November 13, 2016

Life: 5 days after "Trump shock"

Trump was elected. I live in a Red state, where 2/3 of voters (meaning many of my facebook friends) voted for him. In disbelief, I took my time trying to make sense out of it.


A few articles, comments, and conversations provided clues to organize my thoughts.


It turned out, Trump supporters were a mix of very different kind of people.

(i) Middle/lower class who feel hopeless/helpless/cornered/losing ground/resentment, because their needs were not addressed neither by Democrats nor Republicans (an overlooked population).

Basically, from their eyes, Trump was a third, independent party who can bring changes. 

Especially, such people in Rust belt tipped electoral college votes to Trump. Whether their hopes of Trump as an agent of change are addressed or not remains to be seen.


(ii) "Republican nominee" supporters

These were people who usually support Republican party. Even after this election split Republican party (e.g., Establishments, far-rights, etc), they went along with generally-aligned party interests with authoritarian mentality. They ignored downsides, inconsistency, and hypocrisy for the sake of party.


(iii) Rural Americans

Percentages of Trump supporters were high in rural areas, while Clinton supporters concentrated in cities. For now, I'd rather not to over-analyze the reason. Some good explanations should come.


(iv) True "Deplorable"s

KKK, neo-Nazi, racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, etc. This segment was most featured, criticized, mocked, and feared as "Trump supporters" before the election. 

But other categories of Trump supporters would claim people in this category are different from them.




[These categories are not totally inclusive, nor mutually exclusive. They list some notables.]

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For me, over-analyzing the past probably would do little at this moment.

As in my previous entry, I wanted Clinton to win. She knows the system (esp., Government and congress) inside and out, and well-tested as career politician, which came as negative with Trump supporters category (i). Too bad. She has also been targeted by her political enemies with extremely prejudiced smearing tactics for 30 years. Unfortunately, it had effect, too. 

Much of scientific research relies on stability and predictability in research environment, and she could have provided that. With untested Trump's elect, uncertainty has certainly risen.


However,....

It's been 5 days already. Although there are much uncertainty, it is time to think about what may come and formulate plans for best, better, good, bad, worse, and worst cases. 


In this era of social network, people's response and good ideas can be disseminated quickly.

For example, there are many articles and what-to-dos in daily bad case situations, such as "what to do when you witness harassment by an Islamophobic", "how to deal with Trolls", etc. I have borrowed some ideas, and will continue to take good ideas.

Like bare-handed martial arts evolved quickly in 90's and 2000's by early Brazilian jujitsu dominance, people's rational response to bad political situations and absurdities may evolve. That is one of my hopes.


Uncertainty may even prove to be an opportunityPreparation is the key.





In fact, national popular vote went to Clinton, and there were even more non-voters whose opinions we do not know. The numbers actually provide some hope that America may not be filled with true deplorables. Yet. That should be a "better case" scenario. We will see.