It is inconceivable that the president of the United States could be someone my granddaughters cannot respect.
But that is precisely where we will be January 20.
That is why all the platitudes about uniting to support the new president, about the American example of presidential transition, and about giving him a chance to be successful fall flat with us.
For us, this was never a philosophical debate or a battle between differing political points of view. We’ve engaged in those for years.
Rather, this time, it was personal.
Like A Rock
It was about what kind of country we want the United States to be, but more to the point, it was fundamental principles we hold true.
As the quotation attributed to Thomas Jefferson said: “In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.”
That’s why it’s not possible for us to treat this as an ordinary presidential election. We’ve been on the losing side of elections before and while we were disappointed, we accepted the outcome and wished success for the new president.
But none of these presidents displayed vile behaviors that insulted morality and defied norms about what is right and what is wrong.
No Pretending
It is not possible that we can now be tolerant about intolerable behaviors and explain later to our granddaughters that in the wake of the election, we simply moved on and ignored his crass and repulsive behavior and the countless comments boasting about it.
We cannot now simply pretend that he did not vilify Latinx and Black Lives Matter.
We cannot merely forget hate language that disparaged and defamed millions of Americans’ religion and race.
We cannot overlook rhetoric that treated cities, particularly neighborhoods where African Americans live, as centers of crime, poverty, and ignorance.
We cannot pretend that we are not rejecting American values by rejecting immigrants fleeing for their lives.
We cannot shed our principles now as easy as evangelicals casting their ballots for Donald Trump on election day.
Just Say No
These words and actions are not simply beliefs and factors defining a political point of view. These are the things that characterize personal character and ethics, and if we refuse to shrug and accept them in a friend, how do we now accept them in our president?
So, the answer is simple: we won’t. We can’t.
Here’s the big difference between those of us living in urban areas and those in rural areas who turned out to vote for Donald Trump. We know people in all the groups that have been mercilessly attacked by him. They are not abstracts to us. They are friends, family, neighbors, and community leaders.
And because of it, our lives are richer – our individual lives and the lives of our cities – and for us, the hate-filled campaign speeches target people we know.
That too is why we cannot treat this as a normal election.
Different Attitudes
There are too many potential consequences for people we know, and it is why people are marching in the streets and why many of us vow to join them to protect and support LGBTQ, Latinos and Latinas, Muslims, immigrants, African Americans, and others treated as “the other.”
So much of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric was designed to capitalize on the image of cities as dangerous and sources of the nation’s ills because of their diversity and divergent peoples. It also seems that the farther someone lives from a city, the more they fall prey to the notion that city residents are somehow different and less deserving.
Clearly, our urban experiences give us a different worldview – and also a different attitude about looking squarely at problems and working to solve them. (Take a look at the second map to see how different cities are in their voting.)
It speaks to our failure as lovers of cities to explain why cities, not states, are the “laboratories of democracy” that are working for policies that create fairer, more equitable, more livable places and that in the end will drive the overall success of this country.
Rising Tide Lifts All Yachts
Somehow, the conspiracies, the alt-right propaganda (that now moves into the White House), and the victimization of the racial and religious majority have managed to drown out the facts about the real reasons that the rising tide is lifting all yachts and that the middle class boats have been paddling against the current for decades.
Those of us who care about cities have been crying out for change for decades, but some politicians – including our president-elect – have managed to create an “us versus them” attitude in which the shared interests of urban and rural middle class families are put on different sides of the table so that the money-infused special interests can control a political system that profoundly benefits them.
What’s been missing in these discussions is a primary fact: cities and their regions are the drivers of the American economy (small cities and rural areas only account for about 20% of the total GDP). The lack of a prevailing urban agenda and the money approved by Congress to back it up are ultimately not a price just paid by urban centers, but by the entire United States.
That this inexorable dependence on cities is not only misunderstood but unappreciated is testament to how skillfully the wedge has been driven between urban, suburban, and rural Americans.
Saving The World
The Talmud says that “whoever saves a life…is considered as if he saved an entire world.” That is the sentiment that motivates us in the months ahead.
We set out to do what we can do by fighting for each person in Memphis.
Few cities in the country have more experience dealing with narcissistic, narrow-minded, and intemperate ideologues. We have years of experience in dealing with the politicians in charge of state government whose overreach into local decisions knows no bounds. In its way, the Trump platform is an extension of the rhetoric and retribution politics seen so often by the super-majority in the Capitol.
So, here’s where we are: we are moving through the five stages of grief, but we admit today that we will never come to grips with the last stage – acceptance. That will not happen, and we have no patience with Trump loyalists who now call on us to unite behind the president-elect when he has sowed the seeds of divisiveness, sexism, bigotry, and hate.
It is a convenient point of view for the loyalists. Where was their concern about uniting this country when they had their chance to emphasize how we are all in this together and there is more to bring us together than to break us apart?
Personal Politics
The political cynicism in creating fear and then capitalizing on it is in a word, unforgivable. That fear resonates in this country and has become a defining force in the lives of too many children and families.
