Trump won only 48 percent of the vote. Not a mandate, but at press time 60,961,185 people identify with his version of America. More than 60,000,000 have been given a pass to “reclaim” their America. I was completely invested in Hillary Rodham Clinton being the woman who—finally—would rise above the dogged, ugly and ultimately harmful abuse levied upon women who resist, who want more, who say no. We spoke our truth, and 60,000,000 Americans didn’t believe us. We are at the mercy of power that despises us. We are afraid. We feel powerless. And so we weep. —Rebecca Thomas Rebecca Thomas is adjunct professor at Truckee Meadows Community College.
rePudiate number 44?
PhotoS / iStock/andykatz
rn&r staffers and community members attemPt to make sense of the election Here’s a collection of essays in response to the surprising results of the 2016 presidential election. There are a variety of perspectives represented here—however, none of them are celebratory. Folks with that perspective made their views clear on Nov. 8 through the power of their votes. And although racism, sexism and other discriminatory fears might not have been the only motivating factors of the election, they played an unmistakable role that needs to be acknowledged, confronted and healed.
11.17.16
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I have never felt fear after an election result before. I have been disappointed, angry, and in the case of George W. Bush’s election to a second term, utterly dumbfounded. But this time I started crying before it was called, when it became clear that there just wasn’t any other possible outcome, and I haven’t stopped since. The tears are not over losing the contest. Haven’t we all at some point supported a candidate who didn’t win? These are tears of anticipated pain, that knowledge that the blow is coming and being utterly unable to avoid it or stop it. There is a particular type of anguish that accompanies the deep knowledge, gained by virtue of having to unceasingly negotiate your existence, that you are despised and nothing you can do or say will save you from that. I will again be watching women, particularly we “nasty women,” valiantly try to maintain our worth and dignity in what will be an inevitable tsunami of systemic oppression and harrowing
daily abuse. I have worked in the justice system. I have spent many hours over many years watching victims bravely resist their abuse with the sincere belief that justice would prevail if they spoke the truth about their private nightmare. I also watched justice elude a fair number of them, because the hard reality is that justice isn’t a response to truth; it is a product of power, bestowed upon those deemed worthy of it by those who wield it. Trump’s victory will serve as validation of his rhetoric, his beliefs and his reckless disregard for rules, boundaries and basic civility. His supporters will interpret his victory as permission, granted by the American people, to treat those who oppose them with contempt. The alt-right now has justification for its delusional belief in the inherent superiority of the white male. Women will not be the only targets. Americans hanging on by an economic thread, many of whom voted for Trump with hope that he would bring change, will be swept into the pile with the “undeserving,” along with people of color, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, the disabled, journalists, scientists, academics and anyone else who doesn’t fit their narrative of acceptability.
!?!?!?! continued
Power that desPises
I finally turned the news back on late in the afternoon on the first day of this president-elect Trump world. I’m not going to lie. My eyes were puffy from crying, but I could see. And I could hear. And what I heard pissed me off. For a moment, this was a surprising relief from the bouts of nausea and crushing despair I’d been swinging between all day. But I digress. What I heard, almost immediately, when I turned on the TV, was a commentator on CNN saying that Trump’s election was a “complete repudiation of Obama.” Now, I believe that a lot of what was said on Wednesday, Nov. 9, amounted to shell-shocked word vomit. But this took the cake. Perhaps Trump’s election is a repudiation of the establishment. But if Trump’s election was, in fact, a wholesale rejection of Obama—if the people who voted for him did so just because they believe our nation needs something complete different in its next leader—then they are senseless. Obama did a great deal of good for this country and its people. Obama inherited a country in turmoil, a country in the deepest recession since the Great Depression. And he turned it around—quickly. Congress approved Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package weeks after he came into office. He signed it into law on Feb. 17, 2009, and GDP growth turned positive less than six months later. Yes, we all felt the aftershocks of the recession for years, but, in June 2009, the National Bureau of Economic Research declared the recession over. Obama fought to get health-care coverage for millions of people. The Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010. A day later, Minority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell announced that “repeal and replace” would be the slogan for fall. But the ACA survives—for now. A single-payer national health care program would be a far cry better, but I’ll happily settle for system in which people cannot be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions. I will take a system that brought the number of uninsured people to its lowest level ever. Under Obama’s administration, “love won.” That’s how he put it when he referred to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision that finally codified the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry. And Obama said it so eloquently: “No matter who you are, here in America, you’re free to marry the person you love because the freedom to marry is now the law in all 50 states.” Lastly, I want to say something about Obama’s role in race relations. I’ve wanted to say this for a while. As I recall, it started around 2012, these claims in major publications that race relations were at an historical low and that it might somehow be the president’s fault. It was around the time Obama expressed his sympathy to the family of Trayvon Martin.
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