50 States, Two Americas
Donald Trump was a potent seed but just a seed. He found fertile ground. A soil rich in nutrients such as racial anxiety, fears of being excluded and left behind by technological advances, fears of a liberal takeover of society, anxiety over the loss of conventional, Christian values etc. has been worked, watered over the last two decades. A soil also aerated by liberals dismissing and minimizing centuries of traditions and ways of life, forgetting that the opinion of a non-educated White man working his farm is electorally as valuable as the opinion of a Black lesbian teaching at Harvard.
The Two Americas are between states and within states, between neighbors and within households
The urban America in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, and the rural America in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana
The America of White Supremacy, White patriarchy versus the America of immigrants described on the Statue of Liberty, the minority majority America.
The America that shed tears of pride over the election of Barack Obama versus the America that reacted angrily by electing Donald Trump
The America that believes that climate change is real and is a threat versus the America that believes that climate change is a hoax made up by the elites, that electrical vehicles are stupid and that coal and petroleum should continue to be utilized as ever before.
The America of the unlimited/unrestricted/unregulated gun ownership and use versus the America that sees every gun and gun owner as a the devil.
An America that attacks and vilifies a decorated doctor because he dares to disagree on medical matters with a politician who suggests injecting bleach as cure
The America where George W. Bush and Michelle Obama are good friends versus the America where a Republican congressman tweet a depiction of him killing a Democratic congresswoman and one jokes that the other is a suicide bomber.
The America of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Bobert versus the America of Jimmy Carter and Cindy McCain
The America that lights up rainbow colors and grows a vegetable garden at the White House versus the America that flew the Confederate flag at the Capitol, attacks a session of congress and demand that the country’s Vice-President be hung
The America that breathes the air of privilege and enjoys the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven versus the America that just cannot breathe under the knee of injustice, police brutality, and is automatically guilty until or unless proven innocent
The America that reveres John Lewis and wants to make it easier for all eligible citizens to vote and the America that is willing to find all legal and illegal tricks to suppress and restrict the vote of people of color in order to keep power.
The compassionate, hopeful America that welcomes immigrants and refugees versus the cynical, anxious America that denigrates immigrants and restricts minority voting
The difference between these two Americas is not based on ideology, principles or values but rather on the politics of personality, identity, on natural anxieties but mostly on fears exploited and nurtured by people who take the ideals of America for granted or who sacrifice them for self-interest. Rather than a melting pot of ideas and painting of diversity, America is now a chasm of contempt and otherness. Is America losing Herself or revealing Herself?
