As I watched my candidate lose one swing state after another, albeit narrowly, I felt the urge to change the TV channel to a different one or just hide somewhere in a corner to escape the sight of a solidifying catastrophe.
It has been more than three months since that fateful long night and the world now feels a lot different. The bubble that I and many others like me had been living in, had bursted. For something better though. Many now feel that being politically apathetic is no longer an option. Many of my friends are now joining protests (a new one everyday) and openly voicing their anger and frustrations. My Facebook timeline is inundated with news and stories about "outrageous" events - be it the awful cabinet nominations or comments/tweets of the internet troll who also now happens to be the president of the United States. Common topics of discussion at work, social gatherings have acquired a more political tone and there is a lot more openness in the disgust and shock at all the craziness that the president's administration is being attributed to.
In the process however, the people that actually helped this man win - the Trump supporters, after having briefly dared to come out of their closets, have gone back to a even darker and deeper one. One whose doors have been shut hard by the ubiquitous moral shaming on social media, television news, workplace conversations. Some of them have been physically beaten up, merely for wearing the 'Make America Great Again!' caps. A homeowner in Washington DC, looking for a roommate, quite candidly mentioned in her craigslist ad that Trump supporters need not apply. Yes these are your deplorables. Racist, misogynists, homophobic bigots. You may see or hear very little of them, but they are there, angry and desperate, hiding behind shame. This widely hated group, most of which lives in the rural suburbs of middle America, voted on the election day hoping for a change. Change from the status quo, change from the joblessness that has grappled these people for years now. They are anonymous and quiet about their views though, possibly out of fear of being outed by the politically correct voices, many of whom, on the other hand, live in bigger cities.
As an immigrant who hates Trump, I find it tempting to shame this largely silent group for its political views. Which I have done from time to time on Twitter and Facebook whenever I hear or see one. Many of those that I have engaged with on social media, are not even real handles/accounts but are actually programmed applications ('Bots'). And yet, I also find it hard not to sympathize with them - these outcast deplorables who have been demonized by the popular voices, simply because they desired for a better life and this desire involved supporting one of the most repulsive presidential candidates. When I think about it, it was desire for a better life that made me move to the United States. The land of dreams where I can express my views freely, live a dignified and stable life. However, I am one of the lucky ones who could afford to go to college and get a job, unlike many others who couldn't do so because of a flawed system that values certain academic and job skills over others. And there is a big number of such people who have suffered because of this flawed system, regardless of their political beliefs and prejudices. Ironically, however, it is these set of people which is also the soft target of most liberals like me, be it on social media or on the streets. There is a certain joy that we, liberals get by shaming these disadvantaged deplorables, often forgetting that their stories of misery, discrimination are not very different from ours. The 2016 election has been a election of revelations but for all I care, it exposed how divided America really is and how much hate people on one end of the spectrum have for those on the other.
A few weeks ago, I got goosebumps watching Lady Gaga sing her version of "God bless America..". The singer went on to sing the words "This land is your land, this land is my land..". I wish the real America, right now, looked or felt anything like the way the words of that beautiful song describe it as.
It has been more than three months since that fateful long night and the world now feels a lot different. The bubble that I and many others like me had been living in, had bursted. For something better though. Many now feel that being politically apathetic is no longer an option. Many of my friends are now joining protests (a new one everyday) and openly voicing their anger and frustrations. My Facebook timeline is inundated with news and stories about "outrageous" events - be it the awful cabinet nominations or comments/tweets of the internet troll who also now happens to be the president of the United States. Common topics of discussion at work, social gatherings have acquired a more political tone and there is a lot more openness in the disgust and shock at all the craziness that the president's administration is being attributed to.
In the process however, the people that actually helped this man win - the Trump supporters, after having briefly dared to come out of their closets, have gone back to a even darker and deeper one. One whose doors have been shut hard by the ubiquitous moral shaming on social media, television news, workplace conversations. Some of them have been physically beaten up, merely for wearing the 'Make America Great Again!' caps. A homeowner in Washington DC, looking for a roommate, quite candidly mentioned in her craigslist ad that Trump supporters need not apply. Yes these are your deplorables. Racist, misogynists, homophobic bigots. You may see or hear very little of them, but they are there, angry and desperate, hiding behind shame. This widely hated group, most of which lives in the rural suburbs of middle America, voted on the election day hoping for a change. Change from the status quo, change from the joblessness that has grappled these people for years now. They are anonymous and quiet about their views though, possibly out of fear of being outed by the politically correct voices, many of whom, on the other hand, live in bigger cities.
As an immigrant who hates Trump, I find it tempting to shame this largely silent group for its political views. Which I have done from time to time on Twitter and Facebook whenever I hear or see one. Many of those that I have engaged with on social media, are not even real handles/accounts but are actually programmed applications ('Bots'). And yet, I also find it hard not to sympathize with them - these outcast deplorables who have been demonized by the popular voices, simply because they desired for a better life and this desire involved supporting one of the most repulsive presidential candidates. When I think about it, it was desire for a better life that made me move to the United States. The land of dreams where I can express my views freely, live a dignified and stable life. However, I am one of the lucky ones who could afford to go to college and get a job, unlike many others who couldn't do so because of a flawed system that values certain academic and job skills over others. And there is a big number of such people who have suffered because of this flawed system, regardless of their political beliefs and prejudices. Ironically, however, it is these set of people which is also the soft target of most liberals like me, be it on social media or on the streets. There is a certain joy that we, liberals get by shaming these disadvantaged deplorables, often forgetting that their stories of misery, discrimination are not very different from ours. The 2016 election has been a election of revelations but for all I care, it exposed how divided America really is and how much hate people on one end of the spectrum have for those on the other.
A few weeks ago, I got goosebumps watching Lady Gaga sing her version of "God bless America..". The singer went on to sing the words "This land is your land, this land is my land..". I wish the real America, right now, looked or felt anything like the way the words of that beautiful song describe it as.
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