Today is the 10th of November, 2016, and it officially marks the beginning of the post-election hangover that large swathes of the United States must inevitably be suffering through.
Donald J. Trump.
It’s certainly surreal. The real-estate tycoon turned reality show host, now leader of the Free World. Trump’s vulgarity, his bigotry, and misogynistic personality are astonishingly well-documented, and yet here we are.
Clearly, the United States has had enough of its broken, stagnant and despicable Congress, which over the last four years has managed only to frantically erode public trust in its ability to effectively govern the nation. The New York Times published exit poll results in an article earlier this morning, and revealed that 84% of Democrats polled were satisfied with the previous administration.
Satisfied with their lot in life, perhaps. Fearful of the economic shock waves a Trump presidency may cause, fearful of the negative effects on their aspirations to peaceably continue developing a full, happy life.
It is essential to not only fully understand why Trump won, but more importantly to address the reasons and formulate a plan – something, anything, a reaction of any sort – to counter them. It’s so easy for many Americans and indeed many outsiders to laugh at, or condemn, or shake their heads at America right now. I’ve heard it said that Americans as a result are racist and sexist, proven by their choice of leader.
To engage in such a reaction is to blatantly and wilfully ignore the underlying problems with American society, to ignore the escalating income and education inequality that is driving a wedge between Americans who maybe share more in common than they care to admit.
Paul Theroux’s Deep South – a fascinating journey through America’s small and overlooked Southern towns, often paralysed by poverty – is an interesting and I would argue important insight into some of these problems, as told through the stories of those that live there. At first, I was tempted to point to communities like Allendale County, or places like the Mississippi Delta, as hotbeds for potential Trump supporters – communities where the current political system could not point to on a map.
I don’t know how, or even if, these places voted; but I believe that before America moves forward, it needs to head South and see for itself what is happening all across the country, on the ‘other side of the tracks’.
If you bemoan the prospect of a Trump-led America, just remember; there are millions of people in America who have been bemoaning the prospect of anybody being elected, for all the good it will certainly not do them. Perhaps a thunderbolt result such as this is going to become a normality until things really do start to change – for better or worse.
TJDempsey 