Trump just won. Can the American People be next?

America has spoken and the victory for Trump was neither sealed in the courts nor in violence on the streets but, by more than half of America’s voters in the democratic fashion Americans had come to expect until recently.

Still, for nearly half of America’s voters, this is a time of pain, shock and for some, even fear. For them, it is as if their world has come to an end as all that they see as important in terms of values, morals and issues have just been torn asunder.

They use expressions like “I choose love, empathy, compassion, kindness, justice and peace” as if these words are the sole purview of the Democratic Party. They use them to hold up their own banner to remind themselves that the values they stand for are still worthy even as they await a world where in their mind, these values will no longer be shared by the majority.

In doing so, they ignore strange anomalies that fly in the face of this kind of thinking. For example, in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest Arab population in the United States, approximately 45% of the voters chose Donald Trump over Kamala Harris. They ignore tens of millions of American women who weighed the issues and arrived at a different conclusion in choosing Trump over Harris. They ignore the fact that millions of Americans who depend on Social Security and Medicare actually voted for someone who they are convinced will take this all away.

In their minds, it’s either that America is led by a majority of loveless, unempathetic, non compassionate, unkind warmongers who seek inequity in society or that half of the nation has been fooled into making a voting choice that is so anathema to their own conclusions that either on purpose or by accident, they as a group are unredeemable.

On the other side of the table lies those who are celebrating. They are relieved that once again the polls were wrong and shockingly Whoopi Goldberg got it wrong, again! They are excited because while they hoped for this conclusion, they couldn’t be sure. They are happy to be sure but, why?

Is it possible that they now see an opportunity to restore love of life, empathy with the disenfranchised, kindness, justice and yes…PEACE to this nation and the world?

As a lifelong Democrat, I found neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump worthy of my vote and I wrote in the best candidate for the job (IMHO) Nikki Haley. As such, I have neither joy nor fear in my heart today as I neither won nor lost.

I have no space for demonizing the “other” any more than I would have joy or toleration for this kind of behavior from those whose candidate won in such a decisive manner that the outcome is beyond reproach.

The world did not collapse when Trump won the election in 2016 and it is not likely to fall now either. The Republicans have earned the trust of the majority of Americans to fix the problems that vex this country and by extent American interests around the world.

The Democrats need to take some time (it seems that four years may be enough…) to figure out just how so many Americans could reach the opposite conclusion that they reached.

America is not done yet and there are now four years for the Democrats to get their game together and earn back the trust of millions of Democrats who, like myself, felt so awfully betrayed by our party that we have lost confidence in their ability let alone “right” to lead.

I’m a proud Democrat and I look forward to having a reason to join my party again one day. In the meantime, I will join millions of other Americans in the center who don’t care for either party as much as we care for this great nation.

Here’s to democracy and the democratic process. The people have spoken, now let’s see if this new set of leaders can do better than what Biden-Harris has done for the country. If the vote yesterday is any measure, that bar hasn’t been set too high so our expectations should be set accordingly!

The world didn’t end in this election, but it may well be the start of something better if we use this opportunity for change rather than recriminations and self righteousness.

Both sides are made up of people who care about each other and this country. The path towards healing starts when more people can spend time seeing their commonalities in “the other” rather than casting them as irredeemable outcasts to be shunned.

If America has greatness left within her, we are likely to see the signs in the populace long before we see it modeled by our elected leaders of either party. 

In other words, tomorrow’s election starts or ends with the civility we bring today to the table through the humility of those who lost as much as in the humility we should expect from those who won.

Its World War III folks!  The time for infighting is over. Our nation must stand together as one. The problems we face today internally may well feel like small matters in comparison to the new challenges coming our way, so we might as well start being unified now. As Ben Franklin said, “Either we hang together or surely, we will all hang separately”.