A Plea for more Tolerance and Empathy

Disclaimer 1: this is an article on politics. I do not want to publish it on LinkedIn, but it is the one platform I have. I will not promote it here, and hope you don't either. I will share it on Facebook though, which is where it seems to belong these days. Feel free to share, like or comment on FB if you support this message.

Disclaimer 2: I am not an expert on politics, these are my own opinions. I do try really hard to see every issue from every angle, and I watch/read all kinds of media, across the world, both ones that tend to align with my opinions as well as those that conflict. I try my utmost to avoid the echo chamber effect, and to empathize no matter how strongly I disagree with someone. I do feel compelled to write. I see both a big opportunity and a big risk in a Trump presidency. But if we do not come together as nation I fear it will be the latter and not the former.

The Short

We have seen a polarizing trend within society, in the world in general, but in the US specifically. This has culminated in the most polarized election I have ever witnessed, lead to the most polarizing candidate becoming the president-elect, and a continuation of polarization 3 days after election day. And everyone is to blame. Nobody is off the hook. If you think there is no blame, only reason to rejoice, than you really need to read on: you are certainly part of the problem and need to become part of the solution.

The insulting, cursing, jabbing, and finger-pointing needs to stop. To the left* I say, get over it. Stop whining, start taking action to make it right. To the right* I say, be gracious. Stop gloating, start taking action to ensure you are right. To all, please empathize (i.e. put yourself in the others' shoes and try to imagine how you would feel if the reverse happened), and please be tolerant (i.e. accept that others are different than you and treat them like you would want to be treated yourself).

*) I use the terms "left" and "right" loosely. What is considered the left in the US, is considered right in most countries. I do not want to use the words Republicans and Democrats, because we didn't strictly vote along party lines and also I want to include anyone that did not vote at all and those who voted on other parties.

The Media is Not Primarily to Blame, The Viewers Are

We used to vote based on what we understood about any candidates political views. Then we started voting based on looks and charisma. Now we vote within echo chambers that reinforce whatever opinion we held prior to being informed, however ludicrous it may be.

Democracy as defined by the founding fathers (and similarly in other democracies around the world) may simply not be robust enough to survive an age of media. We saw it when traditional media first became pervasive, and we see the devastating effects of social media. We blame the media, when really they are people like ourselves, who have been given the means and incentives to broadcast however they feel and whatever lines their pockets. If you support unregulated capitalism, this is what you get. Don't call them left, they are the ultimate in right. Broadcasting facts does not drive viewer ratings. Broadcasting outrageous hyperbole drives ratings and all the revenue that comes with it. Blame yourself, the viewer, for watching, liking, sharing, tweeting and retweeting, and therewith incenting the media to do exactly that which you blame them for.

That does not mean the media is excused. With great power comes great responsibility. If you provide 24 hour coverage about another school shooting, it will inspire the next shooter. If you do the same for terrorist attacks, you inspire the next one. What some people won't do for their 15 minutes of fame. If you provide around the clock coverage of political candidates with outrageous viewpoints you normalize those viewpoints and give them free marketing. The freedom of speech we value so much has a flip side: it can be polarizing. Use it wisely or at some point a head-on collision will result that limits it.

Echo Chambers and Hypocrisy

If there is one overwhelming difference in this election compared to prior ones, is the role of social media. Algorithms to provide everyone their personal feed caused an echo chamber where only the thoughts of like-minded people were here heard. Every rumor was circulated, amplified, and repeated until everyone was convinced they were hearing fact. Incredible how many people were deceived and to date are still utterly oblivious. Hearing only the good of their own candidate, and seeing any slight of the opposing candidates blown out of all proportion. Everyone on all sides is fully convinced they were trying to avert a disaster and truth was on their side.

Before the next election, social media needs to self-regulate. Maybe dissenting voices should not be allowed to be fully excluded, or maybe a real-time fact-check should be annotated to any statements. Technology has become the problem, but it can also be the solution.

That said, again the user is not excused. Each of us had part and parcel in our choices of what we zoned out or blocked versus what we indulged in. We also had the responsibility to be fair. To judge one candidate on one scale and the others on another scale might be a natural human bias, but the dramatic degree to which this happened in this election was mind-boggling. Multiple opposing candidates were accused of lying, of crime, of immorality whilst the supported candidate was determined inculpable of much worse. During this election I was consistently reminded of a verse in the bible, Matthew 7:3: "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" It certainly applied here. I found myself repulsed by the hypocrisy all around.

Blindness and Blinders

Where it comes to the electorate, it is amazing how blind everyone has been and continues to be to the issues and drivers of the other side. Empathy is almost completely gone. If you do not understand how this result could have possibly happened, this means you. If you do not understand why people are complaining, abhorred, or protesting the results, this means you too.

