​Van Jones' comment that this election, this aftermath, is a "whitelash", effectively draws our attention to the most important facet made apparent by the exit polls -the reality that the new president was elected by a predominantly white, uneducated, lower class, group of men. President Trump is essentially, their mirror, the reflection of their own "American-ness." Those qualities of arrogance, abuse, hate-mongering, indulgence in creature comforts, and the infinitely volatile combination of ignorance and ineptitude, are the qualities of the typical American that have been bred by the system itself. Education has been dismantled -higher education is expensive, the proliferation of the Internet meme, with its cheapness, has coincided with the proliferation of the free reign of ignorance. The political process itself is illusory and delusional -the Legislative branch is essentially corporate controlled, by proxy, via lobbyists and bribes; while voters are marginalized by lack of accurate information depicted within the extremely polarized and antipodal points of corporate media, social media, and liberal media. Arts and culture have been completely brushed off and diminished -reality TV reigns supreme, along with the rise in delusional narcissism (the selfie, the tweet -the digital/cosmetic modification of self-image, so to speak); the surplus of aesthetic commodity has given way to a devaluation of art and music and literature and cheap hypercommodities are now consumed in greater amounts (essentially nothing but an aesthetic and intellectual culture of quantity over quality, style over substance).
Inside of this climate, this orbit of information, this carnival, this path of cannibalization leading into the abyss - how could anyone actually marvel at the whitelash, as if the impossible has occurred? It has been staring at us from the lukewarm afterglow of our LCDs for nearly a decade, to question, "How is this possible?" and to express stupefaction, is to acknowledge the shock of being made aware of our collective participation in the matter -our failure to see that reflection staring back at us, caused by our love of self that contributed to our lack of guilt. . .until now. How is this a surprise? How could one not have foreseen this outcome if not due to some great dose of denial coupled with aloofness? The whitelash was inevitable.