Something Subtle

At the heart of this election lies a subtle truth.

The world has been changing quickly in the last twenty years and with the advent of social media and portable electronics, the scope and nature of those changes has become unavoidable.  The sudden deluge of information showing us all the differences in what makes up the American fabric has been terrifying to a large portion of our country that still, today, lives in mostly white, traditional communities across the rural US.

We watched white rural American struggle with a black president. We watched parts of it squirm and coil against Obama no matter what he said or did because he represented something. He represented all those changes that had been hitting rural America again and again at faster and faster rates. While liberals wanted to make it purely about race, it was deeper than that. Yes, it was about a black president with a strange name, but Obama had also become a visible, daily symbol on TV and the news of all the changes and encroachments on traditional white labor and lower middle class communities that had, until perhaps only five years ago, been unaware that ‘transgender’ was a word, much less someone who might use their public bathroom.

This seething undercurrent of fear and uncertainty wanted relief from the fear that all these changes were bringing and saw government as the cause of it. They had some rational support for that idea in the form of the ACA – another massive change to what they knew caused by this non-traditional president. The GOP fed on this anxiety and stoked those flames, but like Obama, the ACA was more than law. It was a symbol and one that connected the growing fear over economic, cultural, and social changes with tangible costs and rules that invaded every household. These symbols left communities wondering if they would even recognize their own neighborhoods in a few years and steadily increased the pressure of resentment under the surface.

Liberals heard the opposition to Obama and the ACA and we misread it. We took it as classic racism and that was that. We assumed the ACA objections were just repeated lies told by the GOP and missed how that law had come to embody the structural grind of a changing society on the memories and cherished traditions of communities mostly untouched by such things for decades.

The fear boiled upwards first in the form of The Tea Party.  Democrats were somewhat confused at the vitriol that this new movement had not just for liberals but against fellow Republicans. They seemed determined to do damage, not to govern. Again, we missed the signs. We didn’t realize that the Tea Party was demanding that the changes and encroachments stop. That it was happening too fast. That it was overwhelming a portion of the US in ways they couldn’t’ easily explain or define. In many cases, they didn’t know, themselves, and lashed out at the symptoms: Obamacare. Government. Obama.

The 2016 primary process saw the fear underneath catch fire. The movement on the progressive side under Sanders was almost a counter-protest, it was frustration with the establishment because the GOP had locked down government for nearly eight years. Governance was stagnating while politicians stood by doing nothing but making money and arguing. Bernie Sanders tapped into these frustrated souls, but Donald Trump tapped into a blaze much broader and substantially different.

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump promised CHANGE.

But they were not talking about anything that even existed in the same universe.

Bernie Sanders argued that government needed to change. That it needed to close tax loopholes, open opportunities, decrease costs of school, tax the rich fairly, require corporations to pay their fair share, adjust the tax code… Bernie wanted more and more change – he wanted to fundamentally restructure the existing system away from its weakness, corruption, and stagnation.

Donald Trump promised change too. But he promised to change BACK to something. ‘Make America Great AGAIN was no accident. The promise was to restore something lost. It was to change backwards to something once held and cherished. It was to restore what used to be. The word ‘change’ was the same, but the direction was entirely different. This kind of change tapped into all that deep fear concerning the rate and speed of all the changes that had already been endured and terrified rural white America.

In this way, Bernie Sanders fueled Trump’s fire. He became more of the fast, sweeping change that had soaked them with toxic terror since 2008. Hillary was the champion of the symbols of those changes and the damage they’d done. Trump became the champion promising to rewind the tape and give these people a an exit strategy that didn’t include the diversity, consideration, or politeness that seemed everywhere in the overly offended and impossibly complex society.

On November 8^th, what appeared impossible happened in living color. The seething current of resentment to a culture that was changing too fast to the American rural population revolted against the symbols and the promise of yet more change to come. They stepped up, they voted, and they authorized their belligerent outsider to step in, hit the breaks and change American back to when it was great no matter who got swept out of the way.

Along with it, they gave a nationalist hand free reign to finish the conversion of our government into an oligarchy. He was granted a full red congress to ensure all legislation desired was passed an undesired repealed. He was granted an open supreme court seat to fill immediately, and likely at least a few more in his first term to ensure his changes sustain for generations.

None of this probably made you feel any better, but this is how I understand what happened last night. This is how I believe we got here and what was fueling the unexpected surge that propelled a man who was nine points behind two weeks go to the presidency today – a rebound that shouldn’t have been possible.

Donald Trump brings dangerous and autocratic overtones to a position of immense executive power. Because of the surrounding circumstances, we are for the most part at his mercy. I believe in the strength and character of many who will fight to mitigate what happens next should that be required, but until then, progressive minded people are on their own and have each other to turn to. We are unrepresented for the most part in congress and our belief in the DNC as an alternative is probably nearly shattered.

So to everyone struggling for a path forward, I wish you strength and fortitude as a random and unpredictable man takes hold of our country’s leadership. The only thing I can think to say is:

May the odds always be in your favor.