Americans Have Fully Embraced Their Shadow Side
The remedy: we must find each other
Like probably many of you, I went to bed Tuesday night with a sense of dread. I awoke in the middle of the night and checked the headlines to confirm it was almost over: PA had gone to Trump. By morning, it was done. I held back tears all day, pretending to be fine for the clients who were not as disturbed by the recent turn of events. I sought out the people who “got it” the same way I did and wrapped myself in their arms or their commiserating words.
Our country seems to be having two entirely different conversations about politics right now. The media ecosystems inhabit different planets; maybe even different realities. So admittedly, I don’t know exactly what the “other side” is learning. I know they’ve probably been hearing awful things about Kamala and not hearing the awful things about Trump. But there’s enough that everyone knows that there can be no excuses.
Trump is not the cause of the problem. Trump is a symptom of our deep, deep sickness as a nation.
People are willing to vote for a lying, grifting, obscene, cruel, unhinged man… in exchange for the idea of lower gas prices and cheaper groceries.
People are willing to turn over the lives and human rights of each other and even themselves for the hope of a few more bucks in their pockets.
[to be clear, I don’t even think their hopes are accurate. Most people are not very politically in-tune and come up with overly simplistic explanations for things. They have no concept of how a global pandemic and the subsequent spending to float the everyday person out of hard times affects prices, and how corporations greedily grabbed onto the opportunity to jack up prices further, and how the entire world was affected by this, and how the USA was actually doing remarkably well in achieving a “soft landing” from a potential recession, even though the prices and interest rates in between were brutal. But… I digress?? Only because no one apparently is interested in knowing that…]
I process by reading and writing, and I’ve been reading various perspectives on the more liberal end of things. What happened? Why did an actual majority of the country, horrifyingly, throw us under the bus in this way?
One political reality I’ll note is that across the globe, after the pandemic, electorates have been throwing out of office whichever side was incumbent. In a way, this seemed to have been inevitable for us. But why did we have to do it to bring in the worst possible guy for the job, a former incumbent who had already made clear his desire to destroy democracy and install himself in power forever? Why are we so dumb??
There are so many frameworks in which to view this, and I am no political science or history expert, so I’m only going to touch on them before shifting gears to my most important point.
We essentially live in a capitalistic oligarchy where the small group of billionaires and other powerbrokers at the top run amuck, bleeding the rest of us dry while they escape paying taxes, and set us up for infighting amongst ourselves about whose fault it is that the 99% are suffering. People have a vague sense of this but not enough to make logical sense, so they do nonsensical things like elect a selfish cheating billionaire for president.
Authoritarian movements rely on an uneducated, distracted mass of people who are easily deceived and easily controlled. Social media (and the influence of Russia and other nefarious actors) has moved our uneducated distraction along quite swiftly. Also, it’s no coincidence that the Department of Education is on the chopping block in Project 2025’s plan!
America’s original sins of racism and sexism were fully on display. I really wanted to believe that America might be ready for a woman president — come on, America, surely you won’t elect a crass bumbling fool just because you can’t handle the idea of a woman in power, right? Wait… right?? The double standards to which they were held—by the general populace but also by legacy (supposedly “liberal”) media—was nothing short of infuriating.
Related to point 1 about infighting, it appears that we tribalistic, highly-evolved mammals are more than happy to release the most vicious of venom on a group that we consider an “out-group” and thus a menace to society. Not because they are actually a menace but because we feel unsafe and unsure, we sense there is bad/evil in the world, and we mistakenly project that evil onto the most vulnerable among us. As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, trans people and undocumented immigrants were most fully and ruthlessly scapegoated. To the point where I am hearing stories of women casting votes for Trump “to protect women” (!!!!) from the supposed threat of transwomen in their bathrooms and locker rooms and sports teams. THAT IS NOT THE THREAT, PEOPLE!!!
Okay, let’s take our blood pressure back down a couple notches and discuss: where do we go from here?
The Friday before Election Day, I did a New Moon tarot spread (because yes I am now that person and love it!). The card for “where I am now” was the Empress card, which for those who don’t know, is a maternal, nurturing card. Though I am a mom, I don’t usually consider myself to be a stereotypically maternal person. But in the days since the election, I’ve been reflecting on what’s coming over me…and it is a sense of wanting to nurture, to care, to connect. I’ve gotten out of my usual shy bubble and actively sought out the people that I know I need right now and who also probably need me.
We must find each other.
In our heartbreak and despair, we are not alone. In our fear and dread, we are not alone. And in love and connection, we are made not alone.
Thank you for being part of the not-aloneness: I am grateful you are here. Feel free to share a thought in the comment section, or just press the heart button to let me know you were here and appreciated something about today’s post. And may I recommend a Jungian therapist’s recent post for further reflection, if you have the time for it?
While I’m angry and full of grief, I have also felt a shift in my consciousness and even body. Your tarot reading resonates with me: I am utterly resolved to find like minded folks, nurture relationships, and plot how to resist fascism. I even reached out to a neighbor I had yet to meet, letting her know I saw her hope for a better future and was there because it is hard to know who is safe in this aftermath.
I feel your anguish. Do you think it’s doubly hard if you’ve left behind the pro-life, evangelical crowd? I feel extra betrayed by people who were supposed to be safe but who instead fed me lie after lie after lie.