The big reason there is such blindness, is that all the camps value different things. They try to judge the other side on their own metric, completely oblivious that is not how the other side measures the value of the candidates. Let me break it out in two different ways. First by the main reasons to vote and then by how people voted. Admittedly a lot of nuance is lost here (but bear with me, I cannot possibly cover the myriad of possibilities):

• You voted FOR a specific candidate. This is exactly how democracy was intended. And nobody can fault you for it. However, the particular person you voted for says a lot about what you stand for.
• You voted AGAINST a specific candidate. With two major candidates that rubbed large portions of the population the wrong way, this election certainly called for some of this type of voting. However, what particular person you voted for says a lot about the bubble you were in (see above about echo chambers).
• You voted strictly PARTY LINE out of habit. This is ill-advised in the best of times, you should always know where your candidate stands on the issues. But this time around you really needed to be in some alternate reality to think this was a normal election with candidates that represented their party's core beliefs. This says a lot about how little you care to make informed decisions.
• You made a PROTEST vote for TRUMP even though you didn't like him. You basically voted for change, any change, big change. You knew this was the risky option which can turn out bad just as easily as it can turn out good. This says a lot about how fed up you are with the way things are.
• You made a PROTEST vote for a THIRD PARTY. Perfectly legit, but futile, with the exception of McMullin in Utah, which stood a good chance of making a difference. With any other candidate you were throwing your vote away and you knew it. If you want to make a stand and give a third party a real chance you need to act now for the next election, not wait until election is in full swing. You are now in the unenviable position that you share the blame for whatever Trump will do wrong and cannot share the credit for whatever he will do right.
• You ABSTAINED from voting. You either don't care, or you don't believe your vote will make any difference. Either way you have forfeited your right to complain about what government we will have.

Depending on your reason or combinations of reasons above you suffer from different type or different degree of blindness:

• If you voted FOR Clinton, you were voting to keep things just the way they are, or keep things moving in just the same direction. You were voting for humanity, for equal rights and equal liberties for all. You take the constitution very literally, and apply it equally to all, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or beliefs. If you are one of those minorities you voted as did your life depend on it, and it very well may have. You are aware that the US is outperforming the rest of the world on almost every metric. You consider President Obama to be one of the greatest presidents in history. You truly believe America still is the greatest country in the world. You do not want to rock the boat. Whilst you are right about the outside-in perspective, you completely missed that the inside-out perspective was not equal across the board. That whole swaths of the country are not benefiting in equal measure and have been seeing their quality of life diminish.
• If you voted specifically FOR Trump you are, rightfully or not, feeling things are going downhill. You have been feeling left out of progress. You do not have the luxury to worry about civil rights of other people, you need to provide for your families. You consider President Obama one of the worst presidents for failing you. You may genuinely believe America is no longer the power it used to be, and wish it to be great again. You want to rock the boat and tip it over! Whilst your plight might be genuine, you are blind to the plight of others too. You do not see or care that minorities have it worse than you. You voted for the ultimate bully, bigot, misogynist, racist and self-serving creature, and you are blind to the fact that you scare the shits out of everyone who did not vote Trump. True or false, they now see you as equal to what you supported, and you cannot blame them.
• If you voted Trump because he was the Republican candidate, you bought the bull that he represents your conservative values. Trump is an opportunist who has been a Democrat most of his life and grabbed the opportunity to run as Republican, just because he could. I doubt he expected to win. He wanted the free marketing for his businesses. Your blindness in this regard may end up backfiring on you.
• If you voted AGAINST Clinton because she was not Sanders, you bought the bull that Sanders ever was a Democrat. Sanders too saw an opportunity to run and have a real shot, which would not have occurred in his lifetime if he was not affiliated with one of the two major parties. When the DNC worked against Sanders they were not favoring one Democrat over another, they were favoring one of theirs over an outsider. If Clinton ran as Republican the RNC would have done the same to her. In fact the RNC tried to do the same to Trump. Your blindness in this regard has certainly backfired on you.
• If you voted AGAINST Clinton and for Trump you likely did so because you believe her lies/behavior/motivations/track record are worse than his. You are truly measuring along two different scales at best and are a conspiracy theorist at worst. You certainly did not try to move outside of your Fox/Breitbart/National Enquirer bubble to see if there was any fact to the "crime" and "scandals" being reported. You were misinformed and completely blind to how far out of proportion her character flaws were blown. They certainly exist, she is a politician after all, but they are dwarfed by Trump's character flaws. Your blindness in this regard has led us to a man with the thinnest skin and all the wrong motivations with immediate access to set off a global nuclear war.
• If you voted AGAINST Trump, well too many reasons to list. Many valid, some not so valid. He is an abrasive personality and truly a sorry excuse for a human being. That should be enough to disqualify anyone from the highest office. But in his case too, many flaws were blown out of proportion, and people need to come out of their Huffington Post bubble to see a more balanced report on him. Many of the positions attributed to him likely are just for show, he is a showman after all
• Finally, if you voted Trump just to see change, ANY change, you are a gambler. You see the political climate, the two-party system, and the election process as fundamentally broken. You may blame President Obama, or you may blame the obstruction of the Republican congress. This election was your opportunity to finally break the mold of old. You probably were not blind to the immense risks of a Trump presidency, but you felt it was now or never. You wanted to rock the boat, and hope it doesn't tip over. If this is true, please make it happen. Do your utmost to jointly with everyone who did not vote for Trump to keep him in line, whilst allowing him to make the changes that need to be made. If you sit back now and just watch what will happen, anything bad is on you.

