Wednesday, November 8, 2017

One Year Later: Elections Have Consequences

I feel like November 8, 2016 was my last day of innocence.  I worked on the streets of Cleveland so I knew about anger by homeless people and the anger toward people who are different.  I knew about the opioid crisis and the many friends who were dying.  I knew the face of poverty, and understood that the United States had many problems, but  I still thought that most people believed all men were created equal.  I still thought we all had a foundation of the four freedoms, the Kennedy inaugural, and the Great Society. I thought that we were working to fulfill the expressions in the "I have a dream" speech or as Ted Kennedy said, "The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society." Then a sizable number of Americans cast their lot with a fraud in 2016 and I had to face the reality that there is a large amount of hate, fear and hypocrisy washing over the country. I really could not comprehend the change. Every rule was broken and every norm was violated, and voters selected a perversion. 
This is me on Nov. 8,  2016

I could not fathom, Donald J. Trump winning the election.  It would be like if person could select any car on the lot for the same price and they selected the Pontiac Aztek because they saw it on Breaking Bad.  My whole world was turned upside down.  People were so angry in the United States that they were willing to turn the keys over to a novice who openly talked about his contempt for government.  Some of my friends warned me (you were correct, Gino), but I dismissed them as just flirting with chaos.  They were saying that some of their Republican friends were embracing this guy because "nothing else had worked."  I guess I should have known because when I was doing voter registration work in 2008 and 2012 no low income person was signing up so they could vote for McCain or Romney.  Then in 2016, I found about 30% of the low income people I registered were saying positive things about a reality star, but again I figured that they were just saying the extreme for kicks.  I took it as an idol threat and the vast majority of people would sober up when they got in the election booth.  I could not imagine throwing away my vote on a charlatan.

I can't even describe how shocked I was with the election of the guy who admitted on a bus that he had no problem grabbing women's vaginas and kissing them without permission.  I had worked since early in the morning driving people to vote until the polls closed.  So, I was exhausted and fell asleep at around 8:30 p.m. on Election night.   All was fine with only early returns.  Nothing out of the ordinary and everything was going as expected with New England blue and the South red.  Then I woke up at around 1:30 a.m on November 9 and things were starting to break apart.  I really felt like Rip Van Winkle who had fallen asleep and woke up decades later.  The hyper active graph guy on MSNBC was madly circling states and Electoral College numbers.  Ohio was lost which was amazing to me.  Our Republican governor and Senator was not voting for the candidate so how could these guys not bring 15 to 20% of their own GOP members with them?
How I felt on November 9, 2016

Michigan was lost, Florida was lost, Pennsylvania was lost, Wisconsin was lost and all that was left was the concession speech.  At 3 a.m. I saw the celebration by this vile, arrogant, narcissistic liar.  What the hell was his young son doing up still?  And by the way, what kind of 70 year old guy has such a young son?  I immediately went outside to throw away my Hillary Clinton yard sign in disgust for what a bad campaign she had run.  I had no idea how many things she was fighting while sulking at 3 a.m.  I had no idea about Russia and the Facebook/Twitter campaign.  I had no idea how many sexist voters there were in America.  I could not imagine the whisper campaign that was going on from the right wing media and fringe web based outlets. The lack of enthusiasm among progressives and the number of minority members of our society who sat at home were all working against Clinton.

I went to work, but hardly spoke.  I think I left early and cancelled any appointments.  I could not think about anything but the disrespect for a Prisoner of War who spent five years in a cage in Vietnam.  How to wrap your head around attacking a Gold Star family?  How could the United States install a leader who turns against the Muslim religion?  It is impossible that a racist who makes fun of those with a disability could take control of the nuclear football.  It just seemed inconceivable that a hate-filled person who was so disgraceful to his political opponent would now be responsible for picking federal judges.

I knew that the world had changed and that I could no longer do my job in advocacy.  I knew within a day of the election in 2016 that the federal government was going to dramatically change and the federal government was responsible for 80% of the funds going to address homelessness in Cleveland.  I knew that I could not go on seeing the despair and pain that was ahead.  Elections have consequences and I knew that America was fundamentally different November 10, 2016.

By Brian Davis


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