The Election of Fear

As much as I despise the corporatocracy that America has become, I am upset at the results of this election. I have never been actively upset by our election results before. Disappointed, yes, absolutely. But never upset. Never angry. Never fearful. Today I am.

Yesterday, America made the wrong choice. I don’t just say that because my candidate didn’t win. (He lost months ago in the primaries). I say that because yesterday, America chose hate. America chose fear. America chose divisiveness.

That choice was the wrong choice.

That choice, embracing a man who actively espouses hatred and fear of entire ethnic groups, entire religions, based on the actions of a few, was the wrong choice. When you act out of hatred, out of fear, nobody wins. Everybody loses. Always.

I am an American. But I grew up in Germany. And for a moment, I’m going to speak as a German. I do this because, you see, Germany made that same choice back in 1933. We voted out of fear in two consecutive parliamentary elections, allowing the NSDAP to become the majority party in parliament. And from there, everyone in the world knows the rest. It didn’t turn out well for anyone.

America, we just voted out of fear. Fear of the other. Fear of immigrants. A big part of his platform was that fear. That was also the focus of the NSDAP platform, you know – blame the immigrants. It’s all their fault. A religion was also blamed for the woes of the country. In both elections. A non-Christian religion. You would think that, with the origins of Christianity, that Christians would be all too sensitive about the idea of demonizing an entire other religion. But, no. That is not the case.

Because we acted out of fear, out of hatred. We have elected a man who has admitted to sexual misconduct. Who has admitted to willfully and flagrantly abusing and disrespecting the very system we just put in his charge. Who has encouraged the very same tactics of the NSDAP in his campaign – throwing dissenters out of his rallies, violently, encouraging violence against opponents, even not-so-obtusely suggesting the assassination of his rivals. A man who has categorized vast groups of the very people who constitute the citizens of the nation he wants to lead as the enemy.

This is not the man we should have put in charge.

This decision, this vote. It was a mistake.

But we can still mitigate the severity of this mistake. We can still make sure we do not go all the way down the road on which we have started, that we do not become what Germany become in the course of the 1930s. We must watch him, and ensure he does not take away the liberties he has threatened. That we do not allow him to silence opposition. We must make sure he does not act against American citizens, and that he does not isolate our great nation from the rest of the world.

We must work to keep him in check.

America, prove to me that we are still the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the melting pot that I was taught we are. That we have always proclaimed ourselves to be. The champions of true democracy and freedom. Do not let hate win.