I boarded DL 41 from Los Angeles to Sydney late on Monday 7
November - just hours before polls opened on the East Coast for the 2016 US
Presidential Election. I recall thinking with a touch of nostalgia as I passed
through exit immigration, that no matter what the outcome - it would be the
last time I would see a photo of a smiling Barack Obama on the wall behind the
un-smiling immigration agent.
Twelve years I've been living abroad now, and I've been
coming and going from USA at fairly regular intervals ever since. And for the
first time ever, I'll admit I had some anxiety about my trip home - my first
trip to Trump's America.
In all these years, I have only ever observed relatively
modest changes between visits - better beer (or maybe I just have better taste
now), the proliferation the of gluten-free industrial complex and toddlers with
personal cell phones.
But when I visited in July of this year, I really did expect
America to feel much different. And if I'm completely honest, it felt mostly
like the America that I know so well: security guards dressed like storm
troopers at suburban supermarkets, everything (that wasn't furniture) in my
hotel room was for sale, and lots of neon-orange plastic cheese (for which I
have a secret soft-spot).
It has taken me awhile to process this trip and my thoughts
change daily alongside the breaking news. When I arrived back in Australia in
mid-July, I had come to the conclusion that I was both relieved and a little
impressed that people seemed to be bravely soldiering on despite the fact that
Donald Trump occupies the White House.
But, there was also a tiny part of me that was a little appalled
that it seemed to be business as usual - I mean Donald Trump is POTUS. I live
9,852 miles and 14 time zones from Washington DC and I'm freaking out. Daily.
Then Charlottesville happened.
And worse than being appalled, I was utterly un-surprised.
And that was when the unsettled feeling I had about how
'normal' America had felt came creeping back.
Now, Donald Trump is not personally responsible for
Charlottesville.
If we are passing around blame, and let's face it, there is
a lot to go around. The Republican Party takes the lion's share. The Republican
Party has undeniably made the current situation 'normal'. They have been
building towards this moment for years. Aiding and abetting the worst instincts
of white America, every single step of the way. Voter fraud. Gerrymandering.
Birther-ism. The list goes on.
Donald Trump is nothing more than a startlingly accurate
caricature of everything they have embraced and who has turned out to be far
more than they bargained for.
And don't start lecturing me on the plight of the white
working class. I've heard it. I get it. I really do. I am a product of rural,
white, middle America. This is just so much bigger. Quite literally according
to Mother Jones:
Based on preelection polling data, if you tallied the popular vote of only white America to derive 2016 electoral votes, Trump would have defeated Clinton 389 to 81, with the remaining 68 votes either a toss-up or unknown.
So.
Do I think that everyone who voted for Trump is a
dyed-in-wool racist? Of course not.
Do I think everyone who voted for Trump advocates sexual
assault? Of course not.
But do I think if you voted for Trump, you did exactly as
the Republican Party has been doing for years, and say: I have no fucks to give
about anyone but myself? You're goddamn right I do.
White America, we fucked up. We fucked up bad. And we've
been fucking up for a very long time. In his recent article, The First WhitePresident, Ta-Nehisi Coates, sums it up better than I ever could:
And so the most powerful country in the world has handed over all its affairs—the prosperity of its entire economy; the security of its 300 million citizens; the purity of its water, the viability of its air, the safety of its food; the future of its vast system of education; the soundness of its national highways, airways, and railways; the apocalyptic potential of its nuclear arsenal—to a carnival barker who introduced the phrase grab ’em by the pussy into the national lexicon. It is as if the white tribe united in demonstration to say, “If a black man can be president, then any white man—no matter how fallen—can be president.”
And before you puff yourself up into righteous indignation,
I'm not schilling for the Democratic Party or even the left. I was never
crazy-go-nuts for Hillary and liberals (real ones, not these safe-space,
anti-free-speech pretenders) need to get their shit together. I'm looking at
you, Southern Poverty Law Center. But
let's save that for another time.
So back to my original point. I've been to Trump's America
and I will return to Trump's America, but next time I really hope it feels
different. The right kind of different.
Or even better, let there be a new smiling face behind the
un-smiling immigration officer.
Please just don't let it be Mike Pence.
Now, go grab ’em by the pussy America, and sort this shit
out.
