Dreams and Nightmares – Reflections on the 2016 Presidential Election

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States on November 9, 2016 should not have been a surprise to anybody who had been paying attention to the racial/social/political climate in the nation over the last 16 years.  The writing began to be clearly scrolled on the nation's wall in 2008 with the rise of Sarah Palin (prior to President Barack Obama's election in November 2008), the rise of right-wing Tea Party politics, the preponderance of ultra-obstructionist governance in both houses of the United States congress, and the alarming rise of militias and hate groups across the nation. 

The fissures in the social fabric of the nation really began to be evident with the politics of race and class so prevalent during the presidential tenure of George W. Bush (2000-2008).  The truth is that racism is and has been, since the nation’s founding, the elephant in the nation's living room - what Rev. Jim Wallis refers to as "America's Original Sin.".  The 2016 presidential race and the election of Trump merely serve to confirm that America is what many people know it is, and bring to light for some others what they have just been in denial about.

In the 2016 election’s aftermath, many Americans who have disproportionately felt the scourge of racism, sexism, classism and various forms of xenophobia – and yet still held out hope that the United States would become an authentically inclusive, post-racial, post-racist nation – now understand more fully what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. intimated on  May 8, 1967, less than four years after his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in August 1963 in the Nation’s Capital, that his dream for America had in large measure become a nightmare.  King stated, "I must confess that that dream that I had... has at many points become a nightmare. Now I'm not one to lose hope, I keep on hoping, I still have faith in the future... but I've come to see that we have many more difficult days ahead, and some of the old optimism was a little superficial, and now it must be tempered with a solid realism. The realistic fact is we have a long, long way to go."

I resonate with Dr. King’s sentiments.  I was born in a Freedman's Bureau hospital in the nation's capital at a time when the federal city was largely racially segregated.  I went to segregated inner city public schools and lived in segregated communities for my first 15 years. Growing up, although we were told we could be anything we wanted to be, I never really dreamed that I'd live to see a president who looked anything like me.

I'm reflecting on the fact that with the election of Donald Trump, the nation elected as its 45th president the person who, by becoming the very face and voice of the Birther movement, effectively sought - and in no small way served - to delegitimize Barack H. Obama, the 44th president.

This is why some of us will find it difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile this, to square in our minds and hearts that Trump will now serve as President of the United States.  The effort to delegitimize the citizenship, and thus the presidency, of President Obama - born in this same nation as me - was effectively an effort to delegitimize me, my sons, daughter, nephews, nieces, wife, father, mother, brothers, sisters and every person who looks like us, and - like us - were born on this hallowed soil - girls and boys who have now indeed seen a president who looks like them, and so they now can dream to be the same someday.

For many non-Whites, the race problem in America that can be viewed through the lenses of the election results and the hate-related violence that has ensued, is further exacerbated by the religious conundrum found with the fact that white Christian evangelicals and Catholics voted overwhelmingly to elect Trump as President, and are largely responsible for his victory.  Post-election data shows that at least 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump.  And these statistics do not include the upper middle class and wealthy suburban whites who identify as being members of mainline Christian denominations - who may not identify as evangelicals - who also voted for Trump in significant numbers.  Many of these persons indicated that they based their voting decision primarily on the “morality only” argument - and the notion that Trump would align his political agenda as President with evangelical, Catholic and conservative values on issues like abortion, the selection of the next Supreme Court Justice, same sex marriage, and transgender accommodations.

The focus on “morality only” as the primary reason why so many white Christians voted for Trump is simplistic, and might very well be a misguided assumption.  This argument does not give credence to some other clear reasons why persons voted for Trump. It does not give credence to the race/ethnicity dynamic – Trump’s stated agenda that would adversely affect many Latinos, Muslims and Blacks, and division and fear of the "other" that Trump tapped into during his campaign for president among whites across socio-economic lines.  It does not give credence to the hatred among many whites of Obama, regardless of what he did a president, and therefore hatred of Hillary Clinton, and by extension hatred of Black and Brown people (that is in a nutshell the essence of racism). It does not give credence to the fact that the economy is much improved under Obama over in the last 8 years (with lower unemployment, interest rates, lower foreclosure rates, and a rising stock market).  It does not take into account that whatever their rationale, persons voted to elect a person who demonstrated behaviors before and during his campaign that pointed to the very real prospect that he is emotionally, psychologically, and temperamentally unfit to lead the nation, and - by Christian standards – engages in various behaviors that would be considered to be immoral (sexism, misogyny, racism, classism, and zenophobia).

After the election, many poor, blue collar, working class white Americans have said that they voted for Trump based on his vague, non-specific promises of improving economic opportunities for them.  In-fact, based on history and data, these persons voted against their economic best-interests.  For instance, based on prognosticators' analysis of the first tax cut proposed by the President-elect's camp and the Republican-led Congress in the week following the election,  approximately 47% of that tax cut would benefit the richest 1% of the population.

The fact is that supply-side, trickle down approaches to stimulating the economy - invariably pushed by the Republican party - never have and never will work to improve the overall economic plight of poor and working class Americans, barring an economic miracle of tsunamic proportions.

This proved to be the case with the failed supply-side policies of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.  Supply-side economics has in the past, and more than likely will in the future result in higher inflation, slower than normal job growth, higher interest rates, more de-regulation and slower than normal growth in the GDP, while the richest segment of the population invariably benefits from such approaches through wealth accumulation. The bottom line is that the rich tend to operate first and foremost from their logical self-interest of wealth accumulation and not from the interest of the common good and the redistribution of wealth across the economy through job creation and increasing wages.

Poverty and suffering are no respecters of skin color, race, or neighborhood (rural or urban).  Across race and ethnicity, poor and working class persons are likely to suffer the most with the nation's choice of the next president. The nation might well discover that for those who are now in control at the highest levels of national government, the election was not fundamentally about ending abortion or same-sex marriage, or even expanding in any pronounced way, the Second Amendment rights to bear arms - it was about enacting economic policies that are most likely to benefit the wealthiest Americans at the expense of perpetuating the marginalization of those who have the least among us.

What is clear is that America is a nation that is deeply divided, and this did not begin, nor will it change with the election results. We were deeply divided before the election and the same is true afterwards. And there are really no winners in a fight as deeply divisive as the one we've experienced with this election cycle.  All of us in some way have lost, which would have been the case if the election results had turned out differently.

It's a dark night in the nation, but it’s important not to forget that before election and in the days after it, many people of all hues have known of dark nights personally. Most of those who were homeless before the election are still homeless, the hungry are still hungry, the hurting still hurt.  

But as always, there is hope.  The nation can yet realize the words etched in our Declaration of Independence – “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all (people) are created equal”, and can come to realize in no insignificant way the Latin words imbedded in our nation’s credo – e pluribus unum – “out of many one.” 

The nation can heal from our now deeply open wounds of racism, sexism, classic, militarism and incivility - but it won't be easy, and it's not in any way a certainty.  As people of faith, the best we can do is heed the words of Solomon to a people in national distress and turmoil in another age, "If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear their cries, and I will heal the land." (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. intimated that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."  It is important to realize that this arc won't bend on its own.  It will take the providence of God almighty and the efforts and actions of people of conscience and good will who are willing to work for justice and equality, peace and unity in the days ahead.  May it be so.