It is now six days since the election. Like many of the more progressive variety of patriotic Americans, I am disheartened.
I learned long ago and have taught for many years that writing is a good response to emotional and personal challenges. People may never read what you write (and I don’t expect a larger readership for this) but writing is not always for an audience.
You write… I write… to clarify things for yourself. I remember speaking with a young poet, early in a medical career, who said that she writes “to learn something about myself.” You sit down, you mull ideas around, you see what words and directions emerge. And maybe there’s something to be said for just indiscriminately putting your voice out there into the universe.
Rather than droning on for too long at a single sitting, my plan today is to share reflections about the election in five parts, as they interest me and seem worth exploring.
• Week 1 (today): Shame and a glimmer of hope
• Week 2: Fred plays the amateur historian and reflects on how we’ve been here before (and survived)
• Week 3: Fred, the researcher and writer about the spiritual life reflects on this vantage point.
• Week 4: My thoughts on public and community responses
• Week 5: My thoughts on my personal response
If anyone else is reading this, thanks for your interest and may these ideas invite your own meaningful reflections.
Shame (and a glimmer of hope)
I recall reading, several months ago, an interview of a Christian nationalist/evangelical pastor who supported Donald Trump. He was asked how he reconciled his support with Trump’s behavior and character… cruelty, incessant lying, sexual predation… that would be considered antithetical to the spiritual life. He responded that “we are electing a politician, not a preacher.”
He is wrong.
American presidents have many roles. They are administrators. They embrace and advance policies. But at its core, I believe the presidency is about being the face of America. The president embodies our aspirations, our hopes, and our values, and shows our country and the rest of the world who we are as Americans.
Kamala Harris would have done this admirably. Donald Trump does not.
Harris clearly values respect and decency. She is the kind of person who looks for and brings out the best in other people. Trump traffics in fear, hate, and divisiveness. He brings out the worst in us all.
The fact that over half of American voters looked at Trump’s life… Trump the racist, the misogynist, the insurrectionist, the self-aggrandizing liar… and said “This is who we want; this is who we are; this is what America is about” is appalling and shameful.
Policies, you say? My goodness, this election was not about policies. Perhaps it was for some specific cohorts. Billionaires and corporate CEOs will delight in the prospect of further accumulating wealth and power. People who dearly want states to be able to deny reproductive and health care for women will see this happen. Select small groups stand to benefit in their particular areas, like the owners of for-profit prisons who are salivating at the possibility of being paid to create internment camps for millions of undocumented people who stand to be deported.
Predominantly, though, policies had little to do with the election results. A Washington Post study published a couple of weeks before the election surveyed over 8000 voters from across the political spectrum. The study reported that Harris’ policies garnered significantly greater approval than Trumps’ policies… notably, on healthcare, crime, firearms, social and reproductive issues, education, and the environment… as long as respondents weren’t told which candidate had proposed them.
The election, as I see it, was about perceptions and identity. Right wing media relentlessly portrayed Harris as an elite, detached, ruthless person who wanted to murder babies and empower schools to perform sex change operations on merciless students. Right wing media portrayed Trump as a man of the people, a strong and courageous leader, a man steeped in devotion to faith and wrapped in the flag.
And this is where we end up.
Some good news, of course, is that 71 million people voted for Harris and presumably voiced support for the kind of values of truth and character that I think do reflect the best of who we are as Americans. May we cherish and hold onto our kinship with one another as we go forward from here.
Next week: Fred, the amateur historian, reflects on our having been here in America before (and survived).
I learned long ago and have taught for many years that writing is a good response to emotional and personal challenges. People may never read what you write (and I don’t expect a larger readership for this) but writing is not always for an audience.
You write… I write… to clarify things for yourself. I remember speaking with a young poet, early in a medical career, who said that she writes “to learn something about myself.” You sit down, you mull ideas around, you see what words and directions emerge. And maybe there’s something to be said for just indiscriminately putting your voice out there into the universe.
Rather than droning on for too long at a single sitting, my plan today is to share reflections about the election in five parts, as they interest me and seem worth exploring.
• Week 1 (today): Shame and a glimmer of hope
• Week 2: Fred plays the amateur historian and reflects on how we’ve been here before (and survived)
• Week 3: Fred, the researcher and writer about the spiritual life reflects on this vantage point.
• Week 4: My thoughts on public and community responses
• Week 5: My thoughts on my personal response
If anyone else is reading this, thanks for your interest and may these ideas invite your own meaningful reflections.
Shame (and a glimmer of hope)
I recall reading, several months ago, an interview of a Christian nationalist/evangelical pastor who supported Donald Trump. He was asked how he reconciled his support with Trump’s behavior and character… cruelty, incessant lying, sexual predation… that would be considered antithetical to the spiritual life. He responded that “we are electing a politician, not a preacher.”
He is wrong.
American presidents have many roles. They are administrators. They embrace and advance policies. But at its core, I believe the presidency is about being the face of America. The president embodies our aspirations, our hopes, and our values, and shows our country and the rest of the world who we are as Americans.
Kamala Harris would have done this admirably. Donald Trump does not.
Harris clearly values respect and decency. She is the kind of person who looks for and brings out the best in other people. Trump traffics in fear, hate, and divisiveness. He brings out the worst in us all.
The fact that over half of American voters looked at Trump’s life… Trump the racist, the misogynist, the insurrectionist, the self-aggrandizing liar… and said “This is who we want; this is who we are; this is what America is about” is appalling and shameful.
Policies, you say? My goodness, this election was not about policies. Perhaps it was for some specific cohorts. Billionaires and corporate CEOs will delight in the prospect of further accumulating wealth and power. People who dearly want states to be able to deny reproductive and health care for women will see this happen. Select small groups stand to benefit in their particular areas, like the owners of for-profit prisons who are salivating at the possibility of being paid to create internment camps for millions of undocumented people who stand to be deported.
Predominantly, though, policies had little to do with the election results. A Washington Post study published a couple of weeks before the election surveyed over 8000 voters from across the political spectrum. The study reported that Harris’ policies garnered significantly greater approval than Trumps’ policies… notably, on healthcare, crime, firearms, social and reproductive issues, education, and the environment… as long as respondents weren’t told which candidate had proposed them.
The election, as I see it, was about perceptions and identity. Right wing media relentlessly portrayed Harris as an elite, detached, ruthless person who wanted to murder babies and empower schools to perform sex change operations on merciless students. Right wing media portrayed Trump as a man of the people, a strong and courageous leader, a man steeped in devotion to faith and wrapped in the flag.
And this is where we end up.
Some good news, of course, is that 71 million people voted for Harris and presumably voiced support for the kind of values of truth and character that I think do reflect the best of who we are as Americans. May we cherish and hold onto our kinship with one another as we go forward from here.
Next week: Fred, the amateur historian, reflects on our having been here in America before (and survived).
