We’re Fired

We’re Fired

napoleonyourfired“Wide-spread primal scream,” al-Jazeera’s 1pm news hour opened, reflecting not only protests in the U.S. but reaction worldwide.

I found one positive remark in Africa today about Trump’s election: A close confident to the horrible Zimbabwe dictator said that Trump “could turn out great you know.”

I could spend the rest of this month curating the remaining multi-thousands of remarks of horror and disbelief that Africans expressed today. It gives me great latitude to pontificate, so here goes:

“This is no time for schadenfreude: his election is bad news – very bad news,” wrote the well-known South African critic of America, Simon Allison, in today’s Daily Maverick.

“African states will only be marginalized further,” wrote a widely respected professor at Johannesburg’s Witwatersrand University.

“A man who thinks women are ‘things’ has been validated by the biggest democracy in the world,” Wayua Muli of Nairobi’s Daily Nation argued angrily in her tirade.

Kenya’s most respected columnist and thinker told his fellow Africans that Donald Trump “galvanized fear into votes” because the disenfranchised, lower educated white man “found himself brazenly cheated in the national project.”

Obbo then broke his well-known restraint by predicting that Americans will be unable “to preserve the democracy, political and social orders” because Trump will be unable to deliver his promises to that angry white man.

It will take some time for these visceral reactions to settle down into some valuable analysis, because they go on and on throughout Africa and the rest of the world. Thinkers, pollers, writers – the people you and I involve ourselves with every day are aghast worldwide. We are the educated, the elite.

We ignored those left behind for too long and one section of them just rebelled. Two+ centuries ago they stormed the Bastille, threw much of the world into turmoil for years of starvation and destruction before finally settling down with Napoleon. I’m sort of glad we might be able to reverse things a little bit easier.

So I guess what I garner from today’s outrage and disbelief are two very important things:

(1) Less educated white people in America feel they’ve been ignored more than highly educated immigrants or Afro-American farmers. That doesn’t mean they’ve not always been better off than other demographics, or even that their “feeling” is justified. Let’s just stipulate this is what drove them to vote. As Obbo said, Trump “galvanized” their anger.

(2) We, the better educated, should not be us, the elite. But we are, and we are the ones to blame.

We elite leveraged our betterment at the expense of those who had less. I’m talking mostly about education. We choked out the very constitutional reason most American States were created, educating citizens. From land grants to home schools lickety-split. So that we, the smart ones, could have bigger houses with smaller property taxes.

So that we, the entrepreneurs with capital, could build bigger offices with cheaper steel from China, just close down that Gary factory.

So that we, the inveterate consumer, could thumb through the fall L.L. Bean catalogue and have six color choices for our parka, just close down the Carolina mills.

So that we, the health nut, could avoid end-of-life emphysema, just scorch the Georgia tobacco farms; or we, the environmentalist, could subsidize our giant windmill by shutting down a West Virginia mine.

We took something away from someone so that we could have something better, but we gave them nothing in return. We so completely pushed the poor workers of America out of our lives that not even the political pollsters were able to find them.

As I remember my own family that was displaced from the Gary steel mills, I can so imagine Uncle Tony absolutely elated beyond belief listening to a larger-than-life cartoon, Donald Trump, shout, “You’re fired!” to a nicely coiffed young lady.

Hey, elite, you’re fired.

16 thoughts on “We’re Fired

  1. What you said is almost entirely true but you neglect to mention the deficiencies of his opponent. Telling the truth is something most Americans admire and think they require.
    Simplistic answers to complicated problems had an unfortunate, but great appeal. Trump is an acknowledged great salesman. He kept the message simple and in working man’s language-something Mrs. Clinton could learn.
    One cause for optimism might be that we don’t really know Donald Trump.

  2. So, if I hear you correctly, you wanted to keep it the way it is…no changes, same people doing the same things over and over to the same folks to the betterment of those that have. Do you really think She would have changed anything different than the last eight years? Not to mention the obvious…she is dishonest as the day is long! Real change will come slow but come it will! Can’t you feel the freshness already? No, it’s far from perfect, but it’s us, the USA coming back to life! Please tell/convince your African connections to be patient. We will be better than ever!

  3. Having voted for Gary Johnson as a vote against either of the other candidates I am happy to have a Republican congress. Now, with all this talk about educated and uneducated voters perhaps it is time for us to suggest a law to make it unlawful for anyone who has an IQ under ,let’s say, 120. to vote. This election has succeeded in putting everyone in some category instead of trying to instill in everyone that we are all Americans – democrats or republicans or libertarians.or whatever. Some of the problems you refer to are problems which Trump was addressing in the campaign so maybe he might be able to fix them. Who really knows? So we just have to wait and see,

  4. I am saddened that people think like this let alone write this for public consumption but I have gotten used to it with the mainstream media deluging so much of this country with this elite crap. You really think that because you have an “education” you are better than someone else and in a better position to make political decisions that affect everyone in this country? How condescending and banal you are!
    I guess I am one of the deplorables who could not support Hillary due to her lack of honesty, corrupt and criminal behavior. Is Hillary a better person for not condemning her husband’s sexual behavior and damning Donald for similar actions? I was not and am still not a Donald Trump believer but am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt as are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
    My suggestion would be to stop looking down your nose at your fellow Americans and start looking for common ground where we can all agree on how to make this country and world a better place for everyone.

