For many, November 9th, 2016, felt like a day when the death of someone close hung in the air; like a fog, looming above them throughout the day, lingering in their thoughts, seeping in through the conversations they had that day with their colleagues, friends, and families. Lost, disoriented, they were seeking answers to questions they never once thought that they might be asking. “How did this happen?” “What went wrong?” And, of course, “Who is to be blamed?”
If you are one of those people for whom the last question is the most important one, well, you have plenty of candidates to chose from. You can blame the media, who provided so much air time to every single thing that one of candidates said or did, that that candidate did not even need to waste time and money making ads. You can blame the Democratic National Committee, who succeeded in nominating an establishment candidate during an election cycle in which people were desperately looking for anything but the establishment, and that was dominated by populism; the DNC had a candidate who would have been more appealing, but - as leaked emails show - they actively tried to sabotage his chances of securing the party’s nomination. You can blame the Republican National Committee as well; why did they nominate a candidate who - amongst other things - promoted bullying, objectified women, and called into question the heroism of prisoner’s of war?
If you are one of those people for whom the last question is the most important one, well, you have plenty of candidates to chose from. You can blame the media, who provided so much air time to every single thing that one of candidates said or did, that that candidate did not even need to waste time and money making ads. You can blame the Democratic National Committee, who succeeded in nominating an establishment candidate during an election cycle in which people were desperately looking for anything but the establishment, and that was dominated by populism; the DNC had a candidate who would have been more appealing, but - as leaked emails show - they actively tried to sabotage his chances of securing the party’s nomination. You can blame the Republican National Committee as well; why did they nominate a candidate who - amongst other things - promoted bullying, objectified women, and called into question the heroism of prisoner’s of war?
There are plenty of groups that you can blame, but, if you must narrow your selection to just one group of who ought to be blamed for the outcome of the 2016 U.S Presidential Election, the answer is quite simple.
It’s us. The citizens of the United States of America.
I am thirty-three years old, and during those thirty-three years, I have never seen this nation so divided on so many issues. Erstwhile, it used to be gun-control, same-sex marriage, and abortion rights that divided us; but now our divisions arises from issues that appear to be the trivial. Last Christmas, some people were outraged that Starbucks chose to have a holiday themed cup that had no Santas, elves or reindeer. It was determined to be yet another part of the “War on Christmas”. On the other end of the spectrum, you had people who got so offended by Bill Maher’s characterization of Islam, that UC Berkeley put up a petition to stop him from giving an commencement speech at the University. Yes; UC Berkeley - the birthplace of 1964 the Free Speech Movement.
To widen the chasm, we took to - of all the places - social media. The internet, we were promised, would bring us together. But take one look at your twitter feed, or scroll down to the comments section of a youtube video, and you would soon find out it had the exact opposite effect. And it is only growing worse. We tend to unfriend, unfollow, block people with whom we disagree, and surround ourselves only with people who share our thoughts and opinions about the world. That only reinforces our preconceived notions and opinions, even when they are wrong. So, we opt to agree with whatever news that we feel is right, even when it is not, and discard the news appears to be a falsehood, even if that is not the case. We create our facts, our truths, our own realities. And anything that appears to contradict with our version of events is deemed as a personal attack that must be responded to in the most uncivilized manner.
At a time of a record 73 month job growth streak, some are complaining about the economic policies of the current administration. At a time when the number of refugees is the highest it has been since the Second World War, some are applauding the foreign policy success of the current administration in the Middle East. Some believe that there is a global conspiracy to eliminate the white people, and anyone who disagrees with it is a self-hating “Cuckservative.” Some believe that Islam is being attacked, and anyone who quotes any passage from the Quran that shines an unkindly light on the religion is a bigoted “Islamophobe”.
Small wonder, then, that the Federal Government has become so stagnated. It is, after all, supposed be a reflection of the people, and if the people won’t compromise between each other, why should they?
This. Is. Not. Good.
This is dangerous. When truth itself depends upon who screams the loudest, mistakes will be made more frequently, and policies that endanger the future of our country - and, indeed, of our planet - are more likely to be implemented.
Mr. Trump won the Presidential election with the promise to “make America great again.” Well, I disagree with that, because the greatness of a society, of a nation, is not reflected by its wealth, nor its military might. It is reflected, instead, by its compassion, and how it treats the most vulnerable amongst it, and how it treats those come to it seeking aid, is a good barometer of that. And the America that I know, that helped me bring my epilepsy under control, that facilitates my job as I seek to find new homes for those who have lost their own in some war in some distant land, and that has allowed me to voice opinions, airing which would have gotten me jailed or killed in some countries, including the one from which I came, that America is the greatest nation the world has ever known.
So, whilst I disagree with President-Elect Trump, I would concede that there is always room for improvement, and it is up to us, the citizens of this great nation, to point out those areas where improvement is required, and for that to happen, we have to come out of our bubbles and unite. We must learn - or rather re-learn - how to engage with one another; how to disagree but not disrespect; how to share opinions without imposing them on others; how to accept that, as human beings, we too can be wrong; and, above all else, how to be civilized.
On November 22nd, our nation will commemorate the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy; it will be the 53rd year since it did so the first time. Journalism may now be dead, but perhaps now is a good time to remember what Walter Cronkite - of one of the finest journalist this country ever had - said during his broadcast two days after the death of Kennedy:
“It is said that the human mind has a greater capacity for remembering the pleasant than the unpleasant. But today was a day that will live in memory and in grief. Only history can write the importance of this day: Were these dark days the harbingers of even blacker ones to come, or like the black before the dawn shall they lead to some still as yet indiscernible sunrise of understanding among men, that violent words, no matter what their origin or motivation, can lead only to violent deeds? This is the larger question that will be answered, in part, in the manner that a shaken civilization seeks the answers to the immediate question: Who, and most importantly what, was Lee Harvey Oswald? The world’s doubts must be put to rest. Tonight there will be few Americans who will go to bed without carrying with them the sense that somehow they have failed. If in the search of our conscience we find a new dedication to the American concepts that brought no political, sectional, religious or racial divisions, then maybe it may yet be possible to say that John Fitzgerald Kennedy did not die in vain.”
No more hashtags; no more retweets and likes. The problems that exist in this country cannot be resolved in a hundred and forty characters or through a facebook post; it is much more complex. It does not matter whether you voted for Trump or Hillary, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, black or white, Christian or Muslim, gay or straight; we must all alter the ways we engage with one another; we must learn to respect one another; and, most importantly, learn from one another.
Bear in mind that in this country we do not elect leaders; we elect representatives; and if we are to make sure that they do the work we have selected them to do, then we must unite and remind ourselves that it was we, the People of the United States, who established the Constitution of the United States of America, and it is we who must ensure that it works for us all.
