68 Days Until President Trump

It’s Saturday morning in occupied America.

OK, that’s total hyperbole. But it’s how it feels when you’re progressive and you’ve just realized that the vast majority of your country’s geography is home to people who mostly voted for Donald Trump.

I mean, look at that map. You’re surrounded.

The problem with “occupied America,” though, is that America is occupied by… Americans. We can certainly look at the Trump Presidency through the metaphor of war and enemy occupation, but we had one Civil War and it was bad news. Many progressives abhor the United States’ warlike posture abroad: the actual notion of taking up arms at home is ridiculous.

Also, let’s be real: we’re way outnumbered. And then there’s the issue of the fact that the enemy commander is also the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. Nobody wants to fight that with guns.

Hearts and minds, then. The conservatives derided it the last time we had this discussion, but it’s critical that we persist in this. We can talk tough, but the first part of the descent to war is the dehumanization of the enemy. Our enemies are our neighbors. We know their faces, their names. We don’t want them to die, and we don’t want them to suffer.

So hug a Trump voter whenever you get a chance. Maybe you hold your nose at first (metaphorically, please), but do it anyway. It’ll get easier. And it’s really hard to wage war when you’re hugging.

We believe in peace, so that’s what we’ll wage.

Donald Trump won his supporters’ hearts, and their votes came with. We can win them back.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t fight like hell in the war of ideas. Trickle-down economics belongs in the dung heap of history and we’ll sweat blood to keep it there. We can win the battle of minds! I mean, that’s one of the things that was a predictor of your vote, right? We’ve got this one.

But racism isn’t a theorem. Xenophobia isn’t a thought: it’s fear. It’s an emotion. So we have to fight them on their own terms. We will soothe fears, embrace friendships, and open our hearts to love. 
We’ve been wounded. We feel betrayed. But when we understand that our fellow patriots voted out of fear, it’s our duty as human beings to help them. Fear should not be their destiny, or ours. We shouldn’t be occupied by fear.

Let’s occupy America with love. Red’s a good color for that.

Image Credit By Ali Zifan, MB298, JayCoop, Presidentman - This file was derived from: USA Counties.svg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47804584