Like so many of my colleagues and friends, I’ve grappled over the past week with the biggest personal, professional, and moral disappointment of my life. I’ve worked on three Presidential Elections now. For all the talk about how awful politics is, there’s something actually incredible about thousands of people coming together for grueling hours, little pay, and an uncertain outcome. And for us, it is difficult to just “get over it” and move on without having time to cope and a sense of purpose forward, so here is mine.
Let me be clear, I do not think most Trump voters are racists.
But the people who voted for Trump because of his hateful rhetoric, you can go your own way, we do not want you. And if you have high incomes and benefitted from globalization and an economy that increasingly rewards investment and capital over work -- the trend that wreaked havoc and economic hardship on a wide swath of the country -- shame on you, for racism and xenophobia was not a deal breaker for you. But if your economic circumstances were so dire that you felt you had no choice but to elect Trump in spite of his hateful rhetoric, I'm sorry, we failed you by not telling you the real story.
For years, Republican orthodoxy pushed free trade deals and tax cuts for the wealthy while pushing for devastating cuts to the safety net and institutions like unions that propped up wages for the working class, while Democrats pushed for a higher minimum wages and affordable health care to help those very voters affected by globalization.
But, if there’s one thing we learned, politics is not transactional.
Instead, these voters have been told a story – a vile lie that goes back to the days of Jim Crow and revived by Richard Nixon, carried forward by the modern Republican Party. A lie that says that social justice is a zero sum game, that it’s always “they” that are getting the benefits and “they” that are getting special treatment at the expense of “us.” And no one, has done it more effectively than Mr. Trump – he’s only interested in two things, scaring you and telling you who to blame. You can see it in the way Trump uses “the” in front of any nonwhite race or group – “the Blacks,” “the Muslims,” “the Media,” – it’s called othering. A linguistic way to push tribalism by painting another group as a monolith. It is racist.
Mr. Trump was elected with a trickery and deception started by Mitch McConnell – break the government and then say it is broken. Rise to power and then do the bidding of his real constituents and funders, while maintaining that vile lie that there is no common cause between working white and working black America. McConnell purposefully harmed this country, flaunted the Rule of Law, and passed a Supreme Court vacancy from one Presidency to another to ensure evangelical turnout to preserve his Senate Majority. We are better than him, and you can bet, we’re coming for him in 2020. And in the next four years, our patriotic duty is to stand as a wall against this kind of Un-American selfishness.
So, here’s my proposal. We will organize and spread out across the country to tell you a better story, a real story that reinforces that a great America does not hide behind walls. The next generation of American leaders will not sit idly by while this one abdicates the one thing that makes America exceptional, that as a welcoming symbol to the world of equality, liberty, tolerance, and of enlightened global leadership. We are not cowards, we do not blame others for our problems, and we certainly do not hide from the globe; we relish every opportunity to lead it and make it more just.
Plato once wrote “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
Do not be silent, do not give this government a free pass, do not stay out of politics because it is impolite or unpleasant to talk about. Let this serve as a wake up call to fight back, directly at the ballot box, and let’s rid ourselves of a generation of leaders who put their narrow self-interest ahead of this country and what it represents.
I love America. And when we say we love something, we have to do everything we can to sustain it, to grow it, to make it better. America is more than the sum of our wealth, our possessions, and our incredible land; it is also what the country stands for, a relentless optimism for a better tomorrow and an aspiration, that your effort, not your birthright, race, connections, should be the greatest indicator of your success in America. I sincerely believe we have an amazing opportunity to seize what I think is a moment to really do great things. We are so creative, generous, innovative, and compassionate as a generation, and I think if we channel that right, we can do big things again. I think we'd be remiss to not take aspire and grab this chance to make this country what it ought to be rather than guard the status quo. We are just much more generous and caring than people give us credit for, and if you look at the long history of people, you see that but for blips here and there, the only real guarantee is that there will be progress. The status of women in society 3000 years ago versus today, me being able to talk about this now versus 30 years ago, in the long arc of the universe, there is an inexorable march towards justice and progress and that, not anything else, shows our true nature. Now, because of that, it is no wonder that the folks who want to stop that progress are the most vocal in society, they rant and rave and they protest and they hate, but that's because they are powerless to the change. Until last week, I thought this progress was inevitable, but I now realize that it’s only inevitable because at some point, every generation realizes that they should be better than the times, and that generation needs to step forward and take their proper mantle of power to push humanity ahead of itself. So, let the vocal angry minority pass discriminatory laws, because we know, inevitably they'll lose that battle. For now they are holding us back, we can do remarkable things, so let them go their way, we have an obligation to stand up and do it a better way.
And It starts now.
Next month, I’m co-chairing a political action summit in Nasvhille, Tennessee called The Arena with an incredible group of young leaders.
The purpose will be to elicit pledges for a new generation of leaders to run for office and for others from around the country to substantially support them. Open to members of any party, the only requirement is that all attendees reject xenophobia and racism. So far, over 200 people representing 25 states are committing to take action in the face of this election. Message me if you’re interested in getting involved.
Let’s make this the moment we step up and fight to make America great again. I’m off the mat, join me.
Let’s show them that though they buried us, they didn’t realize we were seeds.
