Waking up on November 9, 2016

Screenshot from Hillary's "Role Models" ad

Haven't posted here in... 7 years. But need a place to collect my thoughts on this most surprising of mornings. I watched with horror and fear as Donald Trump overtook Hillary Clinton in the vote count last night. I had a strange feeling late last night at work, watching CNN trying to process the early returns, as they watched Trump creep up in the vote count. Then at home, I had to walk away from the TV when it became clear we'd have a President Trump. My first thought last night, as I kissed her sleeping in her bed, was how will I tell my 7 yo daughter in the morning that we'd elected a President Trump. And indeed, this morning when I woke her up for school she said, "Is Hillary our president?" I told her, "No honey, Trump won. There are many people in this country who think he'll help them. And he won." 

I just watched Hillary's concession this morning, and had to fight back emotion at my desk at work. I'm not typically an emotional person, and consider myself pretty calm, but why am I so pained this morning? I had to jot down a list of things that trouble me about a President Trump. I actually made a list. And now I'm dusting off my old blog to work through my emotions here.

What bothers me most about a President Trump? I'm not normally one to cry in public, why is this election so painful?

This will jeopardize any hope of humans dealing with climate change, the number one issue facing our species. As a student of international affairs, and one who has studied and worked abroad, I think about what this will do to our reputation around the world. How could we let this happen? How did Brexit happen? People around the world must wonder what we're thinking. 

I worry about our domestic environmental policies. Industry, and our markets, are concerned with the bottom line, costs of pollution are a market failure. We have important institutions, as part of government, that serve an important function of keeping track of the environmental costs of doing business, and placing important restrictions on certain industries. Government serves an important function here, because environmental costs aren't included in any company's bottom line, environmental costs are the result of market failures, and government plays an important role here - protecting the water our kids drink, keeping our food safe, keeping our air clean. With a President Trump at the helm, important government agencies will be sidelined. 

I worry about our nation's willingness to invest in our children, with education and other services. Education is another area where our market fails us, where government serves an important function. Without good, free basic education, cycles of poverty and lack of opportunity persist, and we all suffer. 

I worry about global security. The United States occupies a very important position in the world, we have led a delicate global order, with destructive nuclear weapons and important security alliances. We need a smart, thoughtful leader to keep this all in place. How can we trust a President Trump with the nuclear launch codes? 

I worry about our trade agreements, that have fostered global security, raised standards of living around the world, and are now in jeopardy. I don't deny that there are losers and winners any economic change, and free trade agreement. But the reality is that we can't efficiently produce steel it the US anymore, and those jobs are not coming back. Rather than deny global economic forces, we must retrain our workers so they can have a place in tomorrow's economy, the solution isn't to promise that we'll bring yesterday's economy back. 

President Trump will also enter office with a Republican controlled Senate and House, and he will appoint at least one, if not more Supreme Court justices. 

He's a man who has insulted women, bragged about assaulting them, engaged Twitter wars with countless people, mocked people with disabilities, made overtly racist remarks, and has given voice to the some of the worst, yet previously hidden, voices in our country. He has unleashed a dangerous and pent-up anger that has been dormant. At least he has brought to the surface two important issues that we've ignored until now - sexual assault and our terrible tax code that lets millionaire pay less than their secretaries. But we elected a man who is a liar, a conman, who claims to have business prowess but has failed in all his ventures. Except for this most audacious of ventures, tricking people into handing him the Presidency. 

He has appealed to those who have been too-long ignored by both parties. People whose economic opportunities have declined over their lifetime, the victims of our globalization, who have been ignored by our mainstream media and 'coastal elites'. JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy is a wonderful snapshot of these forces at work. 

But Trump, the self-promoter, and conman isn't the answer, for anyone. He'll do nothing to help anyone but himself. Maybe the silver lining is that he'll now be given the chance to follow through on his con, to actually improve things for those Americans who believed his promises. Rather than sitting at the helm of a new Trump media empire, he has been given the keys to the kingdom. Will he deliver on his promises or go down in flames? I loathe having to spend the next four years with a President Trump, time will tell if he'll prove himself to be a conman or an actual leader, who can improve things for his voters. 

It broke my heart to listen to Hillary's concessions speech. The worst part of this whole situation for me, was that conversation with my daughter this morning. Having to tell her that we elected a man who brags about kissing and touching women without their consent, broke my heart. It's just unbelievable. A man who stirs up the worst, previously hidden, emotions in our country. 

The media was a big part of his rise, no one took him seriously, we treated him like a reality show, we didn't call out his lies, we gave voice to his surrogates, we elevated him to the level of a serious candidate when he was so unworthy. No one stopped the train wreck when it was first gaining momentum. We treated him like the circus clown he is, gave voice to his message, because it was a train wreck. Now he's President. 

So is there any silver lining? Maybe people like me, who were formally quiet, and didn't do enough this time, will be so angry that we'll unite and do more next time. Warren 2020.   

-November 9, 2016. 10:17 am PT.