I’m trying, EZ. I’m trying. But I actually haven’t knit a stitch since Wednesday morning.
Though this is ostensibly a knitting blog, I’m going to write about politics. I’ve never actually understood the impulse to keep politics under wraps, to behave as though discussing politics is “impolite”, to try to treat it as though it is somehow secondary to “real life”. It IS life. And I’ve always felt that treating politics in this way, as a topic not fit for polite conversation, is part of what allows for it to be treated as a mere abstraction. Of course it can only be treated as a mere abstraction, a game, when none of the policies being proposed, the decisions being made, when none of that actually impinges upon you as a person. But for so many people, that has never been true – politics has never been an abstraction, never been just a game. It can’t be, when you actually have skin in the game. And I was raised to treat everyone’s livelihood and wellbeing as bound up with my own, so to me it does not matter if I personally benefit if that requires others to be held down or left behind.
So I think you can guess where I stand on what happened a week ago in my country. This is a nightmare made real.
I come from a family of progressives; my dad’s parents have been activists for civil rights, social justice, and the environment their entire lives, and my family has always been deeply involved as well. Growing up, my family’s tradition was to wear black after an election loss. Because losses mean grieving. And as liberals in 1980s/early 90’s North Carolina, losses were plenty. The first one I remember deeply was Harvey Gantt, who lost to Jesse Helms in 1990, when I was 7. We’d volunteered with Gantt’s campaign, and my 7 year old social justice warrior self was so horrified by the racism of the Helms campaign. I thought that surely people would vote against that. They didn’t.
I didn’t sleep Tuesday night. I was too nervous to sleep, when I saw where things were heading, and once I knew where they’d gone, there was no sleeping, just crying and shaking, filled with dread, about the future of our country but more immediately, about having to break my daughter’s heart in the morning. She had proudly voted with me that evening, and I even let her fill in the circle for the woman we thought would be our president.
She had gone to bed with confidence that Hillary would be our next president. Ever since watching parts of the DNC convention with us, she’d been very much “with her.” She asked me Wednesday morning how Donald Trump could have won. “He’s a bully who doesn’t love everyone – shouldn’t everyone have voted against him?” Oh, sweetie, you aren’t wrong…but they didn’t. Oh, honey, sometimes the good person loses. But that doesn’t stop us being good, working for good, doing good. We’ve just gotta love that much harder to beat the hate.
But I am grieving. I’m grieving the loss of the future I imagined for Madrigal, now made precarious by a thin-skinned narcissistic bully who will be Commander in Chief, by a president and congress that will not take seriously the threat of climate change during this critical juncture, and which will seek to dismantle our social safety nets, by the racism and misogyny that has been normalized, and by a Supreme Court which may well work to strip our children of rights rather than expand them. I’m grieving the fact that instead of shattering the glass ceiling, we’ve shattered our loving, caring, compassionate hearts. I’m grieving for all of the little girls who had that future robbed from them, and for all the little boys (and their parents) who are now growing up in a world where toxic masculinity is coming straight from the White House; our work teaching consent and respect in relationships is now even more urgent. I’m grieving for the soul of my country, which was even more rotten than I’d imagined…and I’d imagined it to be quite rotten. I never doubted that it was possible for Trump to win the presidency, and was frustrated by how easily nearly every one I knew dismissed this possibility. I believed with all my heart that Hillary would win, but knew it was possible that she wouldn’t. But knowing it was possible, and knowing it is reality, those are two very different things.
If this were another Republican, a competent one (I’m actually struggling a bit here to come up with a name beyond “Mitt Romney”), I would likely have the very same fears about what’s likely to be dismantled under single-party rule, with Paul Ryan at the helm. I would almost certainly be just as fearful about my daughter’s future, about inaction (or negative action) on climate change, about the elimination or privatization of the social safety net.
I don’t know what to do right now, but I am resolute in declaring that this is NOT normal, and I refuse to allow it to become my normal. I will resist, and hold on to my values, and live them in the world (like the UU that I am). I remain committed to truth, to openness, to inclusion, to compassion, to respect, to generosity, to kindness, to love. I will insist that we not try to comfort ourselves by saying “it’ll all be ok, there are checks and balances” when as a country, we’ve basically voted to eliminate all checks and balances, both those built into our systems of government and those baked into our sense of common decency. I will be comforted by those who acknowledge with me that it is NOT going to be “ok”, and help me plan how to fight to make it the least bad that we possibly can, to protect the most people from harm. Or, to use Hillary Clinton’s words, to do all the good we can, for all the people we can, in all the ways we can, as long as ever we can. Fighting for what’s right is worth it, it is always worth it.
Madrigal, I am so sorry. I am so sorry for what this country has done to your future. I am going to work so hard to try to contain the damage, to hold on to hope that we can build a better future.
