9/11 - again
November 09, 2016
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way . . . "
Chuck Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities
And here we are, a tale of two peoples - Americans, and the rest of world. No doubt about it, this will be a more protective, a more isolated America now, with Trump's core supporters of middle class white males, convinced that their lack of earning potential is the fault of immigrants, bad trade deals, and the Washington elite. They want change, and are gambling that things don't get worse than they are now. At his acceptance speech last night, Trump surprised many with a conciliatory tone and a reassurance that he was everyone's President. They played a Stones song at the end, and as I heard 'you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you find, you get what you need' I couldn't help adding 'or get what you deserve'.
But that's mean-spirited. For all our criticisms of Him, Trump did identify and pursue a core issue and a core demographic: people dissatisfied with the Democrats, with the elites, with big corporations, with big government, with crime, with 'others', with everything. Now it's up to Trump and the Republican led Congress to effect the changes he promised, without pulling out the wrong Jenga block and bringing it all down around their ears - our ears.
As an American, I was totally dismayed by the election results. But this is entirely our own fault. In a nation of 50% literacy above a grade 8 level, and an attention span that only turns to politics for a few months every four years, we collectively got what we deserved. From an individual perspective, it is, at times, hard to remember that.
Posted by: Lynnette Conroy | November 10, 2016 at 07:31 AM