"Dumb Anger, Dumb Plan"

I can’t take credit for the title. I traveled to it last night in a lovely Chinese novel, “Brothers,” set during the Tiananmen Square upraising. At a time that brought students and workers together to fight for…democracy. The protests around the country are not lost on me, yet, I remember panicked rhetoric after Nixon’s and Bush 43’s elections as well.

I have been searching all week for the words to capture my string of thoughts on the outcome Tuesday.

I went to bed Tuesday night secure in the knowledge that I would awake to the first woman president. My security was shaken by the first email subject line I read Wednesday morning: “This is a very sad day for our country.”

I immediately went in search of election results and was stunned by the amount of red that swept our country. Including my own state, Michigan, which went conservative for the first time since 1988 when President George H.W. Bush was elected. I reasoned thoughtfully:

1.     I must be in an episode of “The Twilight Zone” or for you younger readers “The Black Mirror.”

2.     I have to run this past Snopes. This has to be someone’s idea of a gag.

3.     Should I take the day off from work to mourn? It seemed just and appropriate somehow.

I listened to the week’s coverage of the election and was comforted by the thoughtful reporters and voices of our nation that reminded me that all of Trump’s supporters weren’t the hateful bigots that he is. And saddened by the realization that the same voters with the “dumb plan” to shake things up in Washington had put their Republican incumbents back in office. The very Washington insiders who have done nothing for the voters since they have been too busy blocking this administration for their own personal and political gain. “Dumb Anger, Dumb Plan.”

I was also comforted by at least one reporter on NPR’s Sunday All Things Considered, who acknowledged that while there were many hardworking and sincere reporters out there covering this campaign, the media as a whole didn’t do a very good job (my words) challenging a candidate who actually used a campaign stop to promote his new Washington, DC hotel and the media covered it. (International free advertising is exactly what the news media is apparently about these days --- free advertising and pandering to the base interests of the American people while the international media tries to legitimately cover our news --- much to their own entertainment.)

http://trumplandmovie.com/

Monday night, I had the opportunity to view Michael Moore’s “Trumpland,” with Moore himself at a rally in Flint. In the film, Moore reads an eloquent essay he wrote to the angry blue collar white American man. He readily acknowledges all of the reasons these men and their ethnic fellow Americans have a right to be angry. Yet, he cautions all voters that when one votes in anger there will be consequences to pay long after the moment spent in the voting booth. And those consequences, Moore reminds his audience, affect the whole nation. Getting even through one’s vote is a “dumb plan.” (I note the loss of union power over its membership in this union state with this election. While the unions might endorse Democrats, the workers are seriously conservative on social issues. I think the union members just taught their union leadership a lesson in independent minds and votes.)

I am fearful now for my students, friends, family and neighbors whose religions, cultures, races, disabilities, and gender orientation put them more at risk than ever before. Pundits had predicted that should Trump win, his legacy of hate on the campaign trail would give those, who supported for him because he gave credence to their ignorance, fear and hate, the license to act on their hate towards others unlike themselves. Other pundits predicted that had he lost, those same haters would have reacted violently toward other Americans and immigrants unlike themselves. I fear we may be in a “Catch 22” here. Win or lose, someone is going to get hurt who instead deserves the equal protections under the law that we claim are afforded to all.

I am fearful about our “right to know” as Trump has already prevented the media from reporting on his actions as president-elect. Our media are already in a tenuous place and Trump’s disrespect for the First Amendment and its role in our free and open society is concerning to say the least.

I am worried about human rights issues, the environment, and our Democracy as it becomes ever more vulnerable to capitalism with Trump at the helm and the Koch Brothers and others exercising their free speech rights with piles of cash. We worried about Clinton booking the Lincoln Room for a fee. What’s going to be for sale in DC with Trump as our CEO?

At this moment in time, I am going to choose to take comfort in the belief that the good and decent men and women who hopefully still exist in our Congress, will block Trump’s less lucid maniacal actions and protect the values that those of us were taught by our parents, teachers, family, and friends. You know, things like respect, fairness, honesty, kindness, generosity, equality, and tolerance.

But I will be paying attention and I won’t hesitate to voice my opinion and protest those actions that strike me as unjust.

I can’t help but wonder if our silent majority may have just gotten what it deserves. Stay silent, don’t act, it will all be OK, is a “dumb plan” too.