Trump win
portends dawn of
a new dark age
Donald Trump will not make American great – ever.
A pall of darkness has settled over America as the reality of the recent election result sinks in.
Many are going through the stages of grief helpfully described by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross so many years ago.
We are mourning the loss of our innocence, and our country.
From this vantage point it’s like a giant orange storm cloud has blotted out the sky from one horizon to the other, and no, President Obama, the sun will not rise as usual tomorrow.
More than 30 years ago, another Republican – Saint Ronald Reagan – rode to power on the promise that it was “morning in America.” Today, it is mourning in America as we grieve for the loss of hope in a better tomorrow.
There can be no doubt about the denial and anger sweeping the country since Donald Trump was declared the victor in Tuesday’s election. The bargaining and depression have already begun.
We can only hope that acceptance never arrives. We simply cannot accept the vision of America that swept Trump to a stunning upset in the Electoral College even if he did not win the most votes.
But, the optimist in me is already seeing some hope for relief. As the president-elect backs off from some of his worst ideas, it may not be long before Trump voters begin to be betrayed by a billionaire who never did have their interests at heart. Whether they wake up to this or not is an open question.
The Washington Post believes Trump will do what he says. The record indicates otherwise.
It is my fervent hope that the 100-day honeymoon usually accorded a new president is a time of great disillusionment for Trump voters. By next summer, there might even be a backlash bigger than anything ever seen before.
My hope is based on Trump’s record of lying and flip-flops. There is no reason to believe a single word of the wild promises he made as a candidate, and he has shown time and again that he is willing to take contradictory positions even in the same sentence.
It has already been widely reported that he is no longer going to “repeal” the Affordable Care Act on his first day in office. If anything, he might even propose the necessary fixes to it and get them through a reluctant Republican Congress.
Extending this to his never realistic promise to build a wall on the southern border of the US – and force Mexico to pay for it – perhaps his real position will be to propose some coherent reform to the immigration laws. This is much needed and long overdue, but likely to split the Republican Congress down the middle.
Trump may or may not upend the nation and the world with wild, impractical policies, but it is his character that poses the bigger threat. He has given permission to all the bigots, misogynists and racists in America to vent their spleen on the body politic. The level of vitriol in public discourse has never been greater, thanks to his example.
But it is Trump’s relationship to the truth that is the biggest threat of all. He has been called out on so many blatant lies no one can keep count, yet this didn’t seem to dent his support; fake news was so widely shared on social media it has become almost impossible to find truth.
Indeed, truth in public discourse has been the biggest casualty of this election.
There is no reason to believe Trump can or will change. He will continue to spew venom from the Oval Office just as he did during the campaign. He will lie and reverse course frequently, because this is who he is. How can we believe anything he says?
I cannot simply forget and forgive.
Going forward we have much to fear and little to celebrate.
This is why it is mourning in America.
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