Commentary: Let the struggle for justice continue

I was wrong. A lot of us were. In my heart of hearts I felt certain, or at least guardedly optimistic, that the American public was not going to reelect Donald Trump.

Not after his scandal-ridden first term; his two impeachments; his demonstrated incompetence; his tragic botching of the pandemic; his venality and meanness and gleeful ignorance; his epic self-centeredness; his affinity for white supremacists; his multiple felony charges and convictions; his documented disrespect of men and women in the armed forces; his obvious cognitive decline from what was never a position of genius or stability; his full-throated declaration that he intends to use the presidency to exact retribution on his political foes.

The American people, I thought, were better than this. They were inclined toward goodness. Even if they were conned into thinking that the price of eggs would be lower under Trump 2.0, they were capable of caring about more than just their own self-interest. They did not want to see immigrant families ripped apart. They did not want an authoritarian telling them what to do. They did not want women to die of complications from a miscarriage because Trump’s abortion ban made giving life-saving care illegal. They did not want LGBTQ+ people to be marginalized and excluded. They did not want a man who exudes vulgarity to represent the United States of America.

That, it turns out, is exactly what they wanted. Trump not only came out on top in a tainted and antiquated Electoral College process, but he appears to have also won the popular vote. The American people have spoken, loudly and clearly. They do not want a candidate like Vice President Kamala Harris, who called to our better angels, spoke of fairness and inclusion, had a resume worthy of the job, and came to the task with plans and not just grievances. They want Trump. They want the chaos. They want the anger. They want the hate.

And that is exactly what they will get. The rioters who brutalized law enforcement officers at Trump’s instigation on Jan. 6 will receive the pardons he promised. The criminal charges that have been filed against him, at least those on the federal level, will be dismissed. Immigrants, undocumented and otherwise, will be rounded up and sent to detention camps. The Supreme Court will remain a tool of the radical right. And Trump’s evangelical supporters will flock into the churches and pretend to revere Jesus Christ, as they watch for those egg prices to fall.

In this terrible moment, it is hard not to harbor anger at our fellow citizens. It is hard to resist the urge to say that the American people are getting the president they deserve. In a climate of wanton perfidy, it is tempting to hope that truth gets driven home in the form of dysfunction and hardship and suffering for those who care so little about the suffering of others.

Yet those of us who believe in progressive values must find a way to rise above the fray. We must set a course for mercy, and forgiveness and, yes, even love. We must hold fast to our belief in kindness, in solidarity, in shared sacrifice and common decency. We must respond to this defeat with not just defiance, as Churchill put it, but also with magnanimity.

It may be the hardest thing that we will ever do, and the most essential. Wisconsin Sen. Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette, one of the founders of the Progressive Movement, in 1911 declared: “Democracy is a life and involves continual struggle. It is only as those of every generation who love democracy resist with all their might the encroachments of its enemies that the ideals of representative government can even be nearly approximated.”

That struggle for a more just world is now going to be a whole lot more difficult, which means that the commitment we bring to the fight will need to be a whole lot stronger.

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Bill Lueders, the former editor and now editor-at-large of The Progressive magazine, is a writer in Madison, Wisconsin. This column was produced for Progressive Perspectives, a project of The Progressive, and distributed by Tribune News Service.

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