It proves once again how fragile democracy can be. That’s why we refuse to flirt with the cracks in liberty caused by a president whose character is anathema to who we are as a nation and who puts egotism ahead of patriotism.
We do not criticize those who now set aside the results of this election, but we cannot ignore the fear that so many of our fellow citizens share, the insults that have been directed at women, and 15 months of insults and slurs endured by friends and family that leave them looking to the future with uncertainty and trepidation.
Because of them, the election of this man is not conceptual or theoretical. It is personal, and that will not change.
Rather, it now becomes motivation to do more, to call out bigotry in all its forms, to work for the kind of change that improves everyone’s lives, to fight sexual harassment, and to be relentless forces for American values that we profess to hold dear.
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Locally – between your site and the Flyer – I can always count on your voices of reason, and perspective. I have followed you through the important Greensward discussions, de-annexation, etc., but this post is your most important to date. The results of this election – and the individual who will occupy the White House – is a call to action. And I, like you, cannot sit idly by and watch this great country go the route of failed empires because of one sociopath.
Thank you for this editorial.
Well said, Tom.
Trump is a national nightmare, but he won and that’s our democracy.
I only hope much of his campaign rhetoric was just that and that he will be more moderate than expected. The appointments to the Supreme Court and denial of climate change are what bother me most.
Poor, majority black cities like Memphis will really suffer under President Trump.
Thank you for so eloquently expressing this. It is not OK and I cannot explain to my young daughters why so many voters in this country embraced a hateful message. I can only tell them that we won’t return the hate and have to find constructive ways to be involved, to effect change, and remain hopeful that fear will lose its hold. Younger generations will, I hope, be kinder and smarter.
My children did not and do not respect Obama but we didn’t go on a crusade to whine about it continually. You’re candidate lost because the majority of voters stated their case. Follow the democratic process to fight for your beliefs and that is fine. The outcome of the election will not change for at least 4 years. Give Trump a chance because the majority put his problems aside for the better of the nation.
Big problem with that argument. Your candidate did not win the majority of voters.
Anonymous:
Did you even read this before crawling back into your talking points?
Some us find it impossible to set aside character flaws and immorality like sexual harassment, sexism, racism, religious bigotry and more. Did you ever think that you’d be suggesting that we should put aside these kinds of problems and you’d be referring to the president of the USA? It’s not whining – it’s standing on principles that all decent people share.
You sure couldn’t make any of these complaints about the consummate statesman and gentleman – Obama.
As a pastor, I’ve been particularly disappointed in the way evangelicals rallied around him. I challenged one “Christian” to name one…just one…Christian attribute or value that Trump had…kindness? Forgiveness? Humility? Grace? Compassion? Concern for the poor, marginalized? Not a one. Let me be clear: the president does not have to be a Christian by any means, but the values are important.
Amen, Tom! Thanks for reminding us we can’t sit back and turn a blind eye to what’s happening. Our voice is more important than ever.
I will second that about Obama. What is there not to like about him? He is a gentleman and a statesman. We will greatly miss him as the Trump administration turns back the progress on climate, healthcare, and the economy.
Thank you, Tom! This election will be a disaster for the majority who voted against the “winner” and esp. for the minority who voted for the “winner.” Our country has lost.
I have come away from many elections disappointed, but never worried. I’m worried now. Trump is unpredictable. I don’t even think Trump knows what he thinks. Reportedly, he doesn’t read, but he ‘goes with his gut.’ A two-year-old doesn’t read, but goes with his gut. Sure hope Trump gets himself in trouble before he gets our nation in trouble.
I respectfully disagree that U.S. cities are “laboratories of democracy. Since at least the 1930s, U.S. cities have increasingly been the laboratories of what was known in Western Europe in the 1920s and 1930s as national socialism. There has been a most dysfunctional marriage between disciples of the Saul Alinsky-school of community organizing and state supported and directed oligarchic corporatism. So the American people have reacted through their ballots. The “soft” (not really so soft) intolerance of men and women of the left for Western values has not yet won the day. So President-elect Trump’s victory is at least one last flowering of the hope of freedom before the descent into mindless, soul-killing group-think, as so chillingly practiced by Clintonistas and Sanderites. “There once was a fair and decent land where men and women and children all had equal opportunities and individual freedom supported by rock-solid commitment to individual responsibility and belief in helping their neighbors. But rejected Orcs’ demands that ‘the state is all.'” Well, at least my grandparents told me that the USA was such a land. May God make it so again. Amen!
And yet, cities continue to drive the entire economy of this country. All these liberals in these cities must be doing something right. Like most people we know on the left, we do not abhor American values – we just believe that everyone should share equally in them. We hear what you are saying about freedom, but it seems to us that we’ve heard more about eroding our freedoms – and our principles – from Donald Trump in the past 15 months than any candidate in our lifetimes.
At least you won’t be accused of being like Neville Chamberlain.