In an article I wrote during the Republican primaries, I compared Donald Trump to “the last comic standing.” I, along with many Democrats and some Republicans, underestimated the man.
I now view Donald Trump not as a comic, but rather as an expert surfer who rode a wave that grew higher the closer we came to the election. The fault of liberals like me was that we concentrated on the bizarre actions and statements of the surfer, when we should have been focused on the rising wave beneath him.
The wave did not start with Donald Trump’s candidacy. It began long before, going back at least to the election of Barack Obama, our first African-American president. Those of us who loved him and continue to do so noticed but didn’t pay much attention to the rise in gun sales and the proliferation of hate groups after he took office.
But it is not fair to many who voted for Trump to interpret the wave as solely an upsurge of racism. The wave is more complex than one issue. World events, particularly the civil war in Syria that brought hundreds of thousands of immigrants flooding into Europe, frightened many Americans. Would they be coming here? Would that lead to terrorism? The wave grew.
Syrian refugees were only one aspect of immigration that worried many Americans. Many white males were confused and bothered by the growing number of Muslims and Hispanics in our country. White, Christian, English-speaking dominance seemed to be slipping away. The wave grew yet higher.
The confusion of many Americans deepened with the rapid change brought by the legalization of same-sex marriages. Those of us who expected a backlash to this sudden openness to alternative lifestyles were surprised at the near silence. Yes, a Kentucky state employee made the news as did our own governor, but they were quickly vilified and laughed at. But not by all. And the wave grew higher.
In the police shootings involving white police and black victims, many of us on the left saw the issue as one of eradicating bias with police forces. Others saw these events differently, as attacks on the police and, in that attack, an attack on the need for order in our society.
When Donald Trump was asked in a debate about police violence and the Black Lives Matter movement, his answer centered on the phrase “law and order.” This was the very phrase used by Nixon to crack down on blacks in the late 60s and 70s and by the apartheid regime in South Africa. “Law and order” is a coded way of saying police will be supported and not questioned about how they keep the peace. Many Americans understood Trump’s coded promise, and the wave grew higher.
Even seemingly small events built the wave. The controversy in North Carolina about bathrooms for transgender men and women caused many Americans to ask, “What is our society coming to?” and “Where does this all lead?”
As this wave grew higher and higher, those of us on the left focused too much on the bizarre statements of the man surfing on top. We falsely assumed that with each frightening, racist, sexist or xenophobic action or comment by Trump, his support would crumble.
Those of us who voted for Clinton couldn’t believe that rational Americans would entrust the world’s largest nuclear arsenal to this bizarre man. We failed to note that more Americans were more concerned about the next Supreme Court appointee than about nuclear war, increased racism, Trump’s infatuation with Putin or xenophobic promises to build a wall with Mexico.
But there is sobering news for Trump supporters. History is a river that does not flow in reverse. A strong wave going against the current can only temporarily dam a river.
The Broadway sensation of 1966 was the musical “Stop the World: I Want to Get Off.” This fear of change is the sentiment that fueled Great Britain’s exit from Europe and built Trump’s wave of support. But Trump and Pence will not be able to turn the clock backwards.
Mass immigration in the world can only continue. White dominance in our country will continue to decline demographically. The climate will continue to warm despite those who deny it. Islam will grow as a religion in our country.
The flow of the river, in the end, will reign supreme, for, as the Buddhists tell us, change is inevitable.
