I don’t know about you, but I am heartened by the protests against the cruel Executive Orders by President Trump. After the election, I wasn’t sure where the country was leaning. I feared that the era of compassion and sense had passed. Yet, protests persist even in “red states.” Maybe we all are just Americans after all.
I was possibly the only one nerdy enough in college to have written more than one research paper about the resistance movement in the 1960s that I had missed. Yet, I’m not so secretly proud now to wonder if we’re entering into the 21st century resistance. Has Trump awoken something long dormant in the American consciousness? He’s only been president for two weeks, and yet there have been at least two major protests—one by women (and feminist men) and one for the horrid ban against refugees and Muslims. Is it possible that Trump’s upset election win is bringing out the best in some citizens?
The old saying goes, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone, but are the majority of people finally realizing it? Under the Obama administration, what seemed like the right thing to do prevailed. We got health care for all, gay rights, no torture, and a general sense of open-mindedness. Did we take it for granted? Now under the Trump regime, we’ve already seen a war against the press, a threat of abandoning the arts, discrimination based on religion, and an “America first” policy that reeks of fascism. Have the American people finally realized how good we had it under Obama? Or have we rediscovered a basic sense decency that’s innate to us all?
The previous president aside, something is going on, and it’s exciting. I don’t know if it’ll last, but I’m fascinated by the national mood right now. Rather than just stewing in the mistake of electing a racist, bigoted, misogynist, the American public seems to be rising up. It’s intoxicating, and I can’t wait to see where it leads.
Readerish 