Of course he won! Why & what now?

One of the first headlines I noticed this morning read, ‘America Awakes in Shock’. It reminded me of a piece I read following the Brexit vote, a rather prolific scholar wrote, ‘like most of the UK, I was stunned by the result of the Brexit vote'.

NO!! America was not in ‘shock’, and the UK was not ‘stunned’, it’s democracy, the majority voted one way, and that’s the way it went. Now was I, as an individual, both shocked and stunned on both occasions? Definitely, along with many other verbs, upset, concerned, disheartened the list goes on. However if, as a solution to my woes, I go about degrading my fellow citizens, who out voted me, on both sides of the pond, there is no solution ahead. I have to acknowledge that the emotions I felt at the results mentioned, could only have been triggered by my lack of awareness.

When the majority voted for the UK to leave Europe, many of my friends and colleagues made comments or recommendations such as, ‘lets make London independent of the UK and leave it in Europe’. I read a friends ‘Tweet’ today asking, ‘can Hillary be President of New York?’ Both of these comments are suggestions of segregation. Distancing ourselves, separating ourselves and alienating ourselves from those who don’t agree with us. So we want to live in a democracy but only one that agrees with us, we want to build walls between us, and those who are different, remind you of anyone?

If we are ever going to solve the problems, that we have created as humans between each other, forgetting for now the problems we have created with every other species on the planet, then like every problem, the solution must start at the root.

I said in a previous piece, that Brexit was akin to the revolutions in the histories of France and Russia; I believe the same is true in America this morning. The void between the haves and have not’s is beyond measure.

Politicians have focused on globalization and wealth generation; so they can stand at a podium and boast about low national debt or a phenomenal GDP, things your average farming family in Arkansas really have no interest in. Their interest lies in the inability to get a fair price for beef, because as a country we get a better deal bulk buying from overseas, driving supermarket conglomerate costs down, profits up, share prices fly, the rich get richer. Our Arkansas families walk around town, they don’t really notice that the two local diners have recently closed; mom & pop just couldn’t break even. They don’t even notice that 7 ethnic stores have opened; in fact they likely love Chinese and Indian food. Then political marketing kicks in.

Mr. Trump points the finger, immigration, it’s their fault, ‘they come over here and they take our jobs’, a sentence that has echoed around the planet since humans invented world wars. The fact that we travelled around the world, told everybody that our countries were awesome, as were our religions, clothing and thinking, before enslaving them and bringing them over to build our railways and such, is forgotten.

Back in Arkansas, our family are starting to nod in agreement, ‘yeah it used to be better. It used to be ‘Great’. Now the fact that Mr. Trump is largely full of shit is irrelevant. Again, many of the social media comments today focused on, ‘how can such a lying dishonest man win?’ Politicians lying is not a new thing my friends, it’s just better documented these days. Was Hillary a more ‘honest’ candidate? Check out the video below and before you do, remember her husband was the last President (though not the first) to be impeached for perjury.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77j6uBHI

On the flip side of Mr. Trump’s hate induced marketing strategy; we had the Democrats surrounding themselves with celebrity support. Amy Schumer, Bob DeNiro, Leo DiCaprio, Jay-Z & Beyonce, the Kardashians. The list goes on! Wealthy A-Listers flocked from Hollywood to align themselves with ‘Hills’, and every time they did, Donald must have sat back and lit a cigar.

Let’s take Mr DiCaprio, one of the finest actors of our time, incredibly handsome, very rich, only dates Victoria’s Secret models and focuses all his attention on climate change. All admirable traits that I envy! However, to our blue-collar brothers and sisters throughout the land, ‘fuck him’ right? ‘‘Kid Rock’ supports Donald and he’s a lot more like us’.

When ‘SNL’, or Trevor Noah, or John Stewart openly mocks Trump, they are doing several things. Firstly, they are sinking to his level, 75% humorous insults and 25% facts & stats. Secondly, they are also mocking anyone who may have agreed, or considered agreeing with anything Trump said, hence the massive increase in blue-collar voter turn out. Lastly, they are widening the gap we initially started talking about, because they are adding a layer of intellect. The message now becomes, ‘we are not just richer, we are smarter. If you don’t agree with us you must be dumb like Trump’. Again, is it any wonder he won? Now that he has, lets stop insulting the people who put him there, respect their views and see what we can do as a country to make things better?

Division of wealth is not new, and it’s essential. Humans are all different, different levels of intellect, strength, ambition and desire. Communism isn’t the answer, but ask yourself, how often do you really give back? Lets not just focus on increasing our own wealth, lets not lose focus, I like my toys more than most but, buy your groceries at a local green grocer, not Walmart. Donate to local, relevant charities where you can be sure the money reaches the right place. Spend a week of your vacation volunteering. Don’t be quite on the subway when you hear racism, in other words be decent, be human, it actually feels great.

Like it or not, we have a terrifying individual leading the free(ish) world. He got there by creating a revolution, if we don’t want this to turn into civil war, we need to be civil, we need to care about each other and practice understanding. Nobody in a big White House can really make a lasting change, only Americans, and the way Americans love, respect and treat each other can, “Make America Great Again’.