Featured image from the British Library, follow the link for more of this artist’s work.
As things are right now, the results seem to favor Biden. Personally, I had felt that if Trump were to win, that it would have to be a decisive victory. For all of the zeal and passion of the die-hard Trump supporters and their willingness to crawl over broken glass, there were many who voted against Trump based solely on his personality. Trump doesn’t act like a President. He is rude, crude, hyperbolic, showy, and has little filter. He says things in real time and revels in the attention that the press gives him, which is overwhelmingly negative despite the good things he has done in his four years in office.
But there is a misinterpretation of the results that is unfolding in real time from these elections, and I think that this is going to cause worse problems over the next two to four years. What happened in my opinion is a rejection of the Trump personality, but not the policy. The American people said enough of the rhetoric and showmanship. Enough of the Twitter rants and retweets with little thought. Enough of the off the cuff statements. Enough. We the people wish our President to behave with some dignity and class. To some extent I can agree with that, but while I focus on substance over style, many others want their president to look and act like one.
But this is where the misinterpretation happens. The Democrats are looking at the results as an outright rejection of every Trump policy in addition to his personality. They are interpreting this as a mandate that their platform of higher taxation, repression of dissent, focus on intersectional identity, and the myriad of policies designed to increase the size, scope, reach, and permanency of the government is what the American people want. Their policies are ultimately destructive and will lead to further division of people and the destruction of the middle class if you ask me, but many people simply said no more Trump regardless of what it gives me.
With the legal challenges still winding their way through the courts and various localities recounting their ballots, the process is unfolding. We must let it work in order to have integrity with our elections. I would say the exact same thing if the situation were reversed and it looked like Trump snuck out a victory. We must make sure that this election is clean to prevent the further fracturing of our nation.
This of course, doesn’t stop those who believe that they’ve won to let their real beliefs slip. A week after the election, you have folks calling for lists to be made. Lists of people who should be prohibited from serving in office, excluded from corporate boards, faculty positions, and rejected from “polite” society. I am not going to go down the rabbit hole of historical precedents for this type of behavior and the authoritarianism it leads to, if you’re interested investigate it, or let me know you’d like me to go down such a path. But for a side that professes to want unity, an end to the division that has plagued us for the last “four years,” and a United States, this is certainly not how you go about doing it.
This election brought out over 148 million votes, a spectacular level of turnout, regardless of how things turn out. Over a 62% participation in our representative republic. To say that 70 million people should be excluded from our society because they didn’t vote for the winning candidate should be cause for ridicule if it wasn’t being taken so seriously.
I will give Biden a chance, to govern as he says he will govern, and to rebuke the people calling for exclusion within his party. Many who voted for Trump will give Biden a chance, people want the craziness to stop, to have their friends and families back, to return to a world where people aren’t screaming at each other and calling each other terrible, venomous names. But if the people suggesting that lists be made of people to exclude from representation in society begin to act on that, then you will see a worse backlash than 2016. Because the people calling for exclusion from representation aren’t calling for exclusion from taxation, and even the most lay person knows what taxation without representation gets you in the US.
but mind what you say over the next weeks, months, and years. The internet will keep it forever. Do not demand perfection from those you disagree with. Do not demand supplication or embarrassment. Show mercy and dignity in victory. Doing so will show people that you deserve a chance.
A Place 4Politics 