What's the right metaphor? Oil and water. Knit and perl? We are made from the same cloth, yet in taking shape for one, we shape the other. We face opposite worlds and so come to opposite conclusions. America is just; America is just racist.
I want to ask each Trump voter, when you were alone in a voting booth made for you, and you went to cast your secret ballot, between you and the outcome you wanted, what was your vote FOR? What did you cast your vote AGAINST? What did you fear would happen, is happening? What do you see that you want more of? More COVID deaths? More kids in cages? More lunatic rants via Twitter? More countries to see us and despair, form their own coalitions to save the globe? More emptying of the federal coffers into Trump golf properties?
When the pollster asked who you would vote for, why couldn't you bring yourself to say "Trump" out loud? Did you go to his rallies? Did you listen? What did you hear that you liked? That made you feel safe? That said, "this guy should lead our country for 4 more years!"
Lines from H.D.'s Eurydice:
what was it you saw in my face?
the light of your own face,
the fire of your own presence?....So for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I have lost the earth
and the flowers of the earth,
and the live souls above the earth,
and you who passed across the light
and reached
ruthless;
you who have your own light,
who are to yourself a presence,
who need no presence;
yet for all your arrogance
and your glance,
I tell you this:
such loss is no loss,
such terror, such coils and strands and pitfalls
of blackness,
such terror
is no loss;
hell is no worse than your earth
above the earth,
hell is no worse,
no, nor your flowers
nor your veins of light
nor your presence,
a loss;
my hell is no worse than yours
though you pass among the flowers and speak
with the spirits above earth.
Against the black
I have more fervour
than you in all the splendour of that place,
against the blackness
and the stark grey
I have more light;
and the flowers,
if I should tell you,
you would turn from your own fit paths
toward hell,
turn again and glance back
and I would sink into a place
even more terrible than this.At least I have the flowers of myself,
and my thoughts, no god
can take that;
I have the fervour of myself for a presence
and my own spirit for light;
and my spirit with its loss
knows this;
though small against the black,
small against the formless rocks,
hell must break before I am lost;
before I am lost,
hell must open like a red rose
for the dead to pass.
And Robinson Jeffers - The Answer
What is there to hold onto when half of us won't admit what we want or face the consequences of our vote?
I am reading Isabel Wilkerson's Caste, and the research linking Nazi Germany during the Third Reich with their legal model - the Jim Crow era South is truly terrifying. How did Germany recover when so many participated and so many let it happen? There will be no Nuremberg trials here. No calling to account. No fleeing of war criminals to Venezuela. Trump will make and lose another $400 million. And Tweet the whole time about hate and unfair treatment - of him and his cronies. He'll be lionized as the worst-treated president of time. Poor him.
And we're left to ... what? Try to cobble together a coalition of the not-quite-terrible. The turnable. The ones who will only admit it was about the economy but say they never liked what Trump said in his worst moments.
I hope we ask more questions of the people who supported or propped up or voted for or just held their nose for this despicable, petty despot. I want to understand. I'm listening for common ground. For hope. For shared values. For shared fears, even. For something that resembles a thought that I might have on a tough day or after a few dozen tough years.
These are Hillbilly Ellegy people. Saying that no one else should get bootstraps until they've made it out of the coalmine. I don't want to join them there. Or leave them there. Or leave anyone there.
The canary's dead. Let's all make our way into the light. It will take some time to get us all up in the lift. We'll take turns, and you can send water and food down with each return trip. Let's sing together as we wait. Who knows this one? I'm gonna keep on moving forward...
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