• Something that occurred to me while writing the Electoral collage post
As many people have pointed out, the real fault line in this election wasn't strictly between red and blue, but between rural and urban. Which sounds a lot like the agrarian/industrial divide personified by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Much arguing arose. Some compromises were made — that’s how we ended up with a national capital in a swamp. Some battles were won. Like the one Hamilton championed about... having an Electoral College in the first place. He had his reasons.
The point is, it was politics. It’s only over time that argument becomes history becomes orthodoxy. Simplify, petrify, repeat.
Flash forward though, and we get Hamilton.
A cultural bombshell like this can shake the crust off the ossified vision of our founding — the heroic one in which our government was immaculately birthed — and help reclaim the real people and real issues for what they were. And connect the dots to how we got here today.
That’s just one example. We have centuries of history and forgetfulness to chip away at: the treatment of women and immigrants. The financial system (Hamilton again). The labor movement. And on.
And we don’t have to wait for someone else’s bombshell to get started.
• Reminder
Safety pins. Identity politics. Head of the DNC. How to fight back. When to fight back. How to talk to Trump supporters. Whether to talk to Trump supporters.
There are no shortage of questions to answer. A lot of them still (all these weeks later!) revolve around "what the hell just happened?"
I know, it's inevitable: people are desperate to find a reason — the reason — for the election results. We want to try and make sense of the insanity, try and figure out a way to move forward, try and prove once and for all, "I was right the whole time, my way is the best way, your ism sucks and when will you idiots ever learn?!"
Most if not all of the well-reasoned versions of these entrail-reading efforts avoid that level of overtness, and disclaim that of course there is no one cause.... But still. We all have our own viewpoint, perspective, biases, blinders. And no, even those of us who generally agree can't always agree.
All of this is necessary, and for many, therapeutic.
So once again: Be hard on ourselves. Be kind to each other.
• New running joke at our house
She (from the other room): Where are you? Me: In the office. She: Are you working? Me: No, I'm saving the world.
Hilarious, right? That's what I say when I'm enlightening someone on Facebook or getting the demons out of my head on this blog. So in the spirit of the season, I'm thankful to have someplace to work out my thoughts and try to make sense of the new world we're living in. And much more important, thankful to have a partner who puts up with it.