I made a me-sized sweater, y’all!
Thank you for posting. The whole thing is scary and getting more and more frightening.
Thank you so much for this post. Politics IS real life – I’ve never felt this more sincerely than I do right now, and your energy and thoughtfulness on this subject helped me get through another tough day post-election.
This man is horrifying and does not deserve our respect or compliance with his terrible policies. It’s going to be a long, hard fight, but the worst thing would be to roll over and accept it. No way, dude. No way.
Thank you for this post! You are putting words to the feelings in my heart right now. I also grew up as a social-justice democrat in the sea of republicans that is NC, and my heart broke when NC went for Trump. I have been so encouraged by my faith family that the way to combat the hate is for everyone to love their neighbors as themselves and to be active in supporting organizations that fight for what we believe!
PS longtime reader, though I don’t believe I’ve ever commented!
These are my feelings exactly! Thank you for putting them into such graceful and accurate words.
Here is something that does give me hope, though: People are donating like crazy to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
Thank you, Sarah. That is hopeful news – and we plan on joining the ranks of people donating, and setting up monthly donations to ACLU, SPLC, and Planned Parenthood. Maybe some others…we gotta check the budget. I’m just so sad that this is our only recourse.
I had been shouting “demagogue, demagogue!” throughout the campaign, but you said it one better…”INCURIOUS demagogue! I also likened Trump to Hitler, an autocratic narcissist, but still he won the presidency. I take heart in the fact that he did not get the popular vote, It’s time to reexamine the efficiency of the electoral vote! I too am struggling with depression. My stomach churns with nausea whenever a news clip of him speaking comes on in the news. Right now I’d welcome either Bush back into the White House with a sigh of relief, and trust me, I never thought I’d feel this way about them!
My only solace is to knit. During the last days of the campaign I began knitting a shawl for a wise and dear friend who is going on 102 who has lived through many a campaign and was a young woman during WWII. She also sees the similarities between Hitler and Trump. She constantly reminds me that Hitler didn’t last long and neither will Donald Trump. So take heart, my friend, there are plenty of us who will continue the good fight against racism, sexism and bigotry. If Congress can stymie Obama’s every effort, so can we the people (the popular votists) also have the same effect on the Trump administration. I take heart as well when I see high school students, all across the nation, marching in protest against the Trump presidency. I have a feeling that no one, not even our youth, will just sit back and let things happen. We WILL overcome!
Thank you, Ysolda, for saying so well what is in all our hearts. After seeing similar posts in many knitting blogs I am happy to see so many knitters speaking up! I am willing to bet there are many other interest groups like us that are feeling the same way and talking about it as well. Change begins with dialogue and dialogue is alive and well! Persistence and determination will ultimately save the day, so let us keep up the good fight!
Thanks so much! To think that I thought things were bad under Bush…and I mean, they WERE bad, and there were elements of the same incuriosity and lack of concern for truth that I see in Trump. But I never would have expected to see something this much worse. It’s as if we’re treating our government as a reality show…and I suppose I always saw that as possible in our culture, but to be living it…I just don’t know how we come out the other side of this stronger for it, but I guess that’s what I have to hope for. I’m so very frightened for what’s going to happen in terms of the environment in particular, though, because I feel like we’re in an especially crucial juncture and missteps in these next few years could reverberate for millennia. But I am so glad to see so many people fired up about working to resist what is happening here. I hope we can really manage to do good.
As a Canadian, I and most people I know have been watching this whole thing unfold with growing horror and dread, and I am now truly appalled at what has happened and deeply sorry for all of you (not to mention the rest of us — the reality is that the US is rather major world power, and what happens there significantly affects the rest of the world), including those who voted for him because they believe that his being an “outsider” means he’s on their side. I don’t know how the coming years will go. I hope things will be OKish, but there are already lots of things that are not OK as a result of this. I wish I could do more, but for what it’s worth, you have my love and support. Stay strong.
Kingshearte, if I didn’t have my children and grandchildren living close by who I would seriously miss, I would consider moving to Canada. You folks seem so sane in comparison! And I imagine I’m not the only one that feels this way. We are all feeling a bit disenfranchised. I can’t imagine any world leader happily wanting to work with this man! Thank you for your kind words of love and support.
Beautifully said, Whitney. You know from our other online interactions that I agree 100% with all of this. Though it is not — and cannot be — I remain hopeful about our future, because of strong commitments like yours and mine and all of my fellow commenters.
On a particular blogging note: I’ve been getting increasingly tired of segmenting out different parts of my identity — university staff, pagan writer, food blogger — and have been contemplating just throwing up my hands and letting the various bits intertwine with each other publicly. Your excellent post here gives me some needed shoring up in that regard; thanks.