NotInMyName
NotInMyName
Watching the election returns with a crew of expats and visitors to my adopted country of Argentina was supposed to be a celebration as…
Watching the election returns with a crew of expats and visitors to my adopted country of Argentina was supposed to be a celebration as history was made and the first woman was elected president of the USA.
I made corn tortillas, cooked slow-roasted pulled pork all day, and in honor of a quip “there’ll be a taco truck on every corner if she wins” and it being “Taco Tuesday”, we had tacos for dinner. It was delicious and festive. Then the returns started coming in and the mood soured. By the end of the night people left either in shock, distraught or numb. It was all hard to swallow.
The Donald is President-Elect of the USA. The Electoral College will vote in December and barring a Hail Mary of a change of heart by the collegiate voters, Trump will be named President and inaugurated on Jan 20, 2017.
His campaign started off with racist and xenophobic remarks against Mexicans. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best… They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Then he went after Muslims, calling for a registration of Muslims living in the USA and barring Muslims from entering the country (which he’s now backed down on thankfully). He received support from David Duke and the KKK and didn’t disavow or distance himself. Then the leaked tape about his treatment of women, and the subsequent accusations by women he had allegedly groped came pouring out. His own words, actions and non-actions encouraged people to openly express their hatred of “the other” and the number of hate-crimes against immigrants, women, and LGBTQA are on a drastic and tragic rise.
His slogan of “Make America Great Again” harkened back to some magical time when America was Great. When exactly was that? We’ll never know. Was it in the 1950s when segregation was in full force, when women couldn’t get a line of credit without their husband’s signature, let alone a legal and safe abortion, or when the majority of the population was white and spoke “American”? He never really answered that question, but it sure sounds good as a slogan.
The slick salesman told people what they wanted to hear. His supporters said “He says what I am thinking.” “He’s not afraid to say what he thinks.” Like all great salespeople, he closed the deal. Now he’s got to do the job, not go on and make more sales and pass off the heavy lifting to people who actually will carry out the contract. The team he’s assembling to get the work done is a scary group of people to liberals like myself and I fear for the future of not just the USA, but of the world.
But, I won’t let this fear paralyze me. I will grieve, lick my wounds, roll up my sleeves, organize and get to work. Because boy do we have a lot of work to do. The two glaring points I see first and foremost are: limiting the effects of Climate Change, and protecting the people he attacked in his campaign.
I am overwhelmed by Climate Change, and as a new mother I wept when I read about Trump’s pick to head up the EPA, Myron Ebell, a Climate Change Skeptic. I have to come back to that one. I am happy to see that states such as my own California are pushing back already on this issue and others.
Protecting people who he attacked during his campaign. This is something I can do. When I visit the USA, I will wear Saftey-Pins to show that I am a safe person. I will stand up to bullies, and call out deplorable behavior when I see it. I have found that people get offended when they are called out. They think I am being mean. I am not being mean or hateful, I am calling their behavior racist, sexist or homophobic, or whatever they are doing, and calling on their better nature to examine themselves and change. It usually backfires, but I cannot and will not back down.
I do not see conservatives calling out the rise of hate crimes and saying #NotInMyName. I want to see this. I want to believe that his supporters aren’t all racists, xenophobes, homophobes and sexists and that it was “the economy stupid”, but I just don’t see it.
What I do see are my liberal friends changing their icons and cover photos to safety pins, sharing articles about what that means and posting messages on their walls about how they are allies. I see wonderful essays calling for the repudiation of these hateful actions.
When there are terrorist events perpetrated by Muslims the conservatives cry out in fury yelling that all Muslims need to condemn these actions — which they overwhelmingly do over and over again. So, why aren’t good compassionate conservatives doing this here? Why aren’t they speaking up? Their silence sadly speaks volumes. But I will not and cannot be silent in the face of hate.
The time is NOW for compassionate conservatives to come out swinging with #notinmyname campaign to make the people Trump went after in his campaign feel safe. It is beyond time for Trump and his team to tell his supporters this is unacceptable and unAmerican behavior and will not be tolerated.