Last check, over 15,000 Americans voted for Harambe for president. In other words, more people than live in the average small american town felt that a dead ape was the way to go. That tells me a great deal about where we are as a culture. I learned more about that in a conversation I overhead at the campus coffee shop.
boy one: Concert was cool. It was real, you know?
Boy 2: Yeah, but the area was sketch.
Boy one: Its central phoenix. Of course it is.
A week ago that conversation would’ve rolled off my back, but the idea of an entitled kid going down to the hood to connect with a musical sound born out of that hood and then turning around and insulting the hood that created the sound seems all too American right now. In other words, I am ready to open my eyes to the vast diversity and depth of my own relative minority status in this country. I am not talking about me as a black man, but me as a free thinker who looks at and speaks towards the long game and the implicit understanding that we are all trying to rise and become something that reflects what we believe to be the ideals of the founding fathers.
What I am seeing instead of what I am is a country that is largely dominated by individuals who want to push their agenda under the guise of Americanism but is largely based in capitalism and imperialism–everything other countries have accused us of being for decades. Yeah, we were that but we often hid behind the guise of being something better. With Trump it is out there, naked and revealed and, well, dangerous.
Why do I see danger in Trump? Because he is a man who has and will continue to be a bully. Now the bully has more power and a congress that supports his play. Moreover, he has no understanding of the role of ‘his underlings’ in determining law. He believes that he and his cabinet determine law, start and end wars, and command the free world. When he meets resistance he will publicly insult and cajole. When people don’t fall in line he will bully and alienate. This is not speculative this is what he has already done leading up to the election.
So yeah, I’m worried. I just don’t know what I am supposed to do.