From the WP Article – linked (Ben Garver/Berkshire Eagle via AP)
Lisa and I have had several conversations recently about the situation our country finds itself in. We’re both looking for bright sides, she maybe hoping for kinder and gentler near-term stability as well as long-term stability, and me expecting that the idea of a short term comfort zone is really not going to happen. We’re on the same side of the fence at the end of the day, though.
Note the use of the terms “hoping” and “expecting” in that second paragraph. I am with her and with all people who hope we can avoid violence in this transition, but I have no expectation we will. It seems to me that violence and turmoil are exactly what progress in our country has always been founded upon. My view is that if, as a country, we’re going to find a way to get through the Trump years without losing our basic identity, it’s going to be because of the groundswell of people who aren’t going to take his approaches sitting down. I’m happy to be wrong, but I think it’s really as simple as that.
So I expect struggles, and as a result of those struggles I expect violence and more turmoil. It’s already happening, after all–primarily in the form of Trump supporters taking their victory laps.
And, yet, I have hope, too.
I have hope specifically because of that groundswell of people who, as evidenced by the WP article I linked to, are showing up in a lot of ways that they have never shown up before.
I have hope in the long term because I also have great expectation that this groundswell will result in positive movement. That it will carry us further along the trail toward equality and true freedoms. It is a terrible shame that some people, mostly of minority groups, will now have to pay another price for this progress, a price that earlier generations thought they had paid in full, but I’m confident it will happen. This groundswell is not some grassroots effort, after all. It’s not a third party or fourth party just trying to get a foothold. This groundswell is a huge part of the country, a majority that actually out-voted the incoming administration. While the groundswell has been set-back, and are in a bit of chaos right now, it is a groundswell that seems to obviously understand what’s at stake.
The demographics of the country are changing. That much is clear. And by demographics, I mean mindset more than I mean ethnicity or gender or any other protected class. I believe that Trump’s election was a last gasp. A successful last gasp, but a last gasp nonetheless. Since it was successful, it will cause some serious damage.
Well. It happens.
So, yeah. Of course I hope that near-term violence and pain can be minimized. But the majority groundswell is large. Whatever price it will pay in either pain or violence, I have every expectation that in the end it will win the day.