Who are we?

In processing the stunning defeat of the first Black & Indian woman vice president in America, a good friend of mine had this insight:

“When America tells you who she is, believe her.”

This of course is a beautifully concise alteration of the often quoted Angelou line “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”.

And so it is, after the 2024 US election results, I’m coming to terms with who America is. I’m reminded of the 2016 election, which forced me to rethink my approach to religion entirely, based on my relationship with those that raised me in that brand of Christianity.

Now, I’m forced to reconcile with the reality that the majority of America has chosen this path toward hatred and power again. That’s not a fluke or a temporary aberration. It’s a trend.

It had been said shortly after the January 6th riots that it was the Republican party that was dying and struggling with rebirth. That it was the 2016 election that was the outlier, and that 2020 was the corrective. Though America was going through a strange flirtation with autocracy, it was on track to reverse course.

But it turns out — shockingly — that 2020 was the stumble and 2024 was the return to America’s new direction. And worse, it was my Party, the Democrats, that are now faced with splintering and a rudderless path forward.

It’s been said a lot in my circles that voting is not an act of self-expression, but rather a choice between two outcomes. Which one does the most good for the most people?

And yet, as I reflect on what went so horribly wrong this cycle, I’m realizing that I did somehow fall for that belief, that our vote is somehow a sacred reflection of our deeper souls; and that if we just appealed to all of our better angels, the right outcome would just naturally follow.

But what if there are no better angels?

Admittedly, that is dark place in which to wallow. But at what point did German Jews in 1939 realize that Germany really had fallen into irredeemable darkness and that it was time to escape? Elections have consequences, as Obama famously said. That was never truer today. We will soon see just what dark consequences the next four years yield.

Analysis

Two recent podcast episodes that have been helpful for me to process and analyze are below.

Resources

https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins