I'm noticing that many of us are reacting to another Trump presidency about the same as we did the first time. Resistance best describes it. We keep calling out the lies, the incompetence, the meanness, hoping that, magically, enough people are going to wake up, and rise up, and somehow keep this country, and the world, from going over the cliff it is currently speeding towards. But I'm not sure we grasp the fundamental difference between his victory this time around and that of 2016.
In 2016 it was easy to write off Trump's win as a kind of fluke. His margin was slim, Clinton won the popular vote. Influences like Russian interference, fake news, and social media manipulation were a new phenomena. Comey's disastrous and unforgivable late in the game slander of Clinton. And of course, with Trump being a professional con man, it was easy to say that he just fooled a lot of people, who will change their tune as soon as they see who he really is.
But they didn't change their tune. In 2024 there was no question that they really knew who Trump is, what he stands for, and what his intentions are. And yet they voted for him anyway. Not a landslide as he claims, not even a majority of Americans (he got less than 50% of the popular vote). But enough to put him in the White House. No one was fooled this time. They voted for Trump not in spite of his lies and racism, but because of his lies and racism.
It's difficult to grasp the fact that that's who we are as Americans now. You can say "them not us" but that kind of divisiveness will not fix anything either. We, the American people, elected Donald Trump to be our president in full knowledge of his crimes, and his lies, and the despicable human being that he is.
So how do we deal with this? The first thing I am trying to do is not rush to judge the people and organizations flocking to gain favor with Trump. Yes it seems cowardly and self-serving but it's nothing unusual in the capitalist society we live in. People and companies have to survive. Corporate greed has been around a lot longer than Trump. I also want to avoid rushing into a us vs them mentality. Yes it's true that in times of darkness we must retreat and hold on to our values and "keep the faith alive" for when the light returns, as it surely will. But at the same time we have to remain engaged with the world we live in, and try hard not to build even more barriers between us.
I'm taking a wait and see attitude at this point. To the Trump voters I say "you won, now let's see what you're going to do with it". It's your chance to prove to us snowflake libtards that you really can make the country better. Hey, if gas and eggs go down to $0.99 again, and I don't have to pay taxes to fund wars anymore, I might start believing you. But if all of the brown people have to go in hiding, and all my taxes go to Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg, instead of fixing the roads and keeping poison out of the water, you'll have some explaining to do.