  5. Your insights are correct for the mostpart. Trump has made references to the “Forgotten Man”. Who he is or what his grievances might be are immaterial. Perception is reality. Trump is the result of the miserable failure of both this country’s political parties to govern the nation in a reasonable manner. The list of bungles committed by both parties over the years is far too long to go into here.

  6. Sadly, I agree completely with you. Yet these poor people have “cut off their nose to spite their face”. Even more sadly, we will all pay the price. Trump is a dangerous man!

  7. I did not vote for Trump (did not like his childish and profane behavior), but he may just be the one leader that can focus America on changing the Washington deadlock. He may also bring real economic opportunity in time to the less educated but hard workng Americans of all races. I hope so.

  8. At the moment, I’m still sick to my stomach over the results of Tues. election. However, if the results were reversed, I would still be sick. What is tragic is that neither party had anything better to offer, I’m thankful that ultimately neither Clinton nor Trump are in charge. Though the earth quakes and the mountains crumble…

  9. Interesting perspective and one I mostly agree with. That said, the fact the “left behind” coalesced around Trump is hard for me to stomach. He is all that is wrong with capitalism and our economic system (I still believe it to be a suitable system but one where he epitomizes its warts); yet he was able to say whatever he wanted in lies and half truths and essentially convince people to never mind about his past ACTIONS just listen to his hollow words.

    Two points (on trade & immigration, the hallmarks of the Trump campaign and the issues implied in your blog post):
    1) Progress requires changes. Changes can initially have negative effects on some groups such as the mentioned coal miners and factory workers. The fact that those jobs have vanished is not a negative thing and rather a good thing. The fact that the individuals in those roles are left behind IS a negative thing. We could have and should have and need to do a better job of helping displaced workers do new things that contribute to the economy/society. By the way this is a problem in urban lower class areas as well, so these two groups with very different backgrounds but similar problems voted in dramatically different ways.

    2) Immigration is one of the best things for a country like ours. Population stagnation or decline can be detrimental to an economy. Since we make less babies as we become more developed/richer we have a population problem without immigration. Additionally, immigrants are ambitious and risk takers, some of the most beneficial characteristics to an economy — who else picks up and leaves their home for opportunity? Lastly, we are a country founded on immigration. Why are we turning our back on it now. To me the opposition care less about jobs / cheap labor or safety and more about their racist prejudices. We aren’t talking about building a wall on our northern border, nor are we talking about deporting Christians (KKK is a prolific Christian terrorist organization after all).

    I can take some positives from this election as I attempt to remain optimistic. I think it does bring certain attention to the group you mentioned, at least the good ones and not the racist “deplorables”.

    I still do have an incredibly hard time with the idea that I live in a country with an electorate that would choose someone like Trump to lead it.

  10. Yeah we’ll see soon enough if Trump can free us from self-serving corporations and mean-spirited politicians that want the power to fluff their nests with cash.
    Meanwhile everyone else, back to sleep!

  11. Hi Jim,

    I liked your blog, particularly the twist. Please note that a lot of highly educated, wealthy white women voted for Trump too, which the polls didn’t find either. It wasn’t necessarily a vote of support for Trump. Rather it was a vote against the cronyism and crookedness of the Washington establishment which Hillary epitomized.

  12. The Election can be the down fall of our country! I was in London when the results of the election came out and people could not believe it! He is not president material and Hillary was. What has happened to the people in our country that they voted for Trump! He is the worse person to be our President. Where are the good candidates that should be running our country? Well we will have to see what will happen. Let all those dumb people that voted for him pay the price!

  13. In response, I recommend two books: The True Patriot and The Gardens of Democracy, both by authors Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer. These books were written in 2006 and 2011. I think they both say a lot to us about patriotism, citizenship. our economy and the role of government. They also point to a progressive path forward.

  14. I am educated.
    Many of my friends are also educated. Most of us voted for Trump. So much for the media now telling us, yet again, who did and did not vote for whom! Hopefully, our votes were for the lesser of the two “evils”. NOT to vote wasn’t an option. Unfortunately neither candidate is representative of any great morals or virtues. Because we voted for Trump doesn’t we condone how he acts……just as the people that voted for Hilllary can’t possibly condone many
    of her actions.

    We KNOW what another four years under Hillary would be like……the same as the past eight years. Let’s give Trump a chance; he just MAY make America better!

    PS: What an opportunity to talk our children and grandchildren about sex, lies, stealing, egotism of power, lack of respect ….., and how tough it is to have to make a choice you would rather not! Believe me, they have to be perplexed!!

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