The Morning After: I Am Not Surprised.

On Trump's Return

I am not surprised.

I hate him, but I knew it. I didn’t vote for him, and there is not enough Zofran in the world to help me stomach this, but nobody was ever going to win in this election. Not when an entire nation is sick.

I don’t think the solution is to rage against half the population. I think this is the moment to grow deeply curious. This is not a moment for reaction. It is one for reflection.

When half the country votes for this & half the country thinks the country was just lost, we ALL lost before a single vote was cast. We’ve all been losing for a long time now.

I don’t have the temperament for wisdom, but if I did, and if I knew how to convince anyone of anything, I’d be begging everyone to listen more, not less.

We don’t know to look for a disease until the symptoms manifest. I think Trump is a symptom, a very dangerous one, yes, but our symptoms are widespread and not on “one side” alone.

When our college kids at our most elite institutions are burning our flag while celebrating barbarism, and it goes unchecked—it even gets platformed—this too is a symptom of our pathology.

I’ve been screaming all this past year about the rise in antisemitism & how it should scare everyone. It’s an indication of societal instability.

Our pathology is everywhere. Neither party is going to save us. We have to save ourselves. And I think that’s going to depend on radical dialogue.

There are still some people out there who’ve been working to create space for this. I recommend The Free Press for starters.

We’re probably already in WWIII. I hope we survive our domestic situation and the bigger geopolitical picture, because while we are a flawed society, I don’t think you’re going to find something better out there. We’ve made progress in the past.

On the far left, there’s been an invasion of radical ideology. It undoes the good we have here. It throws the baby out with the bathwater. I suspect that many Trump voters believe Trumpism is the cure to this self-annihilation. I don’t agree with them, but I can see how this happened. I saw it happening. I am not surprised.

I hope we survive ourselves.