The Election Was Not Rigged and it is Not Over

Some people have called the election rigged. Others are now taking that baton. I do not believe this election was ever rigged. We have a flawed election process, but we followed its rules; the rules everyone knew before the process started.

One set of those rules means this election is not over. We did not elect Trump president. We elected electors who will in turn elect our next president. This Electoral College will vote on December 19 who will be the next president, and they do not need to vote for the candidate that their constituency voted for. They can vote for anyone. If there is no absolute majority for any one candidate the top 3 candidates will be up for a vote in Congress.

What are possible outcomes of this process? Most likely Trump will be elected, but it is not a certainty. The second plausible option is many Republican electors who abhor Trump will vote for another Republican, causing Trump to miss the 270 electoral votes needed. In this case it goes to the House of Representatives, the new one, which has a solid Republican majority. At which point it is likely the third candidate, being a Republican alternative to Trump, will get elected instead. Third, and IMHO highly unlikely, the new Congress will elect Clinton.

Currently, the Trump fans are gloating, jabbing at disheartened Clinton supporters. Some of the opinions about the complaints and protests are harsh. I wonder what would happen if Trump does not get elected on December 19. My fear is those gloating Trump fans will turn to rioting. They will again claim this election is rigged. And again they will be wrong.

However flawed the Electoral College concept is, it is constitutional, and it is the current rules of the game that every candidate signed up for. The founding fathers purposely included it to protect the republic against a demagogue that could be elected through a basic majority in a popular election. The current situation might be exactly what the Electoral College was designed for. If a large enough subset of electors and a majority of the members of the house determine Trump to be a demagogue, this will be the case. If not, then it wasn't.

Let Us All Make America Great For Everyone!

Regardless of whether you believe America is already great, or was great until this election, or believe America needs to be great again, let's make it happen. Whether you are excited about the future or you are in mortal fear of it, we are all here, now, in the current state of affairs. We need to work together as one, not work against each other.

Let us keep an open mind for other persuasions, other skin colors, other sexual orientations. Let's remember that we are all human, and that if nothing else the constitution which we all hold dear, protects all of us, not just the ones that look and believe like us. When we consider immigrants, remember that none of us except the native Indians would be here if our forefathers or we ourselves (as in my case) did not immigrate here. Remember the words on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" This applied to our forefathers, without which you would not be here to vote today. This doesn't mean everyone should have unfettered access, but whether individuals are allowed to stay or made to leave, treat them as fellow humans. Treat them the way you would want to be treated yourself.

Let us endeavor to bring quality of life to everyone. Not by free handouts. A social capitalism does not demand everyone gets equal pay, it demands that everyone gets equal opportunity. Each individual may choose to grab it or waste it. Currently it is clear this is not yet the case. Let us balance security with privacy. Let no one need to fear for life or livelihood, but also ensure we can prevent abuse of power. Let's make it happen. That is the American Dream!

Trump is a wildcard. There really is no assessing what he really thinks or what he will really do. He has contradicted himself many times on any point of view. But our government with all its many flaws is a strong institution. It does provide checks and balances. Trump will most likely be our next president. We need to hold him accountable, yet allow him and our congress to be effective. Let them prove us right or prove us wrong. But in return allow us our constitutional rights to object, to amass, to protest, and to express ourselves.

I have tried to assess and describe the drivers, the perspectives, and the blindness of each type of voter. It is stereotypical for sure, but I hope I did justice to the key parts. If I missed a key driver for you please comment, on Facebook, not LinkedIn. It is my sincere hope that you may recognize someone you have unfriended or blocked in some of these descriptions and realize their heart is also in the right place. It is my sincere hope you see all your fellow citizens as your equal. They too have fears and dreams. Trump supporters are not deplorable. Clinton supporters are not crybabies. Sanders supporters are not freeloaders. Everyone has a different perspective. It is what makes us human.

Let us be aware of what drives each of us. Let us not ridicule when someone has a different opinion. Let us empathize, imagine ourselves in their position. Let us not downplay others' fears. Let us treat others just like we wish we would be treated. Let us work together to make this the best society for everyone in it, and also make the world in its entirety a better place. For us, for now, but also for the future, for our children, our grandchildren and all their descendants. We are the strongest nation in the world, we have our hearts in the right place, we can do it.

Together we rise, divided we fall!