In the wake of the horrific attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, there was around the world an outpouring of support--indeed, love--for America and the nation's ideals. People everywhere were reminded of how important those ideals are to the world. On Saturday, we saw something similar. America's best ideals suffered another terrible assault on November 8, 2016. That attack was, at least in the short run, much more devastating to the American Republic than the one fifteen years earlier. On January 21, the world responded again with an outpouring of support and love for that which America, at its best, stands.
Scrolling through the photos from around the world of the Women's March (click here to view) on Saturday, such as the one from Oslo above, is a beautiful and uplifting experience. People around the world understand that Donald Trump is the antithesis of what America, at its best, stands for. They wrapped their arms around the American people and the American Republic in this time of great trial from those who would undermine it.
The outpouring of support and love for America that followed the calamity of 9/11 was quickly squandered by the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when they chose to invade Iraq. The difference with the outpouring of support and love for America that has now followed the catastrophe of 11/8 is that the actions the administration, though likely to be far worse than anything Bush and Cheney did, will be the actions of the perpetrators of the attack on America, clearly not of the majority of the American people, who overwhelmingly oppose Donald Trump, as indicated by his approval rating of 37 percent in a Fox News poll released on the morning of his inauguration.
This time, the world is with us, the majority of the American people who understand and support the ideals of America, not with those who are in power and trying to destroy those ideals.