I Hope You Made a Good Choice.
This morning, Dylan bounded down the stairs and said, “Don’t you just feel like jumping out of a window?”
I appreciated that he didn’t say, Don’t you feel like crawling into a hole for the next four years?
“I don’t think it would do any good,” I said. “And it’s raining outside.”
Dylan started talking about moving to Canada. After all, since it never occurred to me that Donald Trump would actually win this election, I said we could move to Canada if Trump became President.
But what good would that do? We’d still be Americans. We’d still be humiliated in the face of the world. We’d still be the laughing stock of the planet. And we’d still find out about every absurd syllable that Trump utters, no matter how senseless.
It astounds me, as a human being with a brain, that so many millions of people could vote for someone whose entire campaign is based on bitterness, lies and fear. Millions of people believed his empty promises backed by no solid plan. Millions of people voted to have a buffoon be in charge of our country.
Millions of people based their decisions on fear. They’re worried about terrorism (thanks to the media) so they vote for someone who says, “Keep everybody out!” They’re worried about losing their jobs (thanks to the media) so they vote for someone who says, “We’ll force all the companies to stay in this country!” They’re worried about the country falling apart (thanks to the media) so they vote for someone who says, “I don’t know anything about politics so I will make it better!”
They’re worried (thanks to the media) about the national debt, so they vote for someone who doesn’t even pay the people who work for him. They’re worried (thanks to the media) about their families growing up in a safe place, so they vote for someone who is angry and unkind.
In fact, thanks to fear (and the media), every single vote for Trump was a vote against the Golden Rule.
But no one really cares about the Golden Rule anymore.
And as a mom of two very bright kids, I have to explain this to my children, who have followed the campaign for a year. My kids know the difference between right and wrong so they have been very concerned since Trump was nominated.
Dylan’s friend voted yesterday and texted about it. Dylan carefully said, “I hope you made a good choice.”
“Of course I did,” said his friend. “I’m not a stupid, racist pig. I voted for Hillary.”
We all breathed a little sigh of relief.
But the world has stopped turning for me today.
I am stunned at the number of votes for ignorance, racism, sexism and intolerance. I am stunned that so many people simply decided that someone so obscene should be “in charge.” I am stunned that so many people can support a man with no plan for the foreseeable future except to tear down everything we’ve built over the last 200 years.
I’m not saying the world is perfect. I’m just saying that Trump’s methods are guaranteed to make it worse. We are facing a Very. Long. Four. Years.
MORE votes were actually cast for Hillary, which means a majority of people actually voted against the idiocy.
This gives me only a smidgeon of hope.
“So why didn’t she win?” Shane asked. He’s already learned about electoral voting in school.
I had to explain the sad truth: “Because that’s just the way it works, Son.”