It’s hard when
someone says, “I told you so.” I know.
I’ve been feeling like someone has been saying, “I told you so.” Big time.
It’s even harder to
get my head around the fact that, in just over two months, Donald Trump will be
our president. It is hard to believe
that “the Donald,” a television celebrity who has never held any office and
appears to know very little about what doing so involves and who has said
horrible things about women and minorities, mocked the disabled, encouraged
violence, bragged about groping women and lied about President Obama not being
born in the U.S, among other things, was elected to be president, the “leader
of the free world.” But Trump was elected, squarely if not fairly, winning the
electoral college but not the popular vote, and he will be our next president
come January 20.
I thought it was
bad when Reagan was elected president.
That was a Sunday in the park compared to this. All the more so when we see the people, like
alt-right promoter Stephen Bannen, who Trump is relying on for the help and
advice he so desperately needs in his new position.
What is easy is to
say that nobody saw this coming. That is
what everyone has been saying, starting with all the newscasters and
commentators on Election Night. There
has been many articles and much chatting about how most people thought Hilary
Clinton would win and how they all got it so terribly wrong. Even Trump’s supporters and backers and even
Trump, a bit like a deer in the headlights, are surprised.
Too easy, in
fact. It’s too easy to say this was all
just such a surprise, a shock.
We should have seen
this coming. Especially us
Democrats. We sh
ould have seen this coming.
There were signs
that this was coming. Signs that were
telling us. Signs now saying, “I told
you so.”
Yes, racism played
a role in Trump’s victory, with mostly white men – and white women! – voting
for him. As graphically seen in Henry Louis Gates’ new PBS documentary series
on African-American history, this is the same racism that lead to white flight
and the rejection of racial quotas right after black power became a big thing. And
the fact that it now turns out that most people get news – more to the point,
news that they want, including fake news, like Hilary and Bill going to sex
parties or the pope endorsing Trump – from Facebook and
Twitter was an issue.
But it was more
than these and other related issues. They are easy.
Again, we Democrats
should have been listening, should have seen what was going on.
As one friend said,
Hilary should have been down in the hood.
She should have been taking $25, $5, whatever from folks, like Bernie
did, instead of whining that she should be the first woman to be president as
if it was her right and taking $10,000 checks from whoever was lucky enough to
see her in Hollywood and on Wall Street.
This not only made Trump’s supporters and those open to him feel all the
more forgotten and angry – on top of their resentment that others get help with
their tax money, as I say in my previous post - and determined to vote for him,
come Hell or high water. Worse, it
alienated the non-rich minorities and young people who were supposed to vote
for Clinton and cut them off, leaving them with no reason to vote for her. (I voted for Jill Stein, which didn’t matter
here in dark blue California.)
No wonder the
Donald is no longer a joke and will now be our president, the commander in
chief, the leader of the free world.
Hell and high water may well coming, and we should have seen it
coming. Because, by not listening to
those who listened to Trump, by not taking them seriously, we let it
happen.
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