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| Cuba has a cult of personality with the Castros and Che Guevara. Let's hope we don't go there. |
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
It's two weeks to the day since the 2016 presidential election and life has NOT been normal. No one in my blue circle of friends, in my blue city of Seattle, in my blue state of Washington is quite recovered from the shock of Donald J. Trump being the president-elect.
I'd returned from Cuba days before the election and was looking forward to writing blog posts about the trip. But then the election came. I realized before I write about Cuba, I had to write about my own country. It's not like the election changed the United States, it's the same country it was before I left for Cuba. The election changed me and my delusions about how this country has come together with the Obama presidency.
Trump ran a campaign based on fear, ignorance and anger; and he won. Since he's been elected, he certainly has not risen to the office. What crazy thing has Trump done now is now the question of the day. Dissed the British? Off and on meeting with New York Times? Lambasted SNL and the cast of "Hamilton"? Yes, and that's just this week. Friday, he settled the fraud case against Trump University for $25 million, a fraction of what students paid to attend the bogus school. It wasn't a loss, it was a settlement, Trump tweets.
Most of this bile comes from Trump's own thumbs. But don't fear, it's trending in the right direction. According to a Politico/MorningCount poll, more people approve of Trump now than before the election. To paraphrase David Byrne: "How did we get here?"
There were warning signs but I was too ensconced in my blue bubble. The young woman from Iowa who I worked with this summer said "Trump is going to win. People are tired of having the elite tell them what to do and Hillary is part of the elite." My uncle in Las Vegas is a big Trump supporter because "he says what he thinks. You want me to get you a hat?" My sister said she would never vote for a candidate who supported abortion like Hillary.
But the most telling instance happened in 2010 in Wisconsin at my brother-in-law's wedding. The reception at the country club was full of middle-aged white people. Granted, my husband and I fit right in, so much so that people came up to my husband and complimented him on looking like Glen Beck. "Am I acting like a nut job?" he asked me. I shook my head and he headed for the bar.
There was a sit-down dinner served on linen-covered tables with an entourage of glasses for each sparkling, white and red wine served. The man next to me chatted for a minute about the country club and then he launched into politics. How Obama was ruining the country, how healthcare was going to bankrupt business and how the soul of this country was lost. And then it was onto Nancy Pelosi. Why, he was too polite to express how he truly felt about that woman, he spat. Then another woman across from us chimed in "about how terrible it is now. Just look around." So I did.
I saw people eating cake and drinking wine, out the window was a parking lot full of new cars surrounded by a lush golf course. What I didn't see was how the recession slammed retirement funds or the closing of paper mills or the rising toll of drug addictions. Even if all these people didn't appear to be in hardship, they certainly felt like it. In 2010, Wisconsin elected Scott Walker and the Republicans swept Congress.
Many years ago, this same Wisconsin family came to California for a visit. The little girl climbed up to one of our friends, James, and started rubbing his dark cheek. She then looked at her palm. "No, honey, it doesn't come off," he chuckled. The parents laughed it off, saying "Even the garbagemen are white where we live."
It sounds terrible. But these are not evil people. They are people I know and love. It's easy to fear and objectify what you have never known. But I know these people. What I don't understand is how they succumbed to a message of fear and loathing. I'm not going there. The best shield I have is speaking up and shining bright. It's going to take courage.
#Love trumps hate.
I'd returned from Cuba days before the election and was looking forward to writing blog posts about the trip. But then the election came. I realized before I write about Cuba, I had to write about my own country. It's not like the election changed the United States, it's the same country it was before I left for Cuba. The election changed me and my delusions about how this country has come together with the Obama presidency.
Trump ran a campaign based on fear, ignorance and anger; and he won. Since he's been elected, he certainly has not risen to the office. What crazy thing has Trump done now is now the question of the day. Dissed the British? Off and on meeting with New York Times? Lambasted SNL and the cast of "Hamilton"? Yes, and that's just this week. Friday, he settled the fraud case against Trump University for $25 million, a fraction of what students paid to attend the bogus school. It wasn't a loss, it was a settlement, Trump tweets.
Most of this bile comes from Trump's own thumbs. But don't fear, it's trending in the right direction. According to a Politico/MorningCount poll, more people approve of Trump now than before the election. To paraphrase David Byrne: "How did we get here?"
There were warning signs but I was too ensconced in my blue bubble. The young woman from Iowa who I worked with this summer said "Trump is going to win. People are tired of having the elite tell them what to do and Hillary is part of the elite." My uncle in Las Vegas is a big Trump supporter because "he says what he thinks. You want me to get you a hat?" My sister said she would never vote for a candidate who supported abortion like Hillary.
But the most telling instance happened in 2010 in Wisconsin at my brother-in-law's wedding. The reception at the country club was full of middle-aged white people. Granted, my husband and I fit right in, so much so that people came up to my husband and complimented him on looking like Glen Beck. "Am I acting like a nut job?" he asked me. I shook my head and he headed for the bar.
There was a sit-down dinner served on linen-covered tables with an entourage of glasses for each sparkling, white and red wine served. The man next to me chatted for a minute about the country club and then he launched into politics. How Obama was ruining the country, how healthcare was going to bankrupt business and how the soul of this country was lost. And then it was onto Nancy Pelosi. Why, he was too polite to express how he truly felt about that woman, he spat. Then another woman across from us chimed in "about how terrible it is now. Just look around." So I did.
I saw people eating cake and drinking wine, out the window was a parking lot full of new cars surrounded by a lush golf course. What I didn't see was how the recession slammed retirement funds or the closing of paper mills or the rising toll of drug addictions. Even if all these people didn't appear to be in hardship, they certainly felt like it. In 2010, Wisconsin elected Scott Walker and the Republicans swept Congress.
Many years ago, this same Wisconsin family came to California for a visit. The little girl climbed up to one of our friends, James, and started rubbing his dark cheek. She then looked at her palm. "No, honey, it doesn't come off," he chuckled. The parents laughed it off, saying "Even the garbagemen are white where we live."
It sounds terrible. But these are not evil people. They are people I know and love. It's easy to fear and objectify what you have never known. But I know these people. What I don't understand is how they succumbed to a message of fear and loathing. I'm not going there. The best shield I have is speaking up and shining bright. It's going to take courage.
#Love trumps hate.
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