The Lost American

What do we do with this? What do we do with this hopelessness, this disgust? Sixty-seven million of us voted to keep Trump out of the White House, seventy-two million voted for him to return. Those are just numbers, data. Some would say he is simply a president we do not agree with; in four years he will be gone and maybe there will be someone in the White House whom we find acceptable. Maybe. You want to be optimistic, it is in our nature to embrace optimism if only as a survival mechanism, but many times in our lives feeling optimism is as unlikely as flapping our arms and achieving flight.

Sixty-seven million of us voted against his return, seventy-two million voted for it. Again, this is just data, numbers. Numbers are not the problem, our hearts are. How do we not hold those who voted for him in contempt? How do we not hold a special variety of contempt for those who sat this election out?: “They both suck, man. There’s no difference. I’m doing a write in vote for Kanye.” This election was different, you could sense it, you could look at the hard facts presented and see how different it was….but some people chose to embrace their own cynicism, their own ignorance. And the seventy-two million? They allowed their fear and greed to sway them: "The brown people are stealing and raping and eating cats when they get here. It’s an invasion, we are being invaded and our blood is being poisoned. I had more money five years ago, I like what he says about money; I like money. Look, he’s just like us, I saw him working in a McDonalds.”

Hegel said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” There are many men like the president-elect smirking and creeping through history, many movements like M.A.G.A. The technology changes, the costumes change, human nature does not.

But truth, like data, is meaningless in the light of emotion—the fear and greed of those who voted for the president-elect, and the feelings of hopelessness of those who voted against him. What do we do with this? I was born in this country, I have lived here all my life, and yet I feel increasingly out of place here: The pace of life. People putting themselves deeply in debt to have enormous trucks they don’t need. Prioritizing money. We all need money, all us working people have bills and other financial obligations, but some things are more important than money. Inflation is hard, like everyone else I’ve been spending a lot more on groceries, but I would gladly do so (and I’m sure you would, as well) if it meant women have access to life saving health care anywhere in the country.

What do we do with this? Us, the Americans feeling lost right now. How do we not hold half our countrymen in contempt for what we percieve to be the guilt of what is to come? How do we still hold love for them in our hearts when it has been clear to see the road M.A.G.A. will take us down? I do not have that answer because I am as lost as many of you. We are not alone in these feelings, perhaps that is some consolation...