Barbara Kingsolver, novelist, essayist, and poet, wrote this column in The Guardian about the angst of the age of Trump.
If you’re among the majority of American
voters who just voted against the party soon to control all three branches of
our government, you’ve probably had a run of bad days.
You felt this loss like a death in the family
and coped with it as such: grieved with friends, comforted scared kids, got out
the bottle of whisky, binge-watched Netflix. But we can’t hole up for four
years waiting for something that’s gone. We just woke up in another country.
It’s hard to guess much from Trump’s campaign
promises but we know the goals of the legislators now taking charge, plus
Trump’s VP and those he’s tapping to head our government agencies.
Losses are coming at us in these areas:
freedom of speech and the press; women’s reproductive rights; affordable
healthcare; security for immigrants and Muslims; racial and LGBTQ civil rights;
environmental protection; scientific research and education; international
cooperation on limiting climate change; international cooperation on anything;
any restraints on who may possess firearms; restraint on the upper-class wealth
accumulation that’s gutting our middle class; limits on corporate influence
over our laws.
That’s the opening volley.
A well-documented majority of Americans want to keep all those things, and in some cases expand them. We now find ourselves seriously opposed to our government-elect. We went to bed as voters, and got up as outsiders to the program.
How uncomfortable. We crave to believe our
country is still safe for mainstream folks like us and the things we hold dear.
Our civic momentum is to trust the famous checks
and balances and resist any notion of a new era that will require a new kind of
response.
Anti-Trump demonstrations have already brought
out a parental tone in the media, and Michael Moore is still being labeled a
demagogue.
Many Democrats look askance at Keith Ellison,
the sudden shooting star of the party’s leadership, as too different, too
progressive and feisty. Even if we agree with these people in spirit, our herd
instinct recoils from extreme tactics and unconventional leaders on the grounds
that they’ll never muster any real support.
That instinct is officially obsolete…
We’re in new historical territory. A majority
of American voters just cast our vote for a candidate who won’t take office. A Supreme
Court seat meant to be filled by our elected president was denied us.
Congressional districts are now gerrymandered
so most of us are represented by the party we voted against. The FBI and Russia
meddled with our election.
Our president-elect has no tolerance for
disagreement, and a stunningly effective propaganda apparatus. Now we get to
send this outfit every dime of our taxes and watch it cement its power. It’s
not going to slink away peacefully in the next election…
With due respect for the colored ribbons we’ve
worn for various solidarities, our next step is to wear something on our sleeve
that takes actual courage: our hearts.
I’ll go first. If we’re artists, writers,
critics, publishers, directors or producers of film or television, we reckon
honestly with our role in shaping the American psyche.
We ask ourselves why so many people just
couldn’t see a 69-year-old woman in our nation’s leading role, and why they
might choose instead a hero who dispatches opponents with glib cruelty. We
consider the alternatives. We join the time-honored tradition of artists
resisting government oppression through our work.
If we’re journalists, we push back against
every door that closes on freedom of information. We educate our public about
objectivity, why it matters, and what it’s like to work under a president who
aggressively threatens news outlets and reporters.
If we’re consumers of art, literature, film,
TV and news, we think about what’s true, and what we need. We reward those who
are taking risks to provide it.
If we’re teachers we explicitly help children
of all kinds feel safe in our classrooms under a bullying season that’s already
opened in my town and probably yours. Language used by a president may enter
this conversation. We say wrong is wrong.
If we’re scientists we escalate our
conversation about the dangers of suppressing science education and denying
climate change. We shed our cautious traditions and explain what people should
know. Why southern counties are burning now and Florida’s coastal cities are
flooding, unspared by any vote-count for denial.
If we’re women suffering from sexual assault
or body image disorders, or if we’re their friends, partners or therapists, we
acknowledge that the predatory persona of men like Trump is genuinely
traumatizing. That revulsion and rage are necessary responses.
If our Facebook friends post racial or sexist
slurs or celebrate assaults on our rights, we don’t just delete them. We tell
them why.
If we’re getting up in the morning, we bring
our whole selves to work. We talk with co-workers and clients, including Trump
supporters, about our common frustrations when we lose our safety nets, see
friends deported, lose our clean air and water, and all the harm to follow. We
connect cause and effect. This government will blame everyone but itself.
We refuse to disappear. We keep our
commitments to fairness in front of the legislators who oppose us, lock arms
with the ones who are with us, and in the words of Congressman John Lewis,
prepare to get ourselves in some good trouble. Every soul willing to do that is
part of our team, starting with the massive crowd that shows up in DC in
January to show the new president what we stand for, and what we won’t.
There’s safety in numbers, but only if we
count ourselves out loud.
