By Dr. T
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the third law of Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion. America is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, and on November 8th we elected in an open election the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. That’s right America, you elected to the highest office in the land and as leader of the “Free” world, a millionaire reality –TV mogul with no government experience whatsoever and absolutely no record of public service. EVER. The foul stench of this election season still hangs in the air as spontaneous protests broke out all over the country in the days following the final votes being tallied, and concession speeches given. Over half of the country is in stunned disbelief at the outcome of the election, while a little less than half of the country has been affirmed by the outcome of electing a man like Donald Trump as their president. There is a deep cavernous divide been the two Americas that actually participated in this election. But there’s something else that’s even more troubling than that. There were over 93 million Americans who didn’t participate in the 2016 election at all. They exercised their liberty and freedom to just stay at home, whether in protest or just plain apathy; that’s almost 49% of eligible voters who simply did not vote. Donald J. Trump of Celebrity Apprentice fame will take the oval office in Washington, DC on January 20, 2017 and he will be everybody’s president, those who voted and those who didn’t.
Much like “Monday Morning Quarterbacking”, the commiserating, finger pointing and gnashing of teeth began immediately. The degenerative policies presented by the president-elect in his campaign embraced White tribalism, misogyny, xenophobia, bigotry, and with a wink and a nod, white supremacists groups like the ALT right and the Ku Klux Klan. White Evangelicals en masse voted for this real estate tycoon and once again many were single-issue voters. Right to Life and the Supreme Court were their issues, so no matter how crass, rude or vulgar this man remained throughout his 18 month long campaign, these Christians turned a blind eye and threw the high and mighty theocratic dogma they spouted and Christ-like standards they previously held other political candidates to in election seasons past to the wind, and fully embraced the man behind the hate-speech, vitriolic language, unsubstantiated promises and bigotry. These so-called disciples of the gospel decided to bow down at the Altar of Trump and Trumpism. They did not consider the Golden Rule or the 1st commandment in the Bible; no, they chose something else, someone who is more used to being served than ever offering service to anyone.
There are consequences to the votes we cast and they can be devastating for some, while inconsequential for others. If President-elect Trump does even half of what he promised to do in his gritty campaign full of divisive racially loaded rhetoric, we will ALL be suffering some extreme consequences that we have not even imagined. The inclusive multicultural America we have come to know will no longer be the norm in Trump’s America. The battles already fought and won may be fought once more and the struggle will continue to bring those who have historically been pressed to the margins of society back to the center. White America, and especially White Evangelical America, is going to be held to account for the Age of Trump. We are not going to pretend that we can just “all get along.” We will hold the line, because we are NOT going back.
