Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Uncertain Future

Washington Post:
America woke up Wednesday as two nations.

One jubilant, hopeful, validated. The other filled with fear, pessimism, abject horror. And both staring at an uncertain future in light of the vast chasm now revealed by this election.
Most of the piece is statements from voters, and it's striking how divided Trump supporters are. Some are confident, but many others are nervous and think we are taking a step in to the unknown, but felt that we had to do something to shake things up.
But given the painful, yawning divide that now engulfs this country, even some Trump voters expressed their doubts.

“He’s a loose cannon, and I don’t know what he’ll do,” said Julie Smith, who voted for Trump from her Chicago suburb.
Or this man, from a story at the Times:
Let’s put him in. And if he doesn’t do what he says, I’ll help you vote him out.
In the category of Americans who can't stop voting for the opposite of what they say they want, we have Trump voters who say things like this:
Lewis said her biggest hope, now that the campaign is over, is that “people can finally stop hating each other.”
A real dilemma for nationalists in our divided age. What many strong nationalists want more than anything else is to feel that all the people are united, that we all want the same things. But we don't want the same things, and pushing too hard for any particular version of unity will always produce intense points of conflict like this election.

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