And Now We All Will Suffer

 

My letter In today's Trib Star, Nov. 23-24, 2024. Much to mourn in the 2024 election result and the post mortem analyses I have read. What is most concerning to me, however, is the refusal to face head on the problems and the crimes of racism and sexism embedded in the votes for Trump. In 1894, Frederick Douglass had this to say as he faced the realities of post-Reconstruction Black disfranchisement and segregation: " I hope and trust all will come out right in the end, but the immediate future looks dark and troubled. I cannot shut my eyes to the ugly facts before me."

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2024–Celebrate or lament?

Clearly it’s lament. American voters turned their backs on an experienced, qualified public servant. But . . . Harris is Black. Harris is a woman.

These realities didn’t make it into the answers of those who frown with fear and lie to questions asked by pollsters. And sure, many Trump voters saw the price of eggs each week. But do you really doubt that voting for a woman, a Black woman, meant nothing to a large sector of Trump voters? Did you see or hear of this in the instant gratification offered by reports on the polls?

These sexist and racist realities continue to be the shame of the nation. Once again what stares us all in the face, racism and sexism, was encouraged in the demeaning language of Trump’s speeches, underlined by the torn shirt spectacle of Hulk Hogan in his Republican Convention performance.

So this was an election that put a felon in the White House. Trump is a citizen who has a rap sheet of 34 convictions. He is a former public official who was twice impeached during a hodge-podge presidency. Voters’ short and self-censuring memories refused to see that four year run as one in which cabinet members and close advisors went to jail or were fired for failing to kiss the ring of the master.

Those in his administration with a backbone and self-respect resigned or worked behind the scenes to temper his hollow, self-rewarding style of governing. They recognized the incompetence and dangerousness of an executive who knew little of American history and even less about science. They warned us about his character flaws and the extreme dangers of his impulse decision making. All were appalled and disgusted with Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U. S. Capitol and our Constitution.

Sour grapes? Of course, but with a difference. It was candidate Trump who hung the demagoguery of low hanging false fruit out for justifiably confused and worried Americans to devour. And they did. And now we all will suffer the result.