2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: What lessons do YOU take from the results? [View all]frazzled
(18,402 posts)I'm not joking about this. Several weeks before the election I read an Op-Ed in the NY Times called something on the order of "If you want progress (or something like that) move to Iowa." I can't seem to find it using their search function right now, but the argument ran something like this:
Liberals have increasingly tended to congregate in a few places: large cities instead of rural areas, coastal states instead of the interior. There are more of us, but our votes don't count (I think especially given the electoral college).
We live in bubbles. I know I do: I live in a large urban area that goes solidly blue every time. My state went blue this election. Everyone I know supported Clinton. I honestly don't know a single crazy Republican (I've probably encountered some moderate, old-school Republicans). We think everyone is like us.
I'm not suggesting we really give up our blue paradises to move to rural Nebraska or anything. But I do think this election opened my eyes to how sheltered we are. It's still hard for me to digest the fact that there are so many people who would vote for a man with so much vulgarity, bigotry, lying, meanness, and lack of knowledge or facts. It's been hiding under the surface for some time, but it came bubbling out into the open last week.
I feel like I've lost my faith in humanity, that I've been living in a dream world in which I thought facts and kindness and caring were the norm, only to wake up to a holy nightmare. It's been really hard to digest. It's going to take some time to figure out what to do. But at least my eyes are opened. I will never give up my liberal ideals and my moral and ethical values, but I will be more wary of the dangerous America out there.