Dear Protesters in the United States:
I’m glad you were able to march. It’s empowering and cathartic and washes away some of the anxiety that the US presidential election has generated.
I understand why you are upset. You thought your nation was moving in your direction, towards the kind of multiracial, culturally laissez-faire pluralism that you take for granted. And it was heading that way! It even elected that Obama guy! And though it doesn’t count for much, Hillary Clinton still won the popular vote.
But every action has a reaction. And the blowback this time is exceptionally fierce.
People who feel they are losing status, and losing their hold on American culture, want to “Make America Great Again” in a way that you think is not so great. We all knew the voters of Donald Trump were really, really angry; they’ve been telling us so through the entire Obama presidency. We just didn’t know they were willing to wreck the party and burn down the house rather than let liberals be in charge of the black-and-white-and-brown birthday cake with rainbow sparkles. When four in five evangelical or “born again” Christians vote for a shameless pagan like Trump, they are not doing so because they are hypocrites or idiots. They are doing so because they are terrified.
Their fear, through the twisted magic of the Electoral College, has now been transferred to you. (Already you have something in common with the tea party.)
But as new and scary as it is to see a demagogue on his way to the White House, blocking traffic won’t block his agenda, or halt the erosion of democratic norms and civility that paved his way. It won’t persuade Republicans to hold their new president in check. The raw material for Trump’s authoritarianism — the broken norms, a propagandistic partisan media — was in place before he ever descended that gaudy escalator.
Democracy for my generation has been a steady context, the firm ground on which we walk. Democracy, for you, may not be a situation. It may be more of a struggle. (By the way, did all of you on the streets vote for Clinton? Ah, I thought so.)
It will be hard for institutions, like Congress or the news media or the courts, to keep all of Trump’s demagogic impulses in check. There is no chance that he will abandon his winning formula. To help him, Trump has surrounded himself with men who cut corners. When necessary, they will run over their opposition in ways that shock Americans.
And the public? According to exit polls, many of his supporters realise he is ill-suited to high office. But they are eager for fireworks, an explosive comeuppance for classes of people they don’t like; they’ll take their chances that someone else, not them, gets burned.
So, yes, America is entering dangerous times. By all means spend a few days protesting. Just realise that’s no substitute for vigilance and organisation. Keep your eyes open for people with leadership qualities. Avoid the shouters; follow the organisers. Share your contact information: There will be important news that needs to be shared. There will be people, newly defined as outsiders, alarmed and anxious like you, who would find comfort, and purpose, in a group. There will be local political candidates who need help.
There is nothing to do but work slowly, steadily against the tide, and uphold the principles you care about. When you win, be gracious in victory and look for compromises that can take the sting out of your opponents’ defeat. (You know how it feels.) Democracy has long traditions in America: Repeat them, venerate them, ritualise them.
This election’s over. A lot of your friends and neighbours failed to vote or failed to vote as if something real was at stake. They have discovered it was. Freedom was pretty free for my cohort — educated, cosmopolitan, with no compulsory military service, wide access to a globalising world, delighted by a diversifying country. The reaction is here. It’s going to be more costly for you.
— Bloomberg
Francis Wilkinson writes on politics and domestic policy for Bloomberg View.
