As the sun rises on the second day after an election that is starting to be seen as a turning point in American political history, I've had some more time to collect my thoughts, and am beginning to see the outlines of how to move forward in this new America.
First, we need to acknowledge that the other side won. Whatever you think of the guy, he won according to the rules of the game. You may think that the rules were unfair, seeing as how this was the first election in God-knows-how-long without the protections of the Voting Rights Act (and you might be right about that), but you can blame the Supreme Court for that. Trump isn't responsible.
Second, there's no guarantee that a GOP Congress is going to be all that excited about working with the Trump Administration. For starters, he's going to hit a brick wall (presumably a big, beautiful wall) when it comes to introducing term limits for Congress. Guess who has to pass that bill? Yep, Congress. They're not about to limit their careers that way. Nor are they necessarily going to see eye-to-eye with him on much else--remember, he didn't get a lot of support from Congressional leaders, and they're still there. Which means his appointees aren't going to sail through confirmation hearings automatically.
Third, there's been a lot of talk about Gary Johnson and Jill Stein. And yes, maybe they siphoned away some votes that would have gone to Hillary and prevented Trump from winning, although my gut tells me that Johnson was more likely to siphon away voters from Trump.
But you know what? 46% of the country didn't even vote. When you compare the handful of Johnson and Stein voters to almost half the population, it's pretty clear where the fault lies. And when you consider that the DNC went out of its way to ensure the nomination of the most Establishment candidate possible in a year where the electorate was clearly in an anti-Establishment mood, it puts a different spin on things. If you're angry that some Bernie voters didn't come out to vote, or worse yet voted for Trump, ask yourself how you would have felt had the DNC sabotaged the Hillary campaign to ensure a Sanders candidacy. Loyalty, as they say, is earned.
Speaking purely for myself, I need a break from politics after this complete shitshow of an election. I suspect you might also. Stephen Colbert got this very, very right, speaking on election night about how it was when he (and I) were kids in the 1970s:
Politics used to be something we thought about every four years, maybe two years if you didn’t have a lot of social life. And that’s good that we didn’t think about it that much, because it left room in our lives for other things, and for other people.
There's wisdom in that. And frankly, while I acknowledge that people like me--left-leaning, progressive whites--will be needed in the years to come to help defeat what non-progressive whites inflicted on the nation, there's also wisdom in what Garrison Keillor wrote yesterday:
We liberal elitists are now completely in the clear. The government is in Republican hands. Let them deal with him. Democrats can spend four years raising heirloom tomatoes, meditating, reading Jane Austen, traveling around the country, tasting artisan beers, and let the Republicans build the wall and carry on the trade war with China and deport the undocumented and deal with opioids and we Democrats can go for a long brisk walk and smell the roses.
So I don't know about you, but I've got books to read. There are things my wife would like to get done around the house. And meanwhile, there's not a single damn thing I can do about anything that happens in Washington in the next 10 weeks until Inauguration Day. Or the 10 weeks after that, for that matter.
Don't get me wrong. My politics remain what they are. But the people who voted Trump into office, and the GOP into control of Congress, need to see Trump and the Republicans for what they are--they need to see them fail. They need to experience the logical consequences of the policies the incoming administration will implement. All the Twitter posts in the world won't change their minds.
No, I'm not abandoning the cause. I'm not going to stand idly by while my neighbors are loaded into trucks and driven to the camps. But perhaps I can be forgiven for needing to recharge my batteries before the fight starts again.
And in the meantime, Garrison Keillor is right. It's all in the hands of the GOP now. There's no more hiding from responsibility. They can't blame Obama--he'll be out of office. They can't blame Harry Reid--he retired. They can't blame Bill and Hillary--she lost. The midterm elections are in two years' time, and that's exactly how long they have to prove to the American people that they actually have a plan for something, and that it will benefit the American people. Because if they can't, it will be a clear demonstration that they've never had a plan--their entire political position was based on demonizing Obama and the Clintons, and refusing to do any actual governing.
So enjoy yourself, Republicans. This is your time in the sun. You're going to have a Republican in the White House. Show us you can build up this country. I, and the rest of the country--the rest of the world--will be watching.
But for now, I need a break. I'm unfollowing anything remotely political on Twitter, and probably dialing back my online time as well. If we're going to recover from this divisive election, maybe we should spend less time staring at screens and fighting with strangers on the Internet, and more time talking to our neighbors. We might even learn something.
And maybe, just maybe, four years from now, the next Presidential election will be less insane.
I certainly hope so, for everyone's sake.