I spoke to a few of my neighbors and local residents in Indiana concerning their reactions to this past election. Below are the thoughts of Richard Denning, a lawyer and veteran of the United States Air Force. We had a really good conversation, and he shared his opinions with me for our lovely readers. Here's what he said:
Fifty years ago, Richard Nixon set a course for division with his Southern Strategy. This strategy was designed to exploit the resentment of Southern whites about the changed status of African Americans. Southern whites were angry that their children had to go to school with African American children and even drink from the same water fountains. Republicans used code words and phrases, otherwise known as dogwhistles, in their campaigns. They never stopped. In the Eighties, Ronald Reagan brought white evangelicals on board with the Moral Majority, sowing even more division. George W. Bush brought us eternal war and an increasingly authoritarian state with his war on terror. He could have limited our enemies to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban but the defense industry would benefit from perpetual war, so that is the course we took. Donald Trump is the culmination of that process. He stands for division and authoritarianism.
I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary. I believed in his message of social democracy. I also was tired of the rancor of the past thirty or forty years. I knew the right would never accept Clinton. I knew she would have a difficult path to getting elected because there has been a campaign of disinformation about her since the Nineties. I also knew that people were tired of the status quo in which oligarchs controlled the economy and the middle class continued to shrink. Clinton was the status quo candidate. However, I prefer the status quo over the disaster that is Donald Trump and voted for Clinton in the general election. She lost, in part, because of a lack of enthusiasm for her candidacy among a large portion fo the Democratic base.
The Trumpistas won and they now are asking us all to get behind them for the sake of the country. For the sake of the country, I cannot. I cannot get behind bigotry. I cannot get behind authoritarianism. We cannot dial back the clock to the Fifties. We cannot make America white again. That is not how we become great.
