An Unavoidable Mixture of Thoughts on the Presidential Election

Reasons I've heard why the election went the way it did: (did I miss any?)

Insulting the Electorate

Nominating someone who was currently under investigation by the FBI

Too Hawkish

Failed to win young voters, or Hispanic voters as they needed to

Lack of Democratic Turnout

Ignorance, Fear, Anger, and Hate...

Reality TV culture

Cult of the Celebrity

Two-Faced Politicians

Democratic Party sabotaged Sanders

Lack of Transparency

Wall Street and Speeches

White Nationalists

Distrust of authority

Facebook (and Zuckerberg refuses to take responsibility)

Clinton's emails

Clinton Foundation conflict of interest

Bill Clinton's degradation of the Presidency by selling out

Pay to Play

Comey and the FBI

Dems choosing the wrong candidate

Gary Johnson

Jill Stein

People upset at Being told they have to vote for Clinton

Racism

Sexism

An economy which hasn't reached a dying middle class

Elitism of both parties

The willingness of the Electorate to believe Trump's lies

The Electoral College

A party can't hold the White House more than two terms

Wanting to break the system which broke their lives

Republican Intransigence

Republican leadership failed to fully condemn Trump

The media was too even in its portrayal of the candidates

Terrorism and the War on Terror

Nation Building

My Opinion: they all played a part, but for anyone to claim they know which was conclusive (and it seems improbable that any were singularly important) only demonstrates their desire for self serving flattery.

Efforts President Obama achieved or was engaged in, which are doomed (and others):

To Curtail Global Warming

Diplomatic Solutions to Global Problems

Rapprochement with Iran

Economic Inequality

Affordable healthcare

Social Justice

(I wish I could say others – like the reduction of the United States security apparatus, the curtailing of America's expansive global war, or the decrease in Executive power – but I can't because he expanded all these instead, which is bad considering who has control now)

What should President Obama do?

Anything he can to secure his legacy. Almost all his policy is screwed, from Dreamers, to the Affordable Care Act, to economic inequality, and his attempt to protect the environment. In the little time remaining, and with a Congress that will not help him wipe his nose, there isn't much he can achieve. But since Trump will be receiving control of the invasive, out of control security apparatus, the President should do what he should have done (and some have rightly criticized him for). He needs to discredit it, and he has no time to officially investigate the NSA or the CIA or anything like that. All he can do, is pardon Edward Snowden. It's definitely like giving the middle finger to the Republicans as he goes out of office, but considering the president-elect has in word and deed already done the same to President Obama, and his whole eight years are about to be overwritten, it seems a reasonable decision.

On another note, President Obama should not pardon Clinton. The presidential pardon pardon exists to secure the liberty of those who have been convicted by unjust or overly severe laws, as Alexander Hamilton explained in The Federalist 74. If she committed a crime, no one can pretend she fulfills either of these conditions. To pardon her, if she has committed a crime, would be reminiscent of Ford pardoning Nixon, and permanently stain the President's legacy.

What Should Progressives do:

Not the Democratic party, but progressives. Abandon the neoliberalism of the Clintons, and seek to bring economic equality to everyone. Eschew the Wall Street faction which funded but failed Clinton's campaign. Shun the hawkish foreign policy Democrat elites have embraced. Demonstrate against the President-elect to display one's disgust at his words, and resist if those horrendous things he said, become official policy. 

But most of all talk to people, listen to people, everyone, and try to build a consensus about how to move forward.

And as Sanders said, “To the degree that Mr. Trump is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him. To the degree that he pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti-environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.”

The Day After:

I went into town, the day after the election. Living in a affluent off town in Massachusetts, the populace is unsurprisingly mostly Caucasian. But in the childrens' section of the library, where I was bringing my son, I am the solitary man composed of women. But most of them aren't mothers and most are not white. Instead there are the international au-pairs from Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. There are the local nannies from Lawrence who speak Spanish just as well as they speak English. There are the grandparents: Brazilian, Indian, Vietnamese, who grew up in another country, but brought their family to the United States in search of a better life.

And this odd dynamic, between the town and the library, mostly white but still containing a diverse minority, made me feel during that walk as if I were both enemy, and in enemy territory. As a white man, the diverse community of the library was bound to consider me a Trump supporter, and a threat. After all, 63 percent of white men voted for Trump. As I packed up my son's water and diapers, a unique shame came upon me. That people who looked most like me, went without consideration to a man who did and said so many horrible things, I can't bear repeating them anymore. The women of the library would see a lone man enter the area, and condemn me with a glance. I wouldn't blame them.

Yet to me, walking the half mile to the library would be a mirror experience. The men I would pass along the way, did they vote for Trump? I would judge the people I saw by the color of their skin, as the women of the library might do to me. Of course, since Massachusetts voted to reject Trump, my town couldn't have voted along the same lines as the national result, could it? No, with 19,000 votes counted, 11000 people voted for Clinton and 6,500 voted for Trump. The odds of running into a Trump supporter were 1 in 3, yet likely to be higher among men.

And the whole time I was preparing to leave for the library I pondered a fantastic choice. Normally I carry my son's things in a bag. Should I tape a piece of paper to it, with the words “Didn't vote for Trump.”

My face felt like a scarlet letter, even though I hadn't committed any sin, as I considered this possibility.

I didn't, of course, follow through. I'm too cowardly, too shy to stand out. I didn't fear a confrontation with a seething, victorious Trump supporter, but any display would have been an exhibition I couldn't perform. I will always be.

I'm not sure where to end today. This wasn't a normal essay. These are just a collection of my thoughts over the last couple days.

But on Monday we'll be back to the regular schedule (as we wait for the two month shoe to drop) as I conclude my article of Thief: Gold, produce a short story, and not write another word on the election (hopefully) until Trump's inauguration.