It was the summer of 1789 and the Constitutional Convention had just finished its debate on a new governing document, which would be imperfect but audacious for it’s time. As, he walked down the streets of Philadelphia that day, Dr. Benjamin Franklin was stopped by a woman, who asked, “Sir, what form of government have you bequeath us?” to which Dr. Franklin replied, “a Republic, if you can keep it.” 227 years later, through a fratricidal war, the stains of slavery and Jim Crow, two world wars, and countless financial crisis’, through both the highs and lows of the American story, I believe it safe to say that we have done exactly what Dr. Franklin implored us to do in so long ago in 1789. However, 2016 presented us with new challenges in what seemingly is yet another low point in our republic; that being the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States only eight years after the republic seemingly reached its zenith with the election of Barack Obama as President. One could juxtapose these events for days but what I want to highlight are simply a few things in regards to this year’s Presidential election from my vantage point. If we were to make a list of the most qualified individuals to ever seek the American Presidency, Hillary Clinton would always be in the top two (John Quincy Adams being the most in my opinion).
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First Lady of the United States, United States Senator, and Secretary of State are some of the titles that have been attached to Mrs. Clinton over the years. However, after her defeat in the 2008 Democratic Party primary to political neophyte and eventual President, Barack Obama many believed that the curtain had come down on her political career. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton with such tenacity told us to never count her out. Before the election had started, there were calls from all around the Democratic Party’s establishment for her to run, which was tantamount to an anointment as the true successor of President Barack Obama. However, there were those of us who felt that Clinton represented the past, the politics of triangulation, and the character of a chameleon -- someone who would say whatever to achieve her poorly masked goal of sitting in the Oval Office as President of the United States. The DNC shared this goal of seeing Mrs. Clinton in the Oval Office, which is now evident from the Wikileaks documents. This is not an indictment on the party because this was exactly the case in 2008 when she first ran and I will not join the cacophonous chorus of fellow Bernie Sanders supporters. While I did not particularly trust that Mrs. Clinton would make true on all of her promises, I genuinely believed in her message to expand on the Affordable Care Act, to pursue real criminal justice and police reform, to fight for common sense gun control legislation, to fight for student debt reform. Her campaign was truly one of the most progressive of all-time. However, while the pundits predicted a landslide that would be reminiscent of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 win over Barry Goldwater, they were extremely wrong. For all of the data and intellectualization by the pundits and experts, they ignored something rather essential, which is human emotion, and by that I mean the rather evident white lash. Consequently, this white lash led to the rise of Donald Trump, and the seeds were planted with the 2010 Tea Party movement and subsequent birther movement. Trump’s campaign seemed to be a joke from the start as it was grounded in racism, xenophobia, misogyny and hyper-nationalism all while promising to “Make America Great Again.” To those of us who are fluent in the language of coded racism, this was not too shocking, especially in the age of Obama. Trump, who had no specific policy proposals and spent over 16 months effectively behaving in abecedarian fashion beat out a talented GOP field. Lay conservatives rejected the establishment and joined the Trump train all in the name of Making America Great. However we may feel personally about Trump and his rather petulant ways, we cannot deny that he has been extremely effective in tapping into the American soul, which has always
First Lady of the United States, United States Senator, and Secretary of State are some of the titles that have been attached to Mrs. Clinton over the years. However, after her defeat in the 2008 Democratic Party primary to political neophyte and eventual President, Barack Obama many believed that the curtain had come down on her political career. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton with such tenacity told us to never count her out. Before the election had started, there were calls from all around the Democratic Party’s establishment for her to run, which was tantamount to an anointment as the true successor of President Barack Obama. However, there were those of us who felt that Clinton represented the past, the politics of triangulation, and the character of a chameleon -- someone who would say whatever to achieve her poorly masked goal of sitting in the Oval Office as President of the United States. The DNC shared this goal of seeing Mrs. Clinton in the Oval Office, which is now evident from the Wikileaks documents. This is not an indictment on the party because this was exactly the case in 2008 when she first ran and I will not join the cacophonous chorus of fellow Bernie Sanders supporters. While I did not particularly trust that Mrs. Clinton would make true on all of her promises, I genuinely believed in her message to expand on the Affordable Care Act, to pursue real criminal justice and police reform, to fight for common sense gun control legislation, to fight for student debt reform. Her campaign was truly one of the most progressive of all-time. However, while the pundits predicted a landslide that would be reminiscent of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 win over Barry Goldwater, they were extremely wrong. For all of the data and intellectualization by the pundits and experts, they ignored something rather essential, which is human emotion, and by that I mean the rather evident white lash. Consequently, this white lash led to the rise of Donald Trump, and the seeds were planted with the 2010 Tea Party movement and subsequent birther movement. Trump’s campaign seemed to be a joke from the start as it was grounded in racism, xenophobia, misogyny and hyper-nationalism all while promising to “Make America Great Again.” To those of us who are fluent in the language of coded racism, this was not too shocking, especially in the age of Obama. Trump, who had no specific policy proposals and spent over 16 months effectively behaving in abecedarian fashion beat out a talented GOP field. Lay conservatives rejected the establishment and joined the Trump train all in the name of Making America Great. However we may feel personally about Trump and his rather petulant ways, we cannot deny that he has been extremely effective in tapping into the American soul, which has always