Marketing slogans were key in the 2016 presidential election. This full-page ad (cropped) promised so much to Trump fans.
I’m perplexed on how to deal with the incoming presidency with regards to my blog. I do not want to be one of those people who spends the next four years voicing my opposition, yet for the first time in my life I feel ‘he is not my president.’ There have been other presidents I did not like, but this is much different.
It feels immoral to normalize the election and the man.
So, where do I go from here especially since I began this blog as a way to better understand the American Way of Life?
I’m not sure.
I waver between letting my satirical, cynical side blossom in this post-Truth era where ‘God really took care of us,’ as I heard one person pray on the day after the election.
The election, and the past two to three years of exploring American history, taught me a lot about many. I’ve come to understand that the reality is, just like in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters where the demons mock Christians for their lack of theological knowledge, many Americans cast their ballot even though they do not understand politics.
Take This Vote And Shove It
But Americans do understand power — or the lack of it.
As they go to jobs they do not like, perform tasks that bring no joy, for a rate of pay they have no control over, they increasingly hate the system that holds them down. When they see their communities ravaged by drugs and poverty, they want justice. They want someone to pay. And, they want simple answers to complex issues.
And, inside the voting booth, they have power. The power to speak out against all the injustices the system has delivered, but even that system is flawed.
Without A Vision The People Perish
What is most troubling for me in this era of the 140-character one-liner is the lack of vision. We have become verbal savages, especially on social media, and lost in the incoming president’s micro-targeting approach to communication are the big ideas that can create a better society.
I only know one thing for sure.
Real Americans
Over the next year my goal is to find a dozen Americans who ‘got it right.’ Americans who understood, and at least for a brief moment in their life, lived the duality that defines a ‘true American:’ The drive to be the absolute best — even against the odds — and the sense of community. The realization that we are all in this together.
I intend to let their morality inspire me because I want an America I can believe in again. Because, despite the prayer, God did not take care of us.
Most Americans did not vote for the incoming president.
Charlie R. Claywell 