Trump made the bed in which he now must lie.
How did the unthinkable happen? Is Trump, like Brexit, part of some world-sweeping populist wave? Are the Rust Belt hinterlands in open rebellion? Was Clinton just a spectacularly flawed candidate? Did FBI Director James B. Comey boost Trump over the top? Did too many anti-Trump voters stay home out of complacency?
There is evidence to support all of those theories. But the urgent question isn’t why? — it’s what now?
Nationwide protests gripped many cities for days following the presidential election as thousands marched against Donald Trump’s victory. Trump tweeted to condemn “professional protesters, incited by the media.” (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
If a normal Republican had been elected, I could say the polite and socially acceptable thing, something like “I didn’t support So-and-So, but he will be my president, too, and I wish him success.” But I cannot wish Trump success in rounding up and deporting millions of people or banning Muslims from entering the country or re-instituting torture as an instrument of U.S. policy. In these and other divisive, cruel, unwise initiatives, I wish him failure. I do hope he succeeds in avoiding some kind of amateurish foreign policy blunder that puts American lives or vital national interests at risk. And let me be clear that I am not questioning his legitimacy as president. When the results are certified and the electoral college casts its votes, Trump will be the nation’s duly chosen leader, ridiculous though that may be. he has not earned our trust or hope. Rather, he has earned the demonstrations that have erupted in cities across the country. He has earned relentless scrutiny by journalists, whom he shamelessly made into scapegoats during the campaign, and he has earned the constant vigilance of the public he now must serve. There have been more than 200 reports since the election of harassment and hate crimes, mostly directed at minorities, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. During an interview broadcast Sunday on “60 Minutes,” Trump addressed his supporters: “I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.”
That would have been a better start had he not also sought to minimize the incidents, saying there had been a “very small amount” of them; and had he not also claimed the media was somehow applying a double standard in reporting on the protests.
The most troubling post-election development thus far was Trump’s appointment of campaign chief executive Stephen K. Bannon — a prominent figure in the racist, xenophobic alt-right movement — as chief strategist and senior adviser. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the move “signals that white supremacists will be represented at the highest levels in Trump’s White House.”
I agree with these thoughts and have to say that I intend to be a gadfly for the new Administration. In the unlikely event that they accidentally create legislation that will help the vast majority of Americans that are far outside their wheelhouse of experience, I will support and applaud their efforts. However, when the Administration moves to implement the Evils listed above, and any other of the LONG list of attacks on the American Citizens that the donald and his obscenity of a VP have said they want to push through, I shall, and I urge ALL of us, to write our Representatives; to engage in Protests; to take actions to communicate in clear fashion that this is unacceptable. Now, to some folks, this may sound like a call to go out, engage in violence, vandalism and looting. It is most definitely not. Remember the great men of history – Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, et al, who knew that peaceful, non-violent protest was a powerful tool for changing society.
Look, for example, at the Civil Right’s Movement. The gains in recognition that people of color have achieved did not come from burning Watts to the ground. Rather, it came from the growing outrage at scenes of peaceful protestors being attacked by authorities, using dogs and fire-hoses. It came from the ugly image of one, small, Black girl, walking bravely into a school to desegregate it, and having to be surrounded by cops to protect her from the hateful crowds screaming at her. The faw Evil shining out of their faces disgusted the people of good will in the country, and moved them out of their apathy to take action to recognize ALL citizens as equals.
Today, the LGBTQ community and the Islamic community are in a similar place, and we people of good will must stand up and be counted. Stand against legislation that removes the rights of these citizens and remind all of us that as citizens of the United States they have the same rights and responsibilities as laid out in the Constitution as each of us. Do not stand for oppression, hate, division, and intolerance.
