The Morning After. What Have We Done?
The morning after.
I Tweeted vociferously last night in my stupor and despair. Most of my tribe emoted publicly, too, any many more countless others texted me constantly in disbelief.
I haven’t felt this way since 9/11. No — I’m not equating the two actions. I’m just telling you the depths of how this decision makes me feel.
A number of people I don’t know told me on Twitter to “calm down” or “Everything will be OK. This is how we felt when Obama was elected.” I blocked each and every one of them. I will not calm down.
We just elected a man who took out a full page ad calling for the death penalty after the “Central Park Five” (4 Black men and 1 Latino) were convicted of rape for an incident in 1989. The were exonerated after an admission by the real perpetrator confessed in 2002 and DNA evidence proved it. They served between 6 and 12 years in prison. During the election cycle Trump never apologized, backed down or admitted he was wrong.
In fact, he went further. He led constituents to believe he was right:
“He did not simply refuse to apologize: He described the men as guilty, and then demonstrated, once again, that he is a master at the dark art of using long-standing racial fears, stereotypes and anxieties to advance his personal and political goals.
He used the Central Park Five to differentiate himself from his political opponent. He stoked support for solutions inconsistent with the law.”
We elected a man who denied that Barack Obama was born in the US and then when confronted with this racial trope turned and blamed it on Hillary Clinton.
We elected a man who called for the ban of Muslims entering the United States. A man who called Mexicans rapists & murderers. A man who hinted at conspiracies of global financiers trying to wreck our system. This was a dog whistle to his base that the Jews had taken over the media and the world of money. He even took out a video ad in his final week with video showing many of these global Jews.
Are we surprised that the KKK endorsed him? That nearly every newspaper in America — many Republican — endorsed Hillary? Or that commentators like Fareed Zakaria called him “a cancer on democracy.” Journalists aren’t quick to make these types of statements.
And yet he won. As of this morning Clinton still holds a lead in the popular vote but even that as I write is only by 0.2% or around 100,000 votes out of 120 million.
There is no blaming anybody, really. Trump swept The South and most of The Rust Belt. But he also got more Latino votes proportionally than Mitt Romney did in 2012. He got a higher percentage of African American votes than Romney did, too. He got the same number of youth votes.
Yes, I want to scream at the media who gave Trump so much free press and created false equivalencies between his misdeed and misstatements and Clintons. I want to blame Comey who changed the tenor of the election over ZERO new evidence. I want to blame Weiner and Giuliani. I want to shout at the stupidity of the GOP leadership and religious church leaders who publicly admonished Trump’s terrible talk of sexual assault and then bit their tongues and marched ahead. And I want to blame Clinton for using that damn email server but of course I know if it weren’t that it would just have been something else. And I already publicly screamed at Peter Thiel for supporting a race-bating demagogue and helping legitimize him.
Hell. I even want to blame Facebook for creating an algorithm the feeds people self-reinforcing lies and half truths to people in self-confirming circles of like-minded people. Vox did a good job of describing this.
The truth is I can’t blame anybody — the election just IS. It’s part of history. It will try and draw conclusions about the changes that occurred with globalization, automation and technology. It’s clear people wanted changes.
People are angry at the dysfunction in Washington and their belief that the system treats them unfairly — not creating jobs and allowing too much illegal immigration that hurts them.
Of course I disagree with many of these people on why they are hurting and what the solutions might be but I get exactly the same number of votes as any of them do and they won. Their voice will be heard. We live in a democracy.
Last night Trump in his election victory speech spoke of building new airports, rail, roads and bridges. Of course we need to do this. But the GOP is the party who has fought against tax increases or increasing government spending to do this.
Could there be a silver lining? Perhaps. I will always try to look for one. The party that spoke for decades about religion and family just elected a philanderer and at best a lewd man. They just elected a man who was publicly pro-choice much of his life. They elected a man who went against many pro business policies the GOP has espoused for decades.
So maybe the population doesn’t believe at all in the policies they have been fed from the right about slashing taxes on the rich, slashing government and rolling back women’s reproductive rights. Maybe a repugnant leader who from the right side of the aisle proposes infrastructure spending we desperately need will be able to win popular support for this.
Maybe there will be some positives to Trump’s victory — who knows. But of course there will also be many, terrible negative consequences.
So of course I’m also in fear and mourning today.
I’m in fear for tens of millions of low-income and middle-income families who might literally lose their healthcare benefits and not be covered for pre-existing conditions.
I’m in fear for women who want a right to choose their own reproductive options without fear of government or religious institutions or religious hospitals telling them they cannot.
I fear for migrant workers who have been delegitimized and will be cast into the shadows.
I fear for African American communities who have been victimized by police brutality and aggression and whose only tool to fight this oppression has been the smart phone video coverage showing the world their inequities. The people who stood virulently on the other side of this issue like Rudy Giuliani will now have power.
I fear for the planet when the party of climate change deniers and science deniers hold office.
I fear for our economy if Trump flies into a rage and impacts global trade policies. These will meet populist support and get cheers but they won’t make our impacted communities better.
We have two years of near total power of not only the GOP but the Tea Party wing of the GOP to see whether their solutions make sense for America and the world. I fear this more than anything else. But we are where we are.
Sensible people need to fight back and hold ground and offer competing solutions and hold the media accountable and start preparing for mid-term elections.
But mostly I want those who reached out to me last night on Twitter and who come from backgrounds where they are a minority: African Americans, Muslims, gay people, Jews, women, Latinos and so forth. America isn’t against you.
There are 59 million people like me who voted for a progressive and tolerant future. We have demographics on our side. As the population ages our youth will be more tolerant and more cultural.
But the real work we need to do is to persuade enough of the other 59 million people — including Latinos, African Americans and Millennials — that voting matters and that choices have consequences. I know in my bones that a large percentage of these 59 million are not intolerant people. But I also know there is a hardcore, non-trivial amount who are. We need to separate these groups.
And for the occasional person who Tweets or comments, “Mark, I follow you to hear about tech or venture capital — not politics. Keep your mouth shut.” (yes, I get those) …
There is an unfollow button on Twitter and Facebook and Snapchat and this blog on Medium. There is even a block button. Feel free to exercise your right. This isn’t my work blog or my company blog or a venture capital blog. This is MY blog. It is an expression of what’s on my mind and way to share that with those who may agree or disagree.
Above all else — I am a citizen of the United States with two children and I care deeply about their future and about our future. And I will do my small bit in society to advocate for what I believe in.
And now I’m off to jury duty to do my civic duty for society. That’s what we do the morning after. We wake up and we march on. We have no choice.
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Photo via Visualhunt
