The morning after the election, as my wife and I struggled to understand how this country could choose demagogue Donald Trump as president, I found comfort in the only explanation that makes sense to me, as hard as it is to accept. Things must need to get worse before they get better. How else to understand the ascendance of a person who epitomizes everything that’s wrong with our society, and world?
The issues of global warming, the disparity between rich and poor, the influence of big business in government, the division between the races, the suppression and demeaning of women, all apparently need to get worse before enough people wake up to demand a real change.
Those who elected Trump cared only about shaking things up in Washington. Tired of the same old politicians, they wanted an outsider. So great was their need for change, they chose a corrupt businessman, a climate change denier infamous for taking advantage of the common man.
The fact he is a racist and misogynist was not enough of a reason to reject him. The underlying racism this vote exposes is a horrifying realization. Members of the Ku Klux Klan are celebrating.
Americans have made the same mistake as the English with Brexit. But unlike the Brits leaving the EU, putting Trump in the White House is a potential crime against humanity.
We’ve made a shyster buffoon the most powerful man in the world. He will have access to our nuclear weapons, and will be our commander in chief. He will nominate the next Supreme Court justice. He will work to eliminate Planned Parenthood, the rights of women, people of color, the LGBT community, every progressive issue.
For those of us already alarmed about the state of the world, it’s very challenging to think that things need to get worse before we wake up as a species and begin treating each other and the environment with respect. But that’s clearly what needs now to happen.
Let’s hope we survive the process.
(Sol Solomon lives in Sutton Mills.)