Like probably almost everyone who writes for the Huffington Post, I woke up this morning feeling sad. I live on a coast (the left one) and happily immersed in my own golden bubble, I honestly didn't think that Trump could win. I really didn't. This is forcing me to take a long look at other things that I probably don't really understand, but thought I did.
Math. Evidently, math doesn't really work because Nate Silver PROMISED that Hillary Clinton would win. It makes me really happy that I didn't bother to learn much math! I can use those brain cells for something new and exciting! Since math and probability were #withher, if they were wrong in this case, I am pretty sure they will be wrong in other cases. I am planning to take my daughter's college fund immediately to Las Vegas and put it on 17 black, although I will also diversify my investment by buying 10,000 lotto tickets. Stay tuned for when I win big.
What America wants. There is a saying in marketing that "you are not your customer." This is supposed to make you open your eyes to the fact that people other than you are looking at your products and might not actually be interested what you think is amazing. Apparently, I am not America. I really thought at the heart of it all, America wanted equality. But, as my daughter's friend Max - a super smart millennial with whom we carpool - pointed out, working for an amorphous cause like "social justice" requires a full belly and a stable path to success. If you don't have that, you will work for what serves you and your family. There is no point in berating or denigrating part of our country for voting for what they see as a path forward in their lives, just because it doesn't look like that to me.
How to heal this. I watched the election last night with a sense of despair (and yes, thoughts of the apocalypse and emigration,) but I was also grateful to live in a nation where our votes actually matter and the outcome of an election can be in doubt. This is not true in many countries in our world. However, our nation was so evenly divided that it is hard to see how we can ever heal it. I am just hoping someone smarter than I will be able to figure this out. Apparently, that person is Donald Trump.
As we emerge from this absolutely horrific election cycle, I am trying to think about things this way: For better or worse, we now have a chance to change US politics. With a completely Republican-controlled country, there should be no excuse for continued gridlock and for not getting SOMETHING done. Yes, I am afraid that this "something" will not match what I think should happen, but apparently, I'm not that smart! At best, perhaps we will learn that the Republican agenda is a good thing for progress in America. At worse, we will learn why the Republican-agenda isn't the best thing for America. Either way, there will be learning.
Sometimes things have to break down in order to evolve. Like butterflies! Or the rotting decay of a corpse, which ultimately feeds the earth! Wait, was that too dark? Let's go back to butterflies. Perhaps in four years, we will all be grateful that our "American Experiment" went a different direction and maybe we will be flying happily in the sunshine. But if we are just feeding worms, I am grateful that we can vote